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Boise dominates, again
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The Boise Burn (3-1) was able to defeat the Texas Copperheads (0-4) 41-14, Saturday night, at Qwest Arena for their third consecutive win since losing their season opener to defending league champions Tulsa.
Once again, the story of the night for the Burn was their defense, which was able to hold the Texas offense to just one offensive touchdown.
The game was nearly a shutout with the Burn leading 29-0 and knocking on Texas’ door for another score, when Boise wide receiver DeRonn Finley threw a pass that was intercepted in the end zone and returned for a touchdown by Texas defensive back Darius Pettigrew.
“We spent all offseason making sure that we had great defensive lineman and defensive backs, because defense wins ball games,” Burn Head Coach Lee Leslie said. “It’s definitely paying off for us because of the injuries we are having on the line right now, guys are stepping and coming up big for us.”
In front of a crowd of 5,080 fans, the Burn defense was able to play with intensity and passion that had not yet been seen this year to quite this extent.
Burn defensive lineman Chris Solomona hadn’t played football for nearly three years since his days playing for the University of Oregon.
Solomona came out and played great with a fumble recovery, several batted passes and a recorded safety.
Defensive back Terrence Sanders was defensive player of the game coming up with big plays when the Burn needed to get key stops on forth down.
Sanders also came up with one interception and played solid defense all night by not letting one Texas touchdown until late in the forth quarter.
“If we can continue to stay consistent, keep to our game plan and execute then we will put ourselves in a position to win every game,” Sanders said. “We need to be able to do this every game, it’s extremely crucial for our defense to continue to play with a fire and come to play every night.”
Interceptions seemed to be the key to the Burn dominance on defense, with Demond Williams, Casey Allen and Ernie James coming up with interceptions to end Texas drives.
On offense the Burn decided to use a two quarterback system with Eagle High graduates Royal Gil and BJ Rhode, a former Boise State backup, both getting playing time. Gil started the game and did a solid job, once again leading the Burn to a 29-0 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Rhode came in at the beginning of the forth quarter and had a touchdown pass, giving the Burn a 35-14 lead with 2:32 remaining in the game.
“It’s great to be able to have two veteran quarterbacks that can get us the ball,” wide receiver and player of the game George Williams said. “I think it gives us an advantage and allows us to play to our full potential every time we come out here.”
Williams continued to climb up the af2 record books with three touchdown catches and a two point conversion bringing his career point total to 1,000.
Williams is now only 20 points from tying the record which he could do next Saturday at home when the Burn face Stockton at Qwest Arena.
MARY ALBL
Assistant Sports Editor
