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Saturday,
August 31, 2002
BHS holds off Danville
DANVILLE -- Rigo Schmelzer knows his Bloomington High School
football team has a long way to go to live up to that No. 2 state ranking
in Class 6A.
The Purple Raiders beat Danville 39-22 Friday night and for a change,
it was because of James Wade's running instead of Andre Brown's passing.
Wade rushed for 238 yards on 17 carries -- that's 14 yards a pop -- as
the No. 1 offense built a 33-0 lead before the backups collapsed in the
third quarter.
"The thing is, they (Danville) didn't give up," said
Schmelzer, who brought his No. 1 unit back on the field with two minutes
left. "The attitude's there and they're recognizing they're going to
work. But we didn't play like a team that's deserving of a ranking,
either."
With Wade racking up long runs against the Vikings defense, the
Raiders broke open a 14-0 halftime lead. Brown, who was off-target early,
threw a touchdown and fullback Damon Mehlberg scored one of his three
touchdowns in a 19-point fourth quarter.
But Danville stormed back when Chucky Green picked off a Jeremy Peden
pass and took it 75 yards for a touchdown.
Danville tacked on two more touchdowns against the Raiders' reserves.
"I felt with their number of kids going both ways that they just
might fold in the second half," Schmelzer said. "We started
putting our subs in there and they kept their varsity kids out
there."
Brown missed his first seven passes and was 6 for 21 with an
interception in the game.
"We dropped a bunch of passes," Schmelzer said. "We
made a couple of bad reads. We made a couple of bad throws. If we are to
be a good team, we have to be a team that can throw the football."
Nevertheless, Schmelzer was happy with Wade's debut.
"He runs hard, and he's a compact, physically developed
child," Schmelzer said. "I'm happy for him because this is how
a junior should start out. He should feel comfortable and confident so he
can get going for the rest of the season."
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