ROTA, Spain — The long layoff didn’t hurt London
Central in Friday night’s 31-14 victory over Rota in
Division III-North high school football.
It might have helped.
The Bobcats had not played for nearly three weeks,
but they showed little rust. Two weeks ago, the team
canceled its home game against Brussels because it could
not get officials. Last week, it collected a forfeit
from Menwith Hill, which suspended its football
program.
“It was good for our guys to get back on the field,”
London Central head coach Fredo Ontiveros said. “We put
in a lot of strong work the past three weeks.”
It showed.
Junior running back Daniel Coleman led the Bobcats
with 18 carries for 217 yards behind the blocking of
fullback Sean Daly.
Senior quarterback Michael Clark was sharp,
completing 10 of 16 passes for 169 yards. Clark also ran
eight times for 54 yards, scoring three touchdowns.
Clark scored his first TD on a keeper around the
right side with 5:15 left in the first half.
Rota defensive back Frankie Rodriguez rushed to the
goal line to make the stop, but Clark lowered his
shoulder and delivered a crushing blow that popped off
Rodriguez’s helmet. Clark plowed into the end zone for
the score, giving the Bobcats a 12-0 lead.
They would never trail.
In the third quarter, Clark scored after nearly
getting sacked. On third and 11 with 2:40 left, he
scrambled down the left side, broke a tackle and dove
into the end zone for a 14-yard TD and an 18-0 lead.
The Admirals — playing without five of their starters
— struggled most of the game on offense. Six players
were suspended for stealing seatbelts and life vests
from an Iberia flight last weekend from Brussels. They
were seen wearing the safety equipment in school the
week prior to Friday’s homecoming game.
Rota junior Andre Ausmer led the way for the
Admirals. He scored two touchdowns in the second half,
including a 95-yard run late in the fourth quarter.
Both teams agreed to call the game with 28 seconds
left after London Central fullback Daly went down with
an injured neck. After a 30-minute delay, an ambulance
took him to the base hospital for X-rays. No further
information was available at presstime.
Aviano 12, Vicenza 7
VICENZA, Italy — Kevin Cardoza
crashed over from the 3-yard line with four minutes
remaining Friday night to boost the Saints over the
Cougars in a III-Italy game.
After Spencer Harris had run 41 yards to put Aviano
up 6-0 in the first quarter, Vicenza answered with a
three-yard TD run by Jeff Hoey. The Cougars then took
the lead on Sean Penhallegon’s PAT kick, a lead that
held up until the fourth-quarter score.
Aviano’s victory left all three Division III-Italy
teams tied with 1-1 conference marks. The Saints are 1-2
overall and host Sigonella Saturday.
Vicenza (1-3) has the week off before playing at
Aviano on Oct. 12 and at Sigonella on Oct. 19.
Baumholder 34, Hohenfels 22
HOHENFELS, Germany — Quarterback Matt
Calabria and running backs Desmond Isadore and Olando
Square led unbeaten Baumholder to victory Friday in the
the first of two likely elimination games it will face
in quest of the III-South title.
Calabria, a senior, completed seven of 14 passes for
114 yards and two TDs, one of them a 12-yard scoring
pass to Josh Holman.
Square had six receptions, one for a 20-yard
touchdown, rushed seven times for 81 yards and returned
a punt 41 yards for a TD.
Isadore ran the ball 22 times for 143 yards, two
touchdowns and a two-point conversion.
Hohenfels had TDs from Josh Rivera, Patrick Davis and
an 80-yard kickoff return by Perry Helton.
The Bucs (4-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference) host
unbeaten Ansbach on Friday in the second of the
conference elimination showdowns. Should they win that
game, they will need a victory at Bamberg on Oct. 19 to
move into the European Division III semifinals against
the III-North champion.
Bamberg 14, Giessen 12
GIESSEN, Germany — Bamberg took a
14-0 lead and held on for the Division III-South
victory.
Bamberg scored on TD runs of 21 and 14 yards by
Darryl Wiley and Matt Russell’s decisive two-point
conversion run, before Giessen mounted a comeback on
Michael Moore’s 64-yard burst to pay dirt with 3:33 left
in the third quarter and Michael Krabbe’s 60-yard TD
pass to Jerrell Connerly with 4:48 to play.
Moore then fell on a Bamberg fumble at midfield to
give the Griffins life with three minutes left, but
Bamberg stopped the drive on the final play of the
game.
Bamberg (2-1 overall and 1-1 in III-South) travels to
London Central on Saturday. Giessen (1-3, 0-2) hosts
Hohenfels on Saturday.
Brussels 42, Sigonella 0
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Andrew Isbell ran
for 198 yards, two touchdowns and a two-point conversion
Saturday as the unbeaten Brigands blanked Sigonella in a
nonconference game.
Isbel scored on runs of 23 and 42 yards, the second
one the game-ender with 2:20 remaining because of the
40-point mercy rule.
Kyle Cox also rushed for a pair of TDs. His first, a
45-yarder, gave Brussels a 22-0 halftime edge; the
second was a 12-yard dash in the third period.
Lonnie Ruffin opened the scoring in the first quarter
when he hauled in a 19-yard TD pass from Kevin
Nicholson. Marc Silos ran five yards for another
first-half score for Brussels, which had a pair of
safeties on coming from sacks in the end zone by Travis
Keeton and Yuriy Moskvitin.
Sigonella’s Shawn Crawford, who gained nearly 300
yards the previous week, was held to 77 yards rushing by
Brussels. Sean Gilbert led the Sigonella defense with 11
tackles, one of them a sack.
Rusty Bryan contributed to this
report.
