Maroons bonk 'Heads

By Bruce Sayler - 08/30/2008

Butte Central's Jonathan Richards makes a catch as Anaconda defender Dalton Ueland wraps him up during the first quarter at Mitchell Stadium on Friday.

ANACONDA — The football fans went to Mitchell Stadium Friday night and a track meet broke out.

Bada-boom.

A 40-point first quarter erupted with Butte Central scoring 34 of the points on the way to a 47-12 non-conference victory over Anaconda in the season-opener between the two Class A rival programs.

The Maroons took a 47-6 halftime lead and didn't score again.

Sophomores did much of the damage for BC. Quarterback Andy Ritter threw for 257 yards while completing 11 of 13 passes. He ran for one touchdown and passed two others. Both of the scoring aerials were big, long plays. Senior Casey Norbeck was the receiver on both, plays of 68 and 74 yards. Norbeck also tallied on an 18-yard fumble recovery after Sean Ferriter stripped the ball sacking Anaconda quarterback Matt King.

All three of Norbeck's touchdowns came in the first quarter.

Butte Central sophomore Jonathan Richards led the Maroons in rushing with 56 yards on eight carries, and was second in receiving with 47 yards on four catches. Norbeck finished with 157 yards on four grabs, including the lethal shovel-pass plays initiated in the backfield.

"We have a lot of young kids in our lineup and they responded to their first Friday night lights," BC head coach Don Peoples Jr. said. "But this was one game, was non-conference and we have a long way to go and long way to improve."

The teams went at each other fast and hard from the start. The Maroons scored first, capping a 71-yard drive on the first possession of the game with a Ritter keeper

from a yard out of the end zone. Kevin Cox crashed in the two-point conversion for the 8-0 BC lead.

Anaconda charged right back and was on the brink of scoring. The Copperheads moved from their own 35-yard line to the Butte Central 17 in three plays with King flips to Chris Zacher responsible for 44 yards of the march.

But three false-start penalties called on Anaconda receivers stalled the drive and the Maroons took over on downs at their own 32 after Ferriter sacked King for a 4-yard loss on fourth down.

The Ritter-to-Norbeck 68-yard TD play came on the next play and BC was off and running. Senior Gene Taylor then went 62 yards with an Anaconda punt to launchwhat was an explosive night for him, too. The speedster wound up with two touchdowns, 46 yards receiving, 31 yards rushing and the 62-yard return. And he did it with a noticeably different look, having shorn his beard and long hair in favor of a cleancut look to start the season.

The stall of Anaconda's first drive looked to hurt the Copperheads most. They were never able to gain back the momentum, even though King, a junior quarterback, ran for 134 yards, passed for 79 and scored both of his team's touchdowns.

Anaconda's fourth-quarter scoring drive of 73 yards saw King carry on seven of the 10 plays and pass on two others. His 3-yard sneak up the middle ended the scoring.

Copperheads head coach Tom Peterson was unavailable for comment immediately after the game.

Peoples said it was a good first game for his team.

"I'm really proud of the kids," he said. "We were in a jamboree last June and did play well. It served as a wakeup call and the kids put in a summer of a lot hard work. It was a tribute to our coaching staff and to the kids."

Both teams will continue non-conference play next Friday night with Butte Central travleing to Whitefish, and Anaconda hitting the road to play Belgrade.

Unofficial statistics from Friday night's game follow:

Butte Central 34 13 0 0 — 47

Anaconda 6 0 0 6 — 12

First Quarter

BC — Andy Ritter 1 run (Kevin Cox run), 7:53. Drive — 71 yards in 8 plays. Key play — Gene Taylor 39 pass from Ritter to Anaconda 23-yard line.

BC — Casey Norbeck 68 pass from Ritter (kick failed), 5:21. Drive — 68 yards in 1 play. Key play — Scoring play.

BC — Gene Taylor 62 punt return (kick blocked), 3:14. Drive — none. Key play — Scoring play.

BC — Norbeck 18 fumble recovery (pass failed), 3:05. Drive — none. Key play — Sean Ferriter stripped ball from quarterback on sack to cause the fumble.

ANA — Matt King 67 run (run failed), 2:23. Drive — 78 yards in 2 plays. Key play — Scoring play.

BC — Norbeck 74 pass from Ritter (Jonathan Richards run), 1:22. Drive — 84 yards in 2 plays. Key play — Scoring play.

Second Quarter

BC — Taylor 16 run (Nathaniel Loomis kick), 9:02. Drive — 52 yards in 7 plays. Key play — Ritter 6-yard run to Anaconda 36-yard line on third-and-two.

Third Quarter

No scoring.

Fourth Quarter

ANA — King 3 run (run failed), 4:31. Drive — 73 yards in 10 plays. Key play — King 25-yard run to Butte Central 27-yard line.

BC Ana

First downs 11 8

Rushes-yards 29-116 24-153

Passes 11-13-0 10-16-0

Passing yards 257 79

Return yards 80 0

Punts-avg. 0-0 3-35.6

Fumbles-lost 1-1 5-1

Penalties-yards 3-30 6-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — Butte Central, Jonathan Richards 8-56, Gene Taylor 6-31, Andy Ritter 9-31, Casey Norbeck 2-6, Jake Simkins 1-(-1), Zach Kasperick 1-(-3), Team 2-(-4). Anaconda, Matt King 20-134, Chris Zacher 2-19, Brant Huber 1-1, Shawn Funston 1-(-1).

Passing — Butte Central, Ritter 11-13-0-257. Anaconda, 10-16-0-79.

Receiving — Butte Central, Norbeck 4-157, Richards 4-47, Taylor 2-46, Phil Antonioli 1-7. Anaconda, Zacher 4-51, Sam Ferguson 3-12, Huber 1-10, Cody Tocher 1-4, Dalton Ueland 1-2.