Burlington Central, Bouagnon roll past G-K

Updated: September 30, 2011 11:52PM

After a heartbreaking last-minute loss to Richmond-Burton last week, Burlington Central bounced back in impressive fashion on Friday night with a 33-0 win at Genoa-Kingston in Big Northern East action.

Joel Bouagnon proved once again why he is considered one of the top running backs in the area with 270 yards of total offense and three touchdowns. The 6-1, 205-pound junior powered his way to 204 yards rushing on 18 carries. He had touchdown runs of 80 and 7 yards. He also scored on a 66-yard pass from Ryan Ritchie (10-of-20, 188 yards).

“I was just focused on running hard,” said Bouagnon. “I had some plays where I was able to break through and see daylight. Once you get a few good runs it feeds you to do more. It was important for us to come together and get back on the winning track tonight. It’s definitely a morale booster after the way we lost last week.”

On his first touchdown, Bouagnon snuck past the G-K secondary and caught a pass at the Cogs 30-yard line and sprinted down the far sideline, dragging a pair of defenders into the end zone the last five yards to put the Rockets (4-2, 1-1) up 14-0 with 8:40 left in the second quarter.

Bouagnon used his power again on his second touchdown when he broke free from a pack of would-be tacklers at the line of scrimmage and rambled 80 yards for a score with 1:48 left in the first half, making it 21-0. Bouagnon’s third touchdown came midway through the fourth quarter on a 7-yard draw play.

“We’ve come to expect him to get a lot of yardage and make big plays,” said Central coach Rich Crabel. “He had to do a lot of it on his own tonight and that says a lot about what kind of athlete he is.”

Central’s first score came on a 45-yard punt return by Joe Breeden with 4:21 left in the first quarter. Rockets kicker Cody Wallace was 4-for-4 on extra point tries and added a 32-yard field goal in the third quarter. Central’s defense also got in on the scoring with a safety early in the fourth quarter.

The Rockets defense dominated all night, allowing just 60 total yards. They also sacked Cogs quarterback Adam Price seven times and stopped five other plays for negative yards. Linebacker Chandlor Crary led the defense with 2 1/2 sacks. Demyon Vazquez added an interception.

The score could have been far worse but the Rockets committed seven penalties, had three drives stall deep in G-K territory and turned the ball over twice.

“It’s always nice to bounce back and get a win after a tough loss,” said Crabel. “But we still feel like we didn’t play up to our standards. I was pretty happy with the defensive effort. Our linebackers had some hot reads and put a lot pressure on their quarterback. On the offensive side, though, we had way too many mistakes.”

It’s the third time this year that G-K (1-5, 0-2) has been shut out.

“It’s very frustrating,” said G-K coach Travis Frederick. “In the preseason we expected to contend for a playoff spot and it just hasn’t come together for us.”

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