Clippers hold 
off Bruins

AMBOY – When the St. Bede Bruins meet the Amboy-LaMoille Clippers on the football field, defense rules.

Friday night was no exception.

Other than a big play start by the Bruins, both teams went helmet to helmet and neither defense budged until a SBA fumbled option play allowed A-L to gain decent field position and tally the game-deciding score late in the third quarter as Amboy-LaMoille improved to 2-0 on the season with a 13-6 victory over the Bruins.

“It always is a defense game (against St. Bede),” Amboy-LaMoille coach Gary Jones said after his defense yielded only 69 rushing yards to SBA. “They play great defense. They shut down our option play; they shut down almost everything offensively that we took out there.

“We took advantage of that turnover,” Jones added. “You have to take advantage of the turnovers. You have to get the turnovers to win ballgames.”

With six minutes and 15 seconds remaining in the third quarter with the game tied at 6, A-L linebacker recovered a botched option pitch at the St. Bede 42 yard line. Four minutes and 22 seconds later, Cody Richardson’s two-yard dive into the end zone put the Clippers ahead to stay.

“Defensively we played alright,” Bruin coach John Bellino said after his squad fell to 0-2 to start the 2009 season. “We executed better, and hopefully we can play better next week.”
To start the Big Rivers Conference contest, the Bruins caught the Clippers flatfooted with a 59-yard touchdown pass from Ryne Denis to SBA speedster Kevin King on SBA’s first offensive play of the game. The point after touchdown kick was blocked, but the Bruins held their first lead of the season.

“We saw some things that were open, and we thought we could throw the ball a little more this week, and we did,” Bellino said of the bomb to King.

King finished the night with two catches for 90 yards.

As the Bruins held the early lead, their defense was stuffing and quickly dropping A-L’s standout back Richardson. The A-L senior tailback settled for just 45 yards rushing on 19 carries, but caught a game-tying 29-yard touchdown pass from Steven Apple in the second quarter.