Arbor View wins Battle of the Bulls with Legacy
All week long in Arbor View’s football room, the Aggies pointed toward one thing as a reminder: a set of bull’s horns on a plaque representing the long-standing Battle of the Bulls rivalry between the Aggies and Legacy.
For a fifth straight year, the trophy belongs to Arbor View.
Kyle Graham rushed for 132 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries, and scored on a 50-yard touchdown reception to lead the Aggies to a 35-6 road victory Friday night.
“We just came out to play tonight,” Graham said. “Legacy is a great team; they have a lot of good cats over there. Their defense was just hitting us. They wanted it. And then over a while, our offense just running the ball over and over, we started wearing them down.”
Graham led a rushing attack that carried the ball 60 times on 62 offensive plays, for 345 yards. Quarterback Logan Bollinger didn’t throw the ball until late in the third quarter, when he found Graham streaking down the middle of the field with a for a 50-yard touchdown.
“They kept on keying me getting the ball on any type of reverse or sweep,” Graham said. “So once we saw that we saw the middle of the field was open so we took advantage of that.”
Legacy quarterback Jordan Allen, who stepped up for the injured Evan Olaes, put forth a valiant effort and showed the strength of his arm at times. Allen completed 7 of 19 passes for 87 yards and rushed for one touchdown to lead the Longhorns, and Amorey Foster rushed for 31 yards on six carries.
Arbor View’s defense continually bottled up the trenches, led by linebacker J.J. Tuinei, who was in on two sacks, and terrorized Legacy’s offensive line the entire night to keep Allen under duress.
The Longhorns finished the game with just 68 yards of offense, including minus-21 yards rushing.
“It’s a rival game, and in a rival game everybody plays each other tough,” Arbor View coach Dan Barnson said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re 9-0 or 0-9. They had an unfortunate loss last week with their quarterback, but they had a week to prep and rest for us. They came out, their ‘D’ coordinator had a plan and he stuck with his plan, but we stuck with our plan, too. So the kids played well.”
Barnson called the victory the conclusion to the third chapter in his team’s campaign, the first chapter being spring ball, the second taking place during summer camp and the third against non-league foes.
“Now we start league, so now were starting chapter four, so here we go,” Barnson said. “Chapter five will be the playoffs, but we got to make the playoffs. Chapter four is big.”