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Backs against the wall, Holly rebounds to down Linden

Dan Stickradt | September 10, 2011 | Comments (1)

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

HOLLY — The last time Holly beat Linden in back-to-back years, some of the current players on the Bronchos football roster weren’t even born yet.

The Bronchos achieved that Friday in a key Flint Metro League football game.

Junior quarterback Johnny Williams scored both touchdowns and Holly hung on for a 17-6 victory over Eagles. The Bronchos defeated Linden last season as well.

“It’s a been a long time since we’ve beat them in back-to-back years. I’m told you have to go back to the early 90s,” offered Holly coach Ryan Culloty. “These kids are 94s and 95s.They probably weren’t around the last time we were able to beat Linden in back-to-back years. And we needed this win.”

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT: Holly celebrated Friday night, holding Linden to just 194 total yards in a 17-6 FML victory. Photo By Larry McKee | www.lmckeephotography.com

Holly dropped its season opener to Lapeer East (30-29 in overtime) and its Week 2 contest to Swartz Creek (34-27), dropping both games in the final minute. This time Holly kept the Eagles grounded.

Linden led 6-3 in the fourth quarter before the Bronchos finally got untracked. Williams scored on a 48-yard run to put Holly up for good at 10-6.

Williams later added a 4-yard plunge late in the contest to seal the lid on the coffin.

“Johnny Williams had another great game. He’s going to be a good one,” offered Culloty of his two-year starting quarterback. “He led our comeback.”

In a defensive struggle, Blake Ordiway drilled a 22-yard field goal in the first quarter. That lead stood until early in the fourth quarter, when Shaye Brown hit Kevin Baker in the end zone on a 7-yard TD pass to give the Eagles (2-1, 2-1) a 7-3 advantage.

Linden would not score again.

Shawn Scott was in on 14 tackles, Evan Papuga added 11 tackles and had an interceptions, while Ryan Houldsworth, Allan Strode and Andrew Giles all has six tackles apiece in Holly’s stingy defensive effort which limited Linden to only 194 yards of offense.

“Linden has just been an offensive jauggernaught the last several years in our league,” noted Culloty. “To hold them to only six points, one touchdown, is huge. We held them to just 10 first downs, 67 rushing yards and a little bit under 200 total yards. That doesn’t happen very often against Linden. (In the past 10 years), they’ve been the best team in this league.”

One more loss, and Holly would have kissed any thoughts of climbing back into the FML race. The Bronchos will have to win out and hopefully gain a little help from the rest of the league to gain a shot at the title in the end.

“We had to win this game. We lost our first two games, both late in the game, and the Swartz Creek loss was a game we let get away from us,” continued Culloty. “That should have never happened. The Lapeer East loss, they went for two and beat us by a point. That’s going to happen. Our backs were against the wall and our boys stepped up and responded well. They showed that we can play the type of defense necessary to win in this league.”

ALWAYS ON THE MOVE: Holly's Johnny Williams rushed for 144 yards and two scores and passed for 147 yards for good measure in leading Holly to a 17-6 triumph over Linden. Photo by Larry McKee | www.lmckeephotography.com

Austin Hopkin had three catches for 70 yards and Scott had four grabs for 50 yards for Holly. Williams rushed 25 times for 144 yards and was 11-for-15 passing for 147 yards, as the Bronchos collected 332 total yards of offense.

Brown finished 14-for-23 passing for 113 yards for Linden. Dillon Nash had five catches for 53 yards and Mitch Juhl had eight rushes for 80 yards for the Eagles.

To purchase photos from this contest, or thousands of others, visit www.lmckeephotography.com

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