Thunder finishes strong in home win over Enochs

Kevin Navarra could have done without the gut check, but he was more than pleased with his team’s response.

The Buhach Colony coach watched as his football team cruised into the half with a two-score lead after a well-played opening 24 minutes. Enochs needed less than eight minutes to erase that, scoring on its first two possessions of the second half.

The Thunder’s response was quick and thorough. Sparked by a Donte Askew 45-yard touchdown run, BC scored in each of its last four possessions to pull away for a 43-19 victory at Falcon Field on Friday night.

“We knew coming in that they had athletes,” Navarra said. “We were more than aware of what (Eddie Alderson) could do after last year. I felt like we played a good first half, but it was just a matter of time before he got going.

“They all of a sudden hit us with two big plays, one pass and one run, and it was kind of a gut-check moment. I thought the kids responded really well on the next drive, and we did a good job pulling away from there.”

Askew served as a catalyst, seizing the game’s momentum right back for the Thunder (1-1) after Alderson helped Enochs (0-2) make it a game.

BC used an Andrew Morris 2-yard touchdown pass to Andre Mayfield and an Isaac Zambrano 7-yard touchdown run to take a 15-0 lead into intermission.

Alderson (17 carries for 169 yards) answered with a 2-yard scoring run on Enochs’ opening possession of the second half, and then broke free for an 80-yard score on the Eagles’ very next play from scrimmage to trim the BC lead to 15-12.

A week after struggling to move the ball offensively, the Thunder attack didn’t bat an eye.

Four straight runs moved the ball to the Enochs 45-yard line on the ensuing possession. Askew took a fly sweep to the house on the next play. He followed it up with a 10-yard touchdown run on Buhach’s next possession to make it 29-12 early in the fourth quarter. They were his only two carries in the game.

“Donte is a special player that we’re lucky to have,” said linebacker Jace Alcazar, who finished with two sacks. “He’s just starting to find his role in the offense, so he can be even better.

“We knew they were going to answer at some point. Alderson is a talented guy, and he was going to get his yards. We just needed to regroup and limit the big plays. I thought we did that the rest of the way.”

The BC ground game took over from there.

Led by Brandon Muse (17 carries 116 yards), Alex Andrade (6 for 84) and Kory Woods (12 for 63) the Thunder pounded out 350 yards on 48 carries. Pardeep Dhillon and Anthony Basadula added fourth-quarter touchdown runs off the bench to put the game away.

“I think after the first game our offense was still searching for its identity,” Navarra said. “We moved some guys around and saw some good things. Then we were able to sub some other guys in the game, and they showed what they can do. Hopefully this was a step towards establishing who we are.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 12:46 AM with the headline "Thunder finishes strong in home win over Enochs."