Van Buren plays it down middle
VAN BUREN — The Van Buren Pointers found the middle to their liking Friday night.
Junior receiver Malachi Henry turned two passes into long touchdown plays to propel Van Buren to a 3120 win over Alma in the Battle of the Bone at Citizens Bank Stadium at Blakemore Field.
Van Buren (2-0) won for the fourth straight year over the Airedales (0-1).
Van Buren scored two plays into the game with Henry snaring a pass across the middle from quarterback Bryce Perkins with three Airedales in coverage, breaking away and sprinting to a 70-yard touchdown just 46 seconds into the Pointers’ home opener.
In the second quarter, with the Pointers backed up on their own 3, Henry broke across the middle, again snared a pass from Perkins and sprinted away to complete a 97-yard touchdown for a 21-6 lead with 8:37 left before the half.
“I knew I was one-on-one, the safety, we were reading him,” Henry said. “He went down, and Bryce delivered it. It was a perfect pass, and knew I had to get as much as I can. Then I was in the end zone.”
Henry and Perkins thought the middle might be there for the Pointers to exploit.
“For sure,” Henry said. “It was in the game plan. Bryce was back there and had just enough time. He was throwing dimes the whole night. I was just doing my part to make it happen.”
Henry ended with seven catches for 260 yards.
“They ran more of a cover-4 look so they were leaving the middle open,” Perkins said. “Malachi being the dude he is, he’s going to go up and get it no matter where it is. We throw it to him wherever, and he’s going to come down with it. It was something that we liked.”
Perkins completed 12 of 20 passes for 333 yards and also threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Hammond.
“With the way coverage was with what they were doing to a lot of our two-receiver sets, it allowed us to create some rub routes and exploit the middle of the field,” Van Buren Coach Crosby Tuck said. “We tried to take advantage of it as much as we could in the right moments.”
Van Buren padded its early lead to 14-0 on its second series, going 12 plays and converting a pair of third downs before Jacob Gavelis took the direct snap and scored from 8 yards out with 1:50 left in the first quarter.
Alma answered on the first play after the ensuing kickoff when quarterback Joe Trusty hit speedster Conner Stacy down the right side for a 76-yard touchdown. Houston’s pass on the two-point try failed, leaving Van Buren’s lead at 14-6.
Henry scored on the long touchdown pass for the 21-6 cushion, and after forcing a punt, the Pointers took a 24-6 lead at the half on a 24-yard field goal by Robbie Umanzor with 29 seconds left.
Stacy stopped Van Buren’s first drive of the second half with an interception, and the Airedales pieced together a 14-play drive with Reagan Birchfield scoring on a 3-yard run behind center Zane Hurlburt. Stacy gathered Trusty’s pass to convert the two-point attempt and cut Van Buren’s lead to 24-14 with 11:26 left.
Alma forced a punt on Van Buren’s next series, but Van Buren lineman Dakota Lowry blocked a punt on Alma’s next possession.
The Pointers turned Alma’s miscue into their final score on Perkins’ pass to Hammond with 5:23 left.
Birchfield added Alma’s final score on a 2-yard run with 3:39 left.
Trusty finished 16-of-27 passing for Alma for 217 yards. Stacy caught seven passes for 160 yards.