Broncos ride past Bulldogs on gridiron
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HANCOCK -- While the Hancock Bulldogs football team was able to keep pace with the Bark River-Harris Broncos for the first two quarters on Friday, the second half belonged to the Broncos. The Broncos took a 6-0 into the locker room at half and never looked back.
They outscored the Bulldogs 38-14 in the final 24 minutes for a 44-14 victory at McAfee Field.
This matchup’s only score in the first half took place on Bark River-Harris’ first possession. With a little less than five minutes to go in the first, the Broncos' Andy Johnson broke several tackles and punched in six.
The game remained 6-0 in favor of the Broncos until the teams regrouped for the third quarter. It was still anybody’s game at the half.
"The boys battled hard on every play and played a good first half," said first-year Bulldogs coach Brendan LeClaire. "That is a good team (Broncos), and I told them that they could compete with them. We gave it our best shot, but they got a couple of good plays on us and put this one out of reach. I love how our guys never give up and bring the effort."
The Broncos (6-1) scored twice in the third on running plays and pushed the score to 22-0 with the fourth quarter still to play. In short, they controlled the clock and ground the Bulldogs down.
They quickly made it 28-0 courtesy of a touchdown run by Giovanni McDonough in the opening minute of the fourth.
"We had too many penalties in the first half," said Broncos coach Caleb Adams. "We started to execute blocks in the second half and were able to get to the edges for yardage."
The Bulldogs avoided the shutout by posting a touchdown plus two at the 7:55 mark of the final quarter. With first and goal on the eight-yard line Sawyer Martens found daylight for six. The next play quarterback Benny Kerenan punched in two to make it 22-8.
However, Johnson went on to score twice more for the Broncos putting his TD total at four for the night. His touchdown run at the 4:16 mark put the score at 36-8.
Interestingly, the Bulldogs had the last say of the game with an impressive touchdown run by Blake Heltunen. He took a pitch from the quarterback and ran 60 yards down the line with the clock hitting zero while he was still at the 25-yard.
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The Bulldogs now own a 3-4 record. They travel to L’Anse for a non-league bout Friday.