Slow start dooms Bureau Valley in loss at Kewanee

KEWANEE — Bureau Valley coach Mat Pistole took the blame Friday.

Pistole said he didn’t have his team prepared well enough, and the Storm struggled early.

Bureau Valley had three punts and a fumble on its first four drives, while the Boilermakers scored on their first four drives to build a 26-point lead en route to a 40-7 victory in a Three Rivers Conference Mississippi Division game.

“I didn’t have them ready to go,” Pistole said. “This one’s one me. We didn’t have a very good game plan offensively. [Kewanee coach Brad] Swanson and [assistant] coach [Blake] VonHolton did a really good job, and we just didn’t have a good plan, and we didn’t execute very well offensively.

“When you turn the ball over and they’re faster than us, that’s what’s going to happen.”

The Storm (1-3, 0-2 TRC Mississippi) went three-and-out on each of their first two drives. Each time, the Boilermakers (2-2, 1-1) scored quickly.

Kewanee’s Garret Pettit scored on a 5-yard run on the Boilermakers’ fourth offensive play, and after BV’s second three-and-out, Pettit broke free for a 42-yard TD run on Kewanee’s third play.

It got worse for the Storm, as a fumble ended their first promising drive that went 50 yards on five plays. Kewanee converted the turnover into points, as Alex Duarte scored on a 1-yard run to extend the Boilermakers’ lead to 20-0.

After another BV punt, Duarte scored on another 1-yard run — this time on fourth down — to put Kewanee ahead 26-0.

“We’ve seemed to made a habit of [getting down early] the past few weeks,” Pistole said. “We have to find a way to start the game a lot more in-tune and fundamentally sound.”

Bureau Valley buckled down on defense and stopped Kewanee’s next four drives.

“We just made a little schematic change, and we moved some kid around,” Pistole said. “Easy [Ayize] Martin is a first-team all-conference player, and the kid behind him, Connor Scott, is really good as well. We just put them right over the ball, and the way Kewanee was blocking, we felt they could do some things, and they did, and that affected them. We have to find a way to be better in the secondary though to cover broken plays.”

The Storm got on the board when quarterback Bryce Helms rolled to his right in his own end zone and found Eli Attig, who caught the ball, beat two defenders and raced 96 yards for a TD with 3:43 left in the third to make it 26-7.

Kewanee immediately took the momentum back, though, as Duarte broke free for a 60-yard TD run on Kewanee’s first play of the ensuing drive.

After a Storm interception, the Boilermakers scored one more time on a 5-yard pass from Brady Clark to Duarte with 11:10 left.

Bureau Valley threw another interception, and the Boilermakers ran out the final 5:55.

The Storm play Newman (2-2) next week for homecoming, while Kewanee travels to Princeton (4-0).