North Boone drops Burlington Central to 0-3

Burlington Central overcame quite a bit of adversity Friday, but the Rockets couldn't quite overcome a 2-touchdown second-quarter deficit, and wound up falling to North Boone, 22-12, in Big Northern East action in Poplar Grove.

The Rockets saw a swing pass that hit the ground ruled a fumble (Rocket coaches and fans thought it should have been an incomplete pass), had a punt-return touchdown called back by a penalty, and saw head coach Jason Newburger ejected in the third quarter.

All of that seemed to motivate the Rockets, who fought back into the game.

Jason Berango bulled his way into the end zone from 5 yards out with 48 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 22-12. But the 2-point conversion attempt was no good. The Rockets couldn't capitalize on 2 fourth-quarter possessions to further cut into the deficit.

"They really wanted that at the end," said Central assistant coach Vince Govea. "We teach them that, that in life you don't always get everything you want and you've got to play through that adversity. We're looking to see a different team coming out next week."

After falling behind 15-0 on Griffin Schuster's 67-yard punt return, the Rockets came out with a different attitude. On the ensuing possession, they moved 72 yards in 16 plays, finally finding the end zone on a 4-yard pass from Cameron Kaldenberger to Brad Sorensen with 15 seconds left in the first half.

"Something just clicked in them," said Govea. "We've got to seal things up defensively, play better against the run, something that we haven't done in the first (three) weeks. We made the adjustments in the second half and they played pretty well."

"We've always been a team that's worked hard, and we've just got to know what we're doing and it will work out in the end," said Kaldenberger, who came on in relief of starter Robert Doubek. "We got some bad breaks in the end, some calls that we didn't get, but we can work that out."

Kaldenberger wound up completing 8 of 18 for 64 yards. Berango ran 23 times for 29 yards and also caught 3 passes for 12 yards.

The Rockets were an offensive juggernaut compared to the Vikings, who totaled only 137 yards of offense. They scored on the punt return, and on a 16-yard drive following the fumble call. Starting quarterback Ryan Davis was intercepted by Sorenson and sacked twice, before being replaced by Schuster in the second half.