Blue Ridge may have spent the last two weeks establishing its run game, but at some point the Barons were going to have to put the ball in the air. What better time than against a St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes squad that’s been limiting the ground attack of its opponents on a regular basis?
“This was a game where we were going to find out if we could make the throws we had to and have a balanced offense,” said Blue Ridge coach Del Smith.
After a 42-28 victory over the Saints Saturday, the Barons can check that worry off their list.
Andre Roberts threw for 260 yards and five touchdowns while completing 14 of 21 attempts. Roberts capitalized on a number of play action passes for big plays, including touchdown strikes of 62, 55 and 31 yards.
That, in turn softened up the SSSA defense, allowing the Barons to pile up 169 yards on the ground – mostly in the third quarter — with Mayn Francisco going for 106 yards and a touchdown on 18 touches. Francisco also had the 31-yard catch for a score. While that’s a far cry from the last two weeks when the Barons piled up more than 800 rushing yards in two games against Flint Hill and Covenant, that’s an impressive output against SSSA.
“Teams have really struggled to run the football versus that team,” Smith said. “Their safeties come down off the hash really well and they tackle well in space.”
Jerod Williams hauled in two touchdowns from Roberts while Robin Moore and Darryl Smith also had scoring catches.
Terrence Barnes spearheaded the Blue Ridge defensive effort with 13 tackles, two of them for a loss, and a sack. Cory Takahara had an interception while Kody TeKanawa had a pair of sacks and three tackles for a loss.
Blue Ridge hits the road to take on Christchurch next Saturday at 1 p.m.
