Boot Bowl: Burleson Centennial high school football defeats Burleson to open season

BURLESON – Burleson Centennial Coach Kyle Geller insisted his team was not intent on proving last year wasn’t a fluke.

However, his team seemed to play that way Friday night with a decisive 35-6 victory to open the season against cross-town rival Burleson in “The Battle of the Boot.”

Last season, the Spartans advanced to the regional finals in Class 5A before falling to eventual state champions, Aledo, also the only team to beat them in the regular season. It was the farthest Centennial had advanced in the playoffs in the school’s history.

“I don’t know if this game would be any great indication of any of that yet,” said Geller. “We’re a long way from where we need to be. But anytime you get a win that’s what matters most. We’ll gather up tomorrow, watch the film, make some corrections, and work on that come Monday.”

Centennial led 21-0 at halftime. The Spartans scored on their first three possessions. They took the opening kickoff and moved 62 yards in eight plays. Quarterback Iverson Moore capped the drive with an 18-yard keeper off-tackle following his running back as a lead blocker coming out of the backfield.

Their second touchdown came before the first quarter ended with a 16-yard pass from Moore to Damien Long. The junior outleaped his defender in the end zone just past the left front pylon for the scoring catch. It completed a five-play, 59-yard drive.

The third touchdown before intermission was a one-yard run by Jaxon Williams off left guard to finish an 11-play, 86-yard drive. The key play was a 32-yard pass from Cesar Beltran, alternating at quarterback with Moore, to Keilan Gregory to the Burleson 25 on third-and-seven.

Burleson started the game strong on offense on its’ first possession and again to start the second half all for naught. On the Elks’ second play from scrimmage, quarterback Caden Ward burst 36 yards to the Centennial 33. But the drive stalled there. Again on the second play to begin the second half, Fabian Bosquez rushed 25 yards to midfield. But on the next play, the running back was tackled in the backfield as he tried to secure the handoff and fumbled away for a one-yard loss.

The Spartans’ Mason Stancliff recovered the fumble. Stancliff, a senior, also had two interceptions, the second of which he returned 83 yards for the final score with 46 seconds left.

In the meantime, his first interception led to Centennial’s only other second half touchdown. A pass was deflected straight up in the air after a collision by Stancliff, a fellow defender, and the Elk reciever. Stancliff came down with it and returned it 34 yards to the Burleson one-yard line. On the next play, Keyshaun Tucker scored. It gave the Spartans a 28-0 lead midway in the third quarter.

Burleson’s only score came with 5:38 left. Jaden Flournoy rushed 18 yards to cap a seven-play, 3-yard drive.

The first-game jitters were evident in a turnover-plagued contest. Burleson was flagged 15 times for 101 yards. Twelve were false starts on the offense. Centennial accumulated 10 infractions for 82 yards.

The difference in the game, said Geller, was Burleson Centennial was “more experienced than that group over there. They played really, really hard. They never quit.”

Geller said his team returns only two players on offense and five on defense. But a lot of Friday’s starters saw quite a bit of playing time last year even though they weren’t on the first string.