Central's playoff hopes take big hit

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RICHMOND -- Perhaps Richmond-Burton had an extra pep in its step Friday night against visiting Burlington Central because it was senior night.

Maybe there was added importance because the loser of this game would officially be eliminated from the playoffs.

Whatever the case, Richmond-Burton played with an obvious purpose while dismantling Burlington Central 34-7 in a Big Northern Conference East Division matchup.

Richmond-Burton held a 27-0 lead at halftime after pounding out 201 yards rushing in the opening 24 minutes, including scoring all four of its touchdowns via the ground game on runs of 4, 64, 6 and 60 yards.

"We just didn't match their intensity and I'm not sure why," said Central coach Aaron Wichman, whose team had its string of two straight state playoff appearances officially snapped after suffering its fifth loss. "It falls on me to get the kids prepared and we didn't seem like we were ready tonight."

The game started out on an ominous note for Central (1-5, 1-1) after kicker Tim Maroder's punt on the team's first possession was blocked and recovered by R-B at Central's 21-yard line less than three minutes into the game. Two running plays later, the home Rockets (2-4, 1-1) were celebrating in the end zone after Brandon Sanko scored untouched on a 4-yard run.

"That (blocked punt) was a big momentum swing right away," Wichman said. "That gave them good field position and they scored quickly."

Central had moderate success moving the ball in the first half, but each time its drives would come to an abrupt stop. The Rockets penetrated into R-B territory on four of their six first-half possessions, including marching down to the R-B 35-yard line on their second possession.

But like the others, Central would come away with no points despite a 10-play drive that chewed up over five minutes off the clock. Eventually, Central was stopped on four downs, handing the ball back over to R-B at its own 36-yard line.

One play later, Kenneth Riordan was racing to paydirt after a 64-yard scoring run to put the home team up 14-0.

"We've been pretty good against the run the last couple weeks, but we didn't execute tonight," Wichman said. "On offense we would move the ball and get to about the 30-yard line and then stall out. That's happened a lot this season and we work on all that in practice. But we haven't been able to come out and show improvements on Friday nights."

R-B added two more touchdowns in the second quarter, none more heartbreaking to Central than its final one. With 15 seconds showing on the clock before halftime and facing a third-and-7 from its own 40-yard line, R-B was just trying to run out the clock when Riordan (6 rushes, 152 yards, 3 TDs) broke off another long scoring run. This time, he shedded several tacklers on his way to a 60-yard jaunt to put the Rockets up 27-0 with one second left in the half.

In the end, Central avoided the shutout with a 32-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Maroder to Kevin Kellish with five minutes left. For the second straight game, Botsford (6 of 12 passing, 45 yards) and Maroder (1 of 5 passing, 32 yards, TD) alternated snaps under center.

"I like rotating the quarterbacks," Wichman said. "They can both bring different things to the team. (Botsford) ran aggressively tonight and (Maroder) also had some tough runs."

Botsford, who started the game at quarterback for Central, finished with a team-high 83 yards on 14 carries. Maroder added 45 yards on 12 carries. For the game, the Rockets were outgained on the ground 347-175.

"The playoffs are obviously not going to happen for us this year," Wichman said. "But we still want to represent ourselves well in the conference and finish strong."

Defensively for Central, both Jeremy Lee and Frank Wleklinski recorded double-digit tackles. Nick Smith added a second-half fumble recovery.