Sep 6, 2014 4 min read

McDONALD – For the second consecutive week, the Fort Cherry Rangers had a dramatic finish.

This time, it didn’t go their way.

Alex Babirad caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from Devon Brown with 1:02 remaining in the game to pull the Rangers within 17-14, but that would be as close as they got as Brentwood won its second straight game in the Black Hills Conference.

Fort Cherry had the ball inside the Brentwood 30-yard line on five different occasions but came up empty, botching a field goal and turning the ball over on downs four times.

That was the difference in the game.

“Our inexperience showed tonight,” said Fort Cherry head coach Jim Shiel. “We had our chances, but couldn’t do enough to punch it in.”

The Spartans got momentum early when they started with a pooch kick that hit off one of the Fort Cherry player.

Brentwood ran the ball right at the Rangers’ defense. But the Spartans decided to pass and Fort Cherry’s Jesse McKean sacked quarterback Connor McWilliams on a second-and-goal play. The Rangers were able to pressure McWilliams on third down and held Brentwood to a field goal.

Fort Cherry quickly answered with some tough running from Nick Cook and a big 32-yard completion from Devon Brown to Scott Miller.

Brown, who was filling in for injured starter Anthony Panizza, dropped a shotgun snap, but turned a broken play into a nine-yard touchdown run to give the Rangers a 7-3 lead.

“He did as good as expected considering that he only had three days of reps at the quarterback position,” said Shiel. “We battled. We just didn’t make enough plays.”

That would be all the scoring in the first half as both offenses missed opportunities and both defenses made plays when needed.

Brentwood (1-0, 2-0) muffed a punt that FC recovered inside Spartans’ territory, but Fort Cherry couldn’t turn it into points. Brentwood blocked a Fort Cherry punt late in the half that gave them the ball inside the Rangers 40, but couldn’t score.

“Neither team did much to take advantage of opportunities,” said Brentwood head coach Kevin Kissel. “It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win.”

McWilliams, who completed 11 of 18 passes for 292 yards a week ago, finished the first half going 3 of 17 for 19 yards. He heated up in the second half.

After the Rangers missed another opportunity with a bad snap on a field goal, the Spartans struck on the next play with a 90-yard touchdown pass to Tayron Kyser to give Brentwood a 10-7 third-quarter lead.

“As a quarterback, you can’t let your lows get too low and your highs get too high,” said McWilliams, who ended up completing 7 of 22 passes for 136 yard. “We just had to stay confident, and if we had the chance to make a big play we just had to get it done.”

The Spartans made it 14 unanswered points after FC turned the ball over on downs deep in Brentwood territory. The Spartans pieced together a seven-play, 77-yard drive that culminated with a 45-yard touchdown run from Pat Carr on a well-timed draw play.

The Rangers had another crack late in the fourth quarter, ending up with a first-and-goal situation from the six-yard line. But back-to-back carries for losses pushed the ball back to the 12 and ultimately Brentwood stopped Cook a yard short of the end zone with four minutes remaining in the game.

Cook had 160 yards on 27 carries.

“He was outstanding,” Shiel said of the sophomore. “He ran hard and will have a good future. We have some good young talent. We only had three seniors on the field on offense so we just need to keep working and get better with more reps.”