Burr Oak’s football team is on a historic run after dismantling Litchfield on the road 72-0 Friday night in Southern Michigan 8-Man Football League play. For the first times since 2006, the Bobcats have won three consecutive games. Not since 1988 (did not field a program from 1991-2002) has Burr Oak started a season 3-0.
With each passing week, head coach Ryan Stephens and Co. keep ringing that victory bell in town. Fortunately for the village’s residents, there isn’t a toll for each point scored.
See full box score here.
Three players passed the century mark in rushing, with quarterback James Saylor leading the way with 12 carries for 181 yards and four touchdowns. Chantz Owens put up 122 yards and a score on six takes and Alex Munoz recorded 110 yards on seven rushes.
Saylor also competed all five of his passing attempts for 28 yards and a pair of TDs.
“We had a really good night,” Stephens said. “We didn’t try to run up the score too much. We only passed five times. I put my second- and third-string kids in and we ended up scoring a few touchdowns in the second half. We had over 500 rushing yards. [Saylor] probably was the player of the game in my mind. He made some awesome reads and is really maturing. He had four rushing touchdowns himself — a few off a couple options he kept. He was a playmaker tonight and did an excellent job making reads and keeping the ball when he should have.”
Defensively, Brent Everitt finished with 10 tackles, two forced fumbles and two sacks. Owens notched seven stops, Alex Munoz had tackles and two forced fumbles and Hunter Dobberteen ended the night with five tackles.
“This was a fine-tuning night for us for St. Philip next week, which is 3-0, and the following week against [Portland] St. Patrick, which is also undefeated,” Stephens said. “We knew Litchfield wasn’t going to be a real good team, but we needed to clean up our offense with our tempo and timing and our snaps, which we struggled with against Waldron. Our offense definitely did that.
“I think we’ll be ready for St. Philip after this performance. I’m real proud of my boys. Confidence is building by the week, as well as the leadership is developing. That’s something I like to see and something we didn’t have last year.”