Sports

Braves can't diffuse Bombers

By Tyler Ohmann

09/17/2013

After keeping the game close for three quarters turnovers and other mistakes finally did the Bottineau Braves in last Thursday.

Bottineau fell to the Lewis and Clar-Our Redeemers Bombers (LC/OR) in a Region 3 match up at Les Christian Field in Bottineau.

The teams traded scores in the first quarter, and Bottineau’s score came from senior quarterback Andrew Hill’s legs.

Bottineau fell behind, but kept the Bombers within arms length for most of the game. However, mistakes piled up for Bottineau and eventually they were overcome by the Bombers rushing attack and fell behind 32-6 in the fourth quarter.

Bottineau would add one more score, a two-yard touchdown run by Braden Pewe.

“We did some things well Thursday night, but gave up some big plays and had too many turnovers to get the win,” stated Braves head coach Rob Bedlion. “The guys competed hard and battled the whole game and that’s why we made some improvements.”

The Bottineau ground game was working fairly well in the first half as Ethan Kerslake had 54 yards on 13 carries and Pewe had 44 yards on 12 carries.

However, in the second half Kerslake injured his hand and the Bottineau rushing attack was slowed as the Bombers attack was strengthened.

LC/OR finished with 164 yards and four touchdowns on 29 carries, while Bottineau had 113 yards rushing on 53 carries.

“This team works very hard and I can never fault their effort, we just made too many mistakes both with the handling of the football and assignments on both sides of the ball,” Bedlion stated.

Senior Tanner Bickford anchored the defense most of the way. The defensive end finished with five tackles, one sack, a fumble recovery and a blocked punt. Jayhawk Shriver had eight tackles and fumble return in the loss.

“We played more physical this game than we have shown this season and we were very happy to see that,” Bedlion stated. “That needs to continue to improve as we move forward and to clean up our mistakes.”

The Braves dropped to 0-3 with the loss, while LC/OR improved to 2-1.

Bottineau searches for their first win on Friday in Rugby. The Panthers are 2-0 in region play and 2-1 overall.

“We now go down to a very good Rugby team and we hope to keep improving and play our best football this Friday,” Bedlion stated.