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Late Interceptions Cost BR-H Chance At Big Upset
 PETOSKEY---For 45-plus minutes, the Bark River-Harris Broncos had a downstate powerhouse football team on the ropes. In what was being billed as the "Battle Below the Bridge" the Broncos led the Climax-Scotts Panthers, 8-6, with the clock ticking toward a major upset. But then, things went wrong for the Broncos in two minutes the team would love to do over, as things fell apart quickly and Climax-Scotts headed back to southern Michigan with a 20-8 win. The Broncos scored early in the first quarter on a ten-yard touchdown run by Iver Stenberg. He also ran in the two-point conversion to make it 8-0. And it looked like that score would hold up as the BR-H defense made stop after stop against the high-powered Panther offense. But it was the turnover bug that killed the BR-H upset bid. In the second quarter, the Broncos had the ball in Panther territory when Kadin Mustafa fumbled the ball with 3:36 left in the half. The Panthers drove down field, and their star player, Adam Schantz, scored from one yard out with nine seconds left until halftime. The Bronco defense held on the two-point play, so it was an 8-6 lead after 24 minutes. Throughout the nalance of the second half, the Panthers had little success against the Bronco defense. And in the fourth quarter, it looked like the BR-H offense would put the game away, either with a touchdown, or by killing clock and forcing the Panthers to go a long distance. On 4th-and-3 at the BR-H 31, Coach Al Stenberg rolled the dice, and quarterback Jace Briggs found Mike Hall for a clutch pass down to the Panther 26 yard-line. The Broncos kept the ball on the ground, with Briggs sneaking for a first down and taking the clock down to three minutes. But on third down, Briggs tried to hit Mustafa with short pass and Schantz jumped in and intercepted the ball. He raced back the other way for an 85-yard "Pick-Six" touchdown, putting the Panthers in the lead with 2:18 left on the clock. The two-point conversion was good, and Climax-Scotts had a 14-8 lead. The Broncos still had time for a last-minute drive, but Briggs threw another interception, and when the Panthers put the offense on the field, Schantz broke awat again for a 76-yard rushing tochdown. The two-point conversion was no good, but it was 20-8 with 1:08 to play. In the final minute, the Broncos drove to the Panther 28-yard-line against the "prevent" defense, but the game ended on another interception with five seconds on the clock. That was the Broncos' fifth turnover of the game. Bark River-Harris fell to 2-3 on the season, with all three losses coming in games in which teh Broncos led or were tied at halftime. Climax-Scotts improved to 5-0 on the season. The Broncos have another tough game next Saturday against undefeated Lake Linden-Hubbell for Lakes Homecoming. Game time is 2:00. The game will be broadcast live on WUPF-FM (107.3), and on-line at www.radioresultsnetwork.com, starting at 1:30. |
