More from Burgard keeping its hopes alive
Burgard gave itself a chance. For 18 hours at least.
The Bulldogs contained sophomore quarterback Chris Holland Friday night at All High Stadium and emerged with a 26-6 victory over playoff-bound Grover Cleveland in the Harvard Cup.
Now comes the tougher part because Burgard does not control its own destiny.
At 4-4 in the league, the Bulldogs have to root for a Bennett victory over Lafayette today and a Riverside triumph over three-time defending champion McKinley. That would create a three-way tie for the fourth and final playoff spot among Burgard, McKinley and Bennett. Riverside, Grover and Hutch-Tech have already punched their tickets for the semifinals, Nov. 15 at All High.
"We know we need a lot of help," said Burgard coach Jason Kolb. "But we played a good game. We beat O'Hara to start the year and then we had some rough spots. But we did very well against a good football team."
Holland, who had a magnificent second half in last week's 28-26 loss to Riverside, was held to just one touchdown pass, in the fourth quarter after the Bulldogs had vaulted to a 26-0 lead.
"We told the kids the keys were to contain him [Holland], not let him scramble and not let the receivers get by the defensive backs," Kolb said. "We didn't let him get outside of us. He's very a good quarterback."
Breon Daniels was 4 of 7 for 153 yards with two touchdown passes for Burgard, Terrell Gaines had 122 receiving yards, including a 77-yard score, defensive lineman Xavier Hodge returned an interception 24 yards for a TD and made four tackles and Derrick Ramos carried 12 times for 74 yards, including a 4-yarder that opened the scoring.
---Tom Borrelli
