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WELLSBURG — No. 1 and 13-0. The Brooke football team has ridden three weeks of home cooking and a daily routine to The Island. The Bruins knocked off visiting University, 32-15, Saturday night at Brooke Memorial Stadium in the West Virginia Class AAA semifinals to earn the right to take on defending champion South Charleston at noon Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium for the state championship. “Playing at home was big,” said Bruins linebacker Kyle Sims. “It helped us out a lot.” “To earn home field advantage throughout the playoffs is big,” said first-year Brooke mentor Tom Bruney. “Going into this, I never thought of it that way. But, after experiencing it one time, it’s a big deal. It really does make a lot of difference because you have a routine and being as superstitious as I am, that really made it helpful. “We were able to do exactly the same thing every week.” Another thing the Bruins have done for 13 weeks now is win. “Once coach Bruney came in and we all got under control and we got on his program, I thought for sure we would go all the way,” said Brooke senior Jake Lilly. “With him as a coach leading us, guiding us, I knew he would lead us this far.” “Coach just told us that no one could beat us and we believed him,” said junior Tripper Narigon. “This ride has been amazing.” “The first day coach Bruney walked in the doors and we had a meeting and he said ‘there’s no one on our schedule that we can’t beat,’ ” said running back Ryan Lazear. “After that first game in Parkersburg(a 43-42 win) that we won, now we don’t know how to lose,” said Sims. Just like in last week’s win over Ripley, the hosts jumped out of the blocks early and quickly. “The first quarter we were up 20-0 and that was big,” said DiNardo. “Getting up early meant everything,” said Lilly. “We knew if we punched them in the mouth from the start things would be a little bit easier for us and that’s how it went.” Brooke scored on its opening possession when Lazear went in from the 8. And, less than a minute later after the Bruins recovered a fumble, senior quarterback Cotey Wallace teamed up with DiNardo on a 52-yard scoring strike for a 14-0 lead less than four minutes into the game. Wallace and DiNardo hooked up again, this time from 25-yards out on fourth down for the 20-0 cushion. University scored to make it 20-7 and that’s the way it stood at halftime. “We don’t worry, we bend but we don’t break,” Sims said of Brooke’s defense. The Hawks got the ball to start the third quarter and coughed it up again. Wallace found DiNardo on a 30-yard scoring strike on the next play to make it 26-7 and the Bruins cruised from there. Bruney and the coaching staff had preached all week that this was not the same University team that Brooke had beaten 217-0 on Oct. 9. The offense was new, the Hawks were riding two playoff wins on the road and the constant rain on a slick field would pave way to dry, but colder air. “Everything that we do starts at practice,” said DiNardo. “We beat them once, but it’s a different team every time you play them. They got better as we got better.” “We heard it all week how they were a new team and how they have gotten better since the last time we played them,” said Lazear. “It was just like playing a different team,” said Lilly. “They didn’t do anything like they did before.” “All week coach kept telling us they were a whole new team,” said Narigon. “They put in a new offense and we had to stop that one. We worked hard in practice, studied and did what the coaches told us to do.” Linebacker Mike Koscevic, along with Sims and Lilly, are the defensive leaders. Koscevic said Brooke’s defense has steadily gotten better since that win over Parkersburg. “A whole new system came in this year and we just kept learning the system, reading our keys,” he said. “Myself, Sims and Lilly are the leaders and we said we have to step it up and win. “We kept practicing hard and pushing and it has paid off. Now, we have one more to go. “Last year we were 3-7 and when coach Bruney came in he said we would go 10-0. When you get beat, you get beat by yourself and we haven’t done that.” Koscevic said the defense has a short memory. “We forget each play and go on,” he said. “The play is in the past and we look to the future.” (Mathison can be contacted at mmathison@heraldstaronline.com)

 

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