The Bruins showed support of their 16 seniors by announcing them and their parents as the seniors smiled and waved to the still developing crowd. The night doubled as the team’s cancer awareness game. All players wore blue socks and the student section was a sea of the same royal color as the team had sold shirts to support cancer awareness.
The game began on time with Smith-Cotton kicking the ball off. With four minutes left to play in the first quarter, the Bruins had the ball on their own side and were driving down the field. After pushing for nearly 60 yards, senior quarterback Grant Hajicek completed a 10-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Brant Bowers to end the first quarter 7-0.
Despite the Bruins’ defense forcing Smith-Cotton to punt in the opening drive of the second quarter, Smith-Cotton’s defense stifled the Bruins’ offense resulting in a turnover. Later on, Smith-Cotton was able to take advantage of a defensive gap with seven minutes left in the second quarter to tie the game on a 34-yard touchdown run. The Bruins quickly responded scoring within the next minute, with senior running back Miles Cheatum ensuing a 61-yard drive that saw the Bruins take a 14-7 lead.
Cheatum’s drive seemed to kick the team into high gear as the Bruins scored again with just under two minutes left in the second now with a score of 21-7. Succeeding that, the Bruins recovered a Smith-Cotton fumble on the kick return, Hajicek and senior wide receiver Spencer Nivens capitalized on the error when Hajicek threw an 11-yard pass to Nivens for another touchdown, increasing the Bruins’ lead, 28-7. After a quick stop by the defense the ball was once again in the hands of the Bruins’ offensive team. With only seconds left in the second quarter Hajicek found senior wide receiver Brett Mooney in the endzone to give the Bruins a 35-7 lead going into halftime. Mooney commented on the teams game approach.
“For tonight’s game we tried to approach it as normal as possible, in order to stay as focused as possible,” Mooney said. “However, we were excited to be supporting families who have been hurt by cancer and we [were also] ready to have fun with our families before the game.”
The Bruins exploded out of halftime with the same fire they showed during the late second quarter with a quick touchdown from Hajicek to Nivens on a 42-yard play putting the Bruins ahead by seven more; the score was then 41-7 after senior place kicker Will Norris missed the extra point. The Bruins secured another touchdown minutes later in the third quarter, with Cheatum scoring his second touchdown of the game on a six-yard run. This put the Bruins up 48-7 and initiated the running clock rule which allows the game clock to run continuously, except for on penalties, should a team have a 35-point lead.
After securing a 41 point lead the coaches decided to take out the starters, including the senior players, in order to give some underclassmen varsity experience. The second string Bruins allowed two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and were unable to score, ending the score at 48-21. After two years on the team, Hajicek reflected on the program and his time there as the game clock wound down.
“It was fun to have a good win. I didn’t think it would be that sad since we still have a few games left. But it was a little bit emotional.” Hajicek said, “I’ve played with these guys for four plus years and I’m going to miss it when it’s over.”[TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery content_images=”319161,319160,319159,319158,319157″ data_grid_preloader=”-1″][/TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery]
