Burlington Central finishing with focus

At this point last football season, Burlington Central was playing out the string in a 3-6 finish.

Now the Rockets are playing for much, much more. They improved to 5-2 after Friday’s 14-7 Big Northern East victory at previously unbeaten and state-ranked Harvard.

“We’ve come a long way from last year,” said Burlington Central linebacker-fullback Chandler Crary. “Our coaching and we have great senior leaders on this team and the juniors look up to the seniors. It makes us a pretty successful team.”

Burlington Central is playoff eligible for the first time since 2007 and would have a shot at at least a piece of the BNC East title if Harvard beats Richmond-Burton on Friday. The last time it won the BNC East was 2006.

And the Rockets, in their first year with Rich Crabel as head coach, are just a couple of plays and/or breaks from being 7-0 with a 3-point overtime loss to Sycamore and a 2-point loss to R-B.

“We’re well-coached and (coach Crabel) tells us to believe we can beat anyone,” said Burlington Central safety Johnny Major. “Not to sound cocky … but you’ve got to believe you can win.”

That belief was evident the second time the Rockets had the ball on Friday. On fourth-and-1 at their own 49, they went for it and Joel Bouagnon gained 1 more yard than he needed.

Bouagnon converted another fourth-and-1 at the Harvard 18 and scored from the 16.

“We felt really confident in the formation and the play we were running,” Crabel said of Bouagnon’s first conversion. “It was more believing in how we were schemed really well than we were knocking people off the ball. It was a time we needed to push the ball.”

It’s the kind of attitude that has Burlington Central pushing toward even bigger and better results.