Gridders take it on the chin, 42-14

Once again, the Bainbridge Spartan football team held its opponent scoreless in the second half.

Unfortunately, the Spartans forgot to stop them in the first half, as Bishop Blanchet scored six touchdowns before the break en route to a 42-14 victory over the Spartans Saturday afternoon at Blanchet High.

“We did not play well,” head coach Andy Grimm said. “Credit to them in that they came out and jumped us from the get-go from the opening kickoff. For some reason we came out flat.

“There’s no question on effort on our part. I thought the kids played hard but we did not respond very well. The first two quarters we played like we were three steps behind.”

The story lies in the unsexiest stat of them all: turnovers. Bainbridge fumbled the ball six times, four of which they lost, and Spartans quarterbacks Cameron Johnson and Quinton Agosta combined for three picks.

“They capitalized on those turnovers,” Grimm said. “It wasn’t like you could get away with them like you could with a lesser team. They just scored on ’em right away. You’re not going to beat anybody with seven turnovers. I don’t care how weak that opponent is.”

Braves quarterback Tommy Eulberg threw just eight passes but completed six of them for 188 yards and five touchdowns, four of which were to wide receiver Mike Douthit while the other score was done by Alfy Anderson.

Bainbridge got the running game back on track, but it was mostly without Carter Williams, who was still suffering from the high ankle sprain. He had just 16 yards on six carries and did not play at all in the second half.

Nick Stone and Max Kauffman had most of the 191 yards the Spartans gained on the ground. Kauffman had 77 yards, while Stone had 73 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Dane Hiett had Bainbridge’s only other touchdown, a 3-yard scamper in the fourth quarter.

Grimm said it was hard for his squad to respond when they were down by so much early.

“We had to dig out of a big hole, and with the matchups we have, we’re not going to be a team that comes from behind,” he said. “We need to control the clock and have seven or eight play drives. If we don’t do that, then we’re in trouble. It’s unfortunate, because I thought we had a chance to take care of business.”

Defensively, Kyle Petheram led the team with 16 tackles, 10 of which were solo stops. Jake Hinton had 11 tackles (seven solo) while Brian Gilbreath had 10 tackles (six unassisted). Fiore Alialima had two tackles and a sack and Cameron Johnson had five tackles and a fumble recovery.

With two games left, Bainbridge (1-2, 4-3) will have to play for pride for the next three games, as co-Mountain Division leader Eastside Catholic comes to Memorial Stadium this Friday night.

“They’re a good team,” Grimm said. “They got an All-State kid at wide receiver that plays free safety (Jason Butler). Their offense runs through him, so defensively we’ll set up to focus on him.

“As far as state playoffs, that’s off the table. I always look at how kids react in trying to find the character of your team. How are you going to react to this? Are you going to bomb the rest of the season because you didn’t meet one of your season goals, or are you going to take it to Eastside this week?”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.