After nearly nine minutes of suspense on Homecoming night at Kelly Field, the Banks Braves scored.
And scored. And scored. And scored.
The Braves, now 4-0, have outscored their opponents 180-105 this season. They beat the Taft Tigers 42-14 on Friday night. Head coach Ben Buchanan used a combination of defense, special teams and Junior Jim Criswell to get the final “pre-season” win.
Criswell scored on a punt return and had two touchdown receptions.
“It was fun,” he said. “On the punt return we set up a swing gate so we had a lot of the blockers set up along the sideline so it’s a lot of the blockers that I owe it to.”
Criswell plays all sides of the ball and finished the night with six catches for 66 yards, three punt returns for 77 yards, three total touchdowns and had a touchdown saving tackle late in the third quarter, to boot.
Banks is going to need great play from Jim Criswell and his brother, senior John Criswell to make another run at the playoffs. The team’s first test will be against Astoria this Friday.
“We’d love to get back [to the playoffs], but league play is a lot different than non-league,” Buchanon said. “[A game like this] doesn’t help us against Astoria, they aren’t a big team, but they are very fast.”
Taft seemed to be built on size and not speed. The Tigers used long methodical drives in comparison to the Braves quick-strike scoring.
“We rely on speed, quickness and being saavy,” Buchanon said.
Senior running back Chris DeCarlo got the scoring started with a touchdown run in the first quarter. It would only take another three minutes until Banks struck again – with 11:42 to play in the first half, this time it was on the 37-yard punt return by Jim Criswell.
“I like special teams,” Criswell said. “I feel like I do better when the plays are broken down and I’ve got my teammates around me to set blocks.”
Two-minutes later, brother John Criswell was in the endzone on a quarterback keeper. Banks recovered the ensuing onside kick and after a late hit by Taft put the Braves on the 10-yard line, Jim Criswell caught a touchdown pass to pull the lead to 28-0.
“It was kind of a slow start, Buchanon said. “Taft came out with the mindset of stopping the run. They played big upfront. But they loaded up the box so much it allowed us to get the ball to our skills guys and really execute on the perimeter.”
Just before halftime, Taft seemed to get a drive going but after a 33-yard pass from senior John Wilkinson to senior Thomas Lovejoy set the tigers up at midfield, the drive stalled. Banks blocked the ensuing Taft punt and four plays later Jim Criswell was back in the endzone.
The teams went into half with Banks leading 35-0.
Taft responded in the second half and took their methodical offense down to the doorstep of the endzone with short pases and a hard-nosed running game. But an errant Taft throw landed in the arms of Banks senior Devin Dreyer and ended the drive.
On the next play, John Criswell threw a swing pass to backup running back Chris DeCarlo. He zigged and zagged his way 95-yards for the score. After a Taft fumble on the kick, DeCarlo would get hurt on the next offensive play for the Braves and come out to get his ankle taped.
Taft finally got on the board with 50-seconds to go in the third quarter when Wilkinson ran past three Banks defenders into the endzone. That made the score 42-7. Taft wouldn’t score again until 5.2 seconds left in the game after another long drive to put the score at 42-14.
“The kids really stepped up to the challenge this week.” Buchanon said. “I’m pretty proud of them.”
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