Burgettstown impresses in season opener
BURGETTSTOWN – A strong colletive effort helped Burgettstown secure an impressive Century Conference and season-opening win Friday night.
Burgettstown limited Frazier’s potent enough, collecting six-momentum killing sacks, while also holding the Commodores to minus-31 rushing yards, to win the season-opener, 27-19.
The Commodores amassed 331 passing yards, courtesy of senior quarterback Chris Pierce, who completed 30 of 46 attempts.
“We do bend. We bend a lot,” Burgettstown coach Mark Druga said. “But we come up with big plays at the right time.”
The game-changing moments for the Blue Devils (1-0, 1-0) came in all facets of play. Reed Reitter finished as the Blue Devils’ leading receiver with 107 yards and two touchdowns on only three receptions. Burgettstown senior quarterback Brad McLaughlin threw for 147 yards and three scores, completing six of 15 attempts.
Before Burgettstown’s Ryan Lounder took the field following Frazier getting its first points of the game late in the second quarter on a touchdown run by quarterback Chris Pierce to get Frazier within a point at 7-6. One of Lounder’s coaches told him to run up the middle. Lounder followed the directions and scored on an 87-yard kick return when he followed a big block by lineman Colby Green.
“I just made a cut,” Lounder said, “and I was gone.”
Lounder also brought in a 32-yard touchdown pass from McLaughlin to preserve Burgettstown’s lead in the fourth quarter after Frazier made it a one-possesion game.
Frazier (0-1, 0-2) tried multiple onside kicks in the second half and recovered one to help keep the game close. Druga, Burgettstown’s special teams coordinator, took responsibility for the uneven special teams play.
“We had put in a hands team, but we weren’t going to use that,” he said.
Frazier used a number of trick plays in its Week Zero loss to McGuffey, a game the Burgettstown coaching staff watched.
“We were ready for that,” he said. “We have a few young guys up there. We were learning on the fly.”