Thunder misses chances to grab momentum in loss to Central

Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way.

And sometimes it really doesn’t.

The Buhach Collony defense gave itself ample opportunity to get the Central of Fresno offense off the field on Thursday night. The Grizzlies put seven balls on the Deran Koligian Stadium turf, eight counting a muffed punt that was kicked out of bounds, and against all odds fell on every single one of them.

To add insult to injury, Central turned the two turnovers it forced into touchdowns as it pulled away in the second half for a 38-15 victory.

“I think they just came out of the gate a little quicker than us,” said defensive back Logan Lemas, who recorded his third interception in as many games. “After our opening drive, they just had a little more energy.

“We gave ourselves a chance. Everyone of those fumbles had the potential to be game changers. Turnovers are such big momentum swings. We just couldn’t jump on any of them.”

The trip to Fresno started ideally enough as Buhach Colony (2-2) marched the opening kickoff 76 yards. The 12-play drive took almost half the opening quarter and was finished off with an 8-yard run by Kory Woods, who powered a mass of bodies into the end zone.

The Thunder ran the ball nine times for 49 yards on the drive, but found moving the ball a little tougher the rest of the way. BC carried the ball 14 times for 59 yards in the rest of the opening half.

“I think it was a little bit of the unknown with both teams to start the game,” Buhach coach Kevin Navarra said. “I don’t know how much they see the Fly offense down here. They were overplaying the sweep a little bit to start the game, which I don’t blame them after seeing film from our last two games.

“They corrected some things and had some big bodies that made it tough for us to run inside.”

Even with the offense stalled, the Thunder defense did a good job keeping them in the game.

Central (1-3) tied the game just before the end of the first quarter when Nick Szpor (15 of 26, 195 yards, three TDs) found Nate Howard for a 15-yard touchdown pass.

The Grizzlies went on top almost immediately after when Andrew Morris was intercepted on the Thunder’s next play from scrimmage, giving Central a first-and-goal at the BC 6-yard line. Dennis Laney punched it in from 2 yards out, three plays later to make it 14-7 Central.

Buhach followed it up with a disastrous three-and-out and the Grizzlies went for an early dagger, as Szpor found a wide open Cameron Johnson on a 43-yard wheel route to make it 21-7 at the half.

Central was limited to a field goal in the third-quarter, but put the game out of reach with two scores in 24 seconds to open the fourth quarter.

The Thunder went to the air to try and kick start the offense as Morris marched the team down the field with six completions. Woods (12-59) finished the drive with a 7-yard TD run to make the final scoreline a little more respectable.

“We did some things well today, we just need to learn from our mistakes and keep getting better,” Navarra said. “League is the ultimate goal and that’s what we’re trying to get ready for. We have one more tough one with St. Mary’s and then its time for CCC.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Thunder misses chances to grab momentum in loss to Central."