Tracy’s Fife accounts for six touchdowns as Bulldogs pull away from Buhach Colony

Running quarterbacks seemed to be Buhach Colony’s kryptonite early on this season.

One week after Downey’s Bryce Peterson rushed for two touchdowns and threw for two more, Tracy quarterback Logan Fife terrorized the Thunder defense.

All Fife did was run for 155 yards and two scores and add another 203 yards and four touchdowns through the air as the Bulldogs (1-1) pulled away in the second half for a 51-30 win over Buhach Colony at Dave Honey Stadium on Friday night.

Fife broke off long runs of 53, 29 and 35 yards on basically the same play where he faked a handoff fullback Mason Sarsfield, pulling the ball late and then heading straight up through the hole.

“I think overall they had a good blocking scheme to our answer,” said Buhach Colony coach Kevin Navarra, whose team dropped to 0-2. “We had our outside linebacker on the quarterback. They took our guy who was supposed to be on the quarterback out of the picture.”

Buhach Colony couldn’t have asked for a better start.

L.J. Wallace took the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown as he broke through a big hole in the middle of the field and outran the Bulldogs for the end zone.

“As soon as I saw it I knew it was going to be a good return,” said Wallace. “We’ve practiced our returns and our front line is great. As soon as I saw that hole I knew I was going to score.”

The Thunder marched down the field on their second possession with the help of two long passes from Clay Abrams. Wallace hauled in a 36-yard pass to move the ball into Tracy territory. Abrams then found Irik Dobbins for a 30 yard connection to move the ball down to the 2-yard line.

One play later, Christian Quirarte punched it in for the 2-yard score to give the Thunder a 16-7 lead with 3:42 left in the third quarter. Quirarte led the Thunder with 83 rushing yards and two touchdowns on eight carries.

The Bulldogs battled back as Fife tossed two second-quarter touchdowns to give Tracy a 22-16 lead at the half. The sophomore hooked up with Carlos Vasquez for a 28-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter. Fife then found Xavier Moore for a 29-yard scoring strike with 2:49 left before the half.

Meanwhile, the Thunder offense went quiet.

Buhach Colony was held to just 22 rushing yards on 16 carries in the first half and just 99 yards of offense in the first two quarters.

“We watched the two lower level games and Tracy pretty much took away the sweep,” Navarra said. “We knew it was going to come down to inside the box and we’re a little outnumbered there. We struggled with protection too.”

Tracy took control in the second half as Fife broke free for a 35-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 30-16 just 18 seconds into the third quarter.

The Thunder marched down field and answered with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Abrams to Brendan Ekizian to cut the lead to 30-23 with 7:04 left in the third quarter.

However, Fife found Trevion Shadrick-Harris for a 51-yard touchdown pass. Fife added an 8-yard touchdown to Sarsfield to extend the lead to 44-23 Josh Alvarado’s 55-yard interception return put the game out of reach moments later as the Bulldogs had built a 51-23 lead with 4 minutes left.

“Some of the adjustments we made, I just felt they were one step ahead of us in the plays they called,” Navarra said. “They would should something and we would counter. Then they would counter what we did. It was good coaching on their part.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2017 at 12:41 AM with the headline "Tracy’s Fife accounts for six touchdowns as Bulldogs pull away from Buhach Colony."