Newman in total control to beat Bureau Valley

MANLIUS – On a week before playing in big games against unbeaten conference teams, both the Newman Comets and Bureau Valley Storm looked to go into next week with plenty of momentum.

The Comets did just that Friday night in a 27-0 win over the Storm in a Three Rivers Mississippi game.

Newman 3-2 (2-0, TRAC Mississippi) now has a ‘W’-shaped season of ups and downs, with yet another win after losing a week before. Despite a couple of fumbles lost in the first half, the Comets took a 14-0 halftime lead and almost doubled their point total to run away from the Storm.

Senior running back Nolan Britt and junior quarterback Carter Rude each had two touchdowns, all from less than 10 yards out, as the Comets offense outgained the Storm (1-4, 0-3) on a near 3-to-1 ratio.

“We had a great week of practice, and that was what we were really striving for,” Britt said. “In past weeks, we couldn’t put together a full week of good, hard-working practices, and that was the difference this week for us.”

Britt’s first score came with 6:42 left in the first quarter from 7 yards out, and he followed with his other one with 4:02 remaining in the half with a 5-yard run. By the half, the Comets amassed 189 yards of offense to the Storm’s 29.

“We needed effort and character to come through with our kids, and that’s something that’s started to come along,” Comets coach Mike LeMay said. “We were short on that at times, but they found a way to keep going when we made some mistakes giving the ball back to them on short fields; we bounced back from that and were able to keep going.”

Rude had both of the Comets’ second-half touchdowns, the first from 9 yards out with 9:44 left in the third quarter, and the other in the final minute of the game from 1 yard out. Rude finished with 80 yards on 16 carries, while Britt ended with 72 yards on 14 carries.

“We knew we had to put together a full quarter, a full half, and a full game,” Britt said. “Playing hard defense helped keep them off the scoreboard, while our offense was struggling a little bit before we got our rhythm.”

The Storm defense saw strong efforts from junior lineman Jon Dybek, who added three tackles for loss on top of this fumble recovery, and senior lineman Ayize Martin with two tackles for loss and a sack.

Bureau Valley now finds itself in a corner as far as playoff aspirations are concerned. Dybek and senior linebacker Mason Goossens came up with the fumble recoveries in the first half, but the Storm fell short of the red zone both times.

“We were just struggling to really move the ball,” Storm coach Mat Pistole said. “We’re not executing on a high-enough level offensively. I’ll give Newman credit, they’re just so fundamentally sound and they tackle so well that you have to be so precise in what you do.”

This is the 11th consecutive win for the Comets over the Storm, dating back to 2010. With this game out of the way, both Newman and Bureau Valley have big conference tests in Week 6. The Comets host unbeaten Princeton at Roscoe Eades Stadium in Sterling, while the Storm travel to unbeaten St. Bede.

Bureau Valley will need to win out the regular season in order to be playoff eligible; two more wins for Newman can do that for the Comets.