By Mike Donoghue
Free Press Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2007
SOUTH BURLINGTON -- Connor Gallagher tallied two touchdowns as Mount Mansfield finished a suspended Division II high school football game on Monday, beating Rice Memorial, 24-0.
MMU held a 6-0 lead on Saturday when referees halted the game at halftime due to lightning. The Cougars came out fired up Monday and marched down the field on their first two possessions with Gallagher scoring on 1-yard and 2-yard runs to build an 18-0 lead with 2:27 left in the third.
"We definitely felt last time that we weren't playing anywhere near up to our potential. We needed definitely to step it up and get the right mind-set to show this division who we are and what we are made of. We really didn't do a good job last Saturday. We knew we had to come out with our heads focused and ready to play some football," said Gallagher, a senior running back.
Brian Wilcox ran nine times for 55 yards on the 74-yard opening drive. Gallagher had three runs for 33 yards on the second drive, which covered 60 yards. The MMU running game -- featuring fakes and deceptions -- at times confused Rice.
"We are really disciplined in practice about our assignments and carry out fakes. It's all about deception. We're a really tight offense," Gallagher said.
Erik Osborne tallied the final MMU touchdown on a 24-yard run up the middle with 7:10 left in the game. Osborne had scored the only touchdown Saturday on a 53-yard run in the first quarter shortly after a 50-minute lightning delay.
Winless Rice, which had hung tough on Saturday, had trouble getting untracked offensively. The Green Knights, which never got past midfield on Monday, had a pair of three-and-outs and a third-down interception in the their first three possessions.
|
|
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
|
Rice quarterback Brian McClintock had hoped the lightning delay might help the Green Knights, but they failed to execute.
"If anything it should have helped. We had time to adjust, but obviously they did, too. We just weren't making plays. We came out flat. We didn't make plays. People missed tackles. People missed blocks," he said.
Rice quarterback Brian McClintock had hoped the lightning delay might help the Green Knights, but they failed to execute.
"If anything it should have helped. We had time to adjust, but obviously they did, too. We just weren't making plays. We came out flat. We didn't make plays. People missed tackles. People missed blocks," he said. "You've got to give them credit. They came out and played well with their running game. Wilcox is an incredible back and they played a great game," McClintock said.
The win keeps MMU in a three-way tie for second place in D-II with U-32 and Colchester. The Cougars (5-1 overall, 4-1 in D-II) made it to the D-IV championship game last year in just their fourth varsity season, MMU -- which has only lost to undefeated Spaulding this season -- takes on Otter Valley and standout quarterback Grant Jakubowski on Saturday in Brandon.
"Jakubowski is a heck of an athlete so we've got to really contain him. We've got to be able to play our pass defense a little bit better then we did against Spaulding," Richards said.
"We have to stay focused," Richards said.
Rice drops to 0-6 overall and 0-4 in D-II.
Free Press correspondent Chris Preston contributed to this report.
|