SCARBOROUGH — Back-to-back long drives by Bonny Eagle at the end of the first half and start of the second half didn’t produce any points Friday night against Scarborough, but the two long drives achieved an important goal as far as Scots Coach Kevin Cooper was concerned.
By maintaining possession for 13 minutes and 10 seconds of consecutive playing time, the Scots kept Scarborough’s offense off the field, which meant the ball wasn’t in the hands of Jayden Flaker.
“We want to be able to run the ball. When you’re playing a team with a guy as explosive as Flaker, you want to possess (the ball). You want to take time off the clock. We were moving the ball. Time was ticking,” Cooper said.
Bonny Eagle (2-0) scored early, then played keep-away to take the 20-6 win over Scarborough (1-1) in a battle of two of the top teams in Class A.
“It was a great feeling to be out there and beat them,” Bonny Eagle quarterback Cam Marcello said.
In the scoreless second half, Bonny Eagle ran 32 plays to Scarborough’s 16. Zac Oja ran for 82 of his game-high 140 yards in the second half.
Scarborough Coach Packy Malia said an injury to middle linebacker Andy Lancaster made stopping the run more difficult.
“I consider (Lancaster) to be one of the best, if not the best linebacker in the state. Losing him was tough,” Malia said.
Bonny Eagle capitalized on a Scarborough mistake, starting its first drive on the Red Storm 20 after a high snap sailed over the head of punter Andrew Moore. Three plays later, Aidan Walcott (four catches, 113 yards) hauled in a 22-yard touchdown pass from Marcello to give the Scots a 7-0 lead. The Marcello-to-Walcott connection struck again a few minutes later, this time for a 69-yard pass on a deep ball down the right side for a 13-0 lead with 2:57 left in the first quarter.
“We think we have a pretty good weapon in Aidan. I thought Scarborough was coming out determined to stop our run, as they should, and Aidan was drawing single coverage, and I think that’s a dangerous thing to do. Cam made nice throws to him,” Cooper said.
“I wouldn’t say it was single coverage. It was just blown technique. We have a lot of young guys out there,” Malia said.
After the second touchdown, Flaker returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards for Scarborough’s only points.
Bonny Eagle padded its lead with 8:56 left in the second quarter when Oja capped a nine-play, 60-yard drive with a 2-yard run.
Flaker finished with 106 yards of offense – 55 rushing and 51 receiving. The bulk of those yards, 66 of them, came on a last-minute drive that ended when Bonny Eagle’s Cade Dixon made an end zone interception on the game’s final play.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.