Braves fall to Morris Area, 41-21
The Benson football team played with the visiting Morris Area Tigers for one half, Friday night on Brock Field, but the Tigers proved to be too much in the second half, outscoring the Braves 20-6 to earn a 41-21 victory.
Benson, which pulled to within 21-15 with a touchdown late in the first half, lost its top defensive player for the second half due to an injury. Brett Sulier, who also starts at fullback, did not play the second half due to a hand injury. His status for this Friday night was not known by presstime.
“We assessed the situation at halftime and in the best interest of the player and to not risk further injury, I opted to sit the player out the second half,” Benson head coach Scott Gonnerman said. “We all want to win in the worst way, but I will always take and put the care and health of our players first.
“Our players’ heads were down a little bit after knowing one of their teammates wouldn’t be playing the second half, but some of the younger players stepped up in the second half and got some very good experience against a very good football team. I was pleased with our never-give-up attitude.”
Without him in the game, Morris Area scored on its first three possessions of the second half to go up 41-15 and Benson would add a touchdown later in the game to close out the scoring.
This week, the Braves are set to travel to BOLD to face the 3-0 Warriors at 7 p.m., Friday in Olivia.
“BOLD is a very good football team and has a similar style to Morris; running the football,” Gonnerman said. “The difference between them is that BOLD returns some big, quality guys on the line, and BOLD also has two freshman in the backfield.
“We’ll have opportunities to move the football and control the game. We need to execute and sustain our blocks longer in order to give our runningbacks time to get through the hole. We’ll also need to be better tacklers this week vs. BOLD.”
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Pictured: Layton Connelly (10) uses a block from Brett Sulier (behind Connelly) and others to pick up some yardage during Friday’s loss to Morris Area. In the background are Cole Vergin (77) and Zack Sonnabend (52).
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