Slow-starting Basic finishes off Eldorado
Basic coach Jeff Cahill said his team’s slow start Friday against Eldorado mirrored how the team has performed in the first portion of recent practices.
Finishing strong — in practices and against the Sundevils — was not a problem for the Wolves.
Basic’s defense held Eldorado to 80 yards of offense in the second half, and the Wolves outscored the Sundevils 14-0 after halftime on the way to a 28-13 home victory.
Basic and Eldorado played a virtually even first half, and the Wolves eked out a 14-13 lead at halftime.
“We have talked about it all year with our guys about slow starts,” said Cahill. “We have had slow starts in practices. When you do it in practice, it always carries through to the game. It takes a while for them to understand that.
“We came out in the first half and we were a little tentative. We weren’t attacking (on defense). We got them inside at halftime and tightened things up and got more aggressive. And they did a great job in the second half.”
The Wolves outgained Eldorado on the ground 169-57 after halftime.
Quarterback Robby Faiman rushed for 99 yards and a score and passed for 49 yards to lead the Wolves.
Faiman scored on a 5-yard scamper through the middle of the line, capping a nine-play, 75-yard drive by Basic (2-0) to start the third quarter that extended the Wolves lead to 21-13 and set the tone for the half.
Basic finished with 282 rushing yards.
“We had really good down blocking on our counters, and anytime you have a good running game you have to congratulate the O-line,” Faiman said. “We didn’t really come out to play to start the game. I expected we would score a few more points, but we had some rough patches.”
The rough patches included a pair of long touchdown runs for Basic that were nullified by penalties and an interception by Faiman in the second half.
Charles Phillips finished with 71 rushing yards on 10 carries for the Wolves. Martel Walker added a 1-yard scoring run for Basic with 2:48 left in the third quarter to give the Wolves a two-score lead.
“We kept them off balance. We did a lot of different things running and passing inside and outside,” said Cahill.
Though Basic dominated the second half, the two teams played even in the first half as Eldorado’s JaQuorrey Williams and Basic’s Anthany Lessier each had a pair of touchdown plays.
Williams found Charles White with a 26-yard pass in the right corner of the end zone to cap the opening drive for the Sundevils (0-2). Lessier countered eight plays later for the Wolves, rushing to a score on a 6-yard sweep to tie it 7-7.
Williams then capped a 13-play, 73-yard Eldorado drive, scoring on a 5-yard keeper to put Eldorado back in front 13-7 with 10:50 left in the second half.
But Basic’s Omar Valenzuela blocked the extra point try by Eldorado, and that allowed Lessier gave the Wolves their first lead, 14-13, with a 12-yard sweep to the right with 7:58 left before halftime.
DeAndre Smith led Eldorado with 90 yards rushing on 18 carries. Williams passed for 72 and rushed for 40 for the Sundevils.
Cahill said his team will continue to focus on starting strong in games, though the team has started the season with a pair of wins.
“We have to get rid of those little penalties. We lost two 70-yard touchdown runs off of penalties. We have one more week to tighten those things up and then division starts,” said Cahill. “You can’t beat starting 2-0. I think we played much better today than wee did last week. So that’s positive. As long as we keep getting better, that is our goal.”