It took six quarters of football, but the Elba Byron-Bergen Lancers finally got fired up Saturday to turn a 12-0 half-time deficit into a 13-12 victory of the Alexander Trojans.
After a blistering 32-7 loss to Barker last week, Coach Mike Cintorino said the Lancers needed a spark to turn things around, and Zack DuBois, helped by some key blocks at the line, did that in the third quarter with a 95-yard run for a score.
"Our guys came out in the second half excited to play and we had some success to get us moving in the right direction," Cintorino said. "We've been waiting, knowing that Zach is due, and he popped a big one for us today. This is exactly what our team needed today just to show us that we are as good as we were last year and now we can build on that."
Alexander, playing under new head Coach Jack Rennolds, and coming off an injury-plagued 2010 season when the team went 1-6, played a pretty dominant first half.
The Trojans converted a turnover into a touchdown when Austin Heberline punched it in from two yards out.
Patrick Crawford helped lead the next drive, including darting in on a 12-yard TD run to put Alexander up 12-0 at the half.
Alexander had 213 yards on the ground, most of it gained in the first-half of the game.
But the momentum seemed to shift in the second half, sparked, of course, by the DeBois run, but defensively the Lancers seems to come to life, making it much harder for Alexander to move the ball.
Zac Gillard helped put his team ahead with a 35-yard TD pass to Matt Ramsey with 10 minutes remaining in the game.
From there, it was just a matter of a fired-up Lancers' defense keeping the Trojans in check.
Rennolds said he saw a lot of positives in his team, especially during the first half of play.
"We played really well in the first half and I was really happy with our play, but we seemed to drop our coverage a bit in the second half," Rennolds said. "We came out a little flat and Elba came out definitely ready to play."
The Lancers move to 1-1 and Alexander is now 0-2 on the young season.
Stats:
Offensive Stats - Elba Byron Bergen
RB - Zack DuBois (So.): 24 Carries for 175 yards and 1 TD (94-yard run)
QB - Zac Gillard (Jr.): 6-10 for 79 yards and 1 TD (35 yards)
WR - Matt Ramsey (Sr.): 1 reception for 35 yards and 1 TD (35 yards)
Offensive Stats - Alexander
RB - Pat Crawford (Sr.): 3 Carries for 51 yards and 1 TD (12-yard run)
RB - Austin Heberline (Sr.): 5 Carries for 6 yards and 1 TD (2-yard run)
RB - Mark Farnsworth: 48 yards rushing
RB - Luke Phillips: 42 yards rushing
RB - David Schmeide: 22 yards
QB - Mark Farnsworth (Jr.): 3-11 for 22 yards
QB - Nelson Burke: 3 completions for 31 yards
Lineman Nick Mrucza was used on an offensive play and carried the ball for 38 yards.
Defensive Stats - Elba Byron-Bergen
Cody Naylor (Sr.): 10 tackles, 3 for a loss
Nate Jonathan (Jr.): 10 tackles, 2 for a loss
Defensive Stats - Alexander
Lucas Phillips (Sr.): Forced fumble
Austin Heberlein: 8 tackles and 4 assists
Nick Mrucza: 6 tackles
David Patrick: 5 tackles and 2 assists
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