Arledge passes for 5 TDs as Burrell routs Yough

By: George Guido
Friday, September 20, 2019 | 10:49 PM

It’s fun times for Burrell under Year Two of coach Shawn Liotta’s regime.

The Bucs put together a solid effort on both sides of the ball in downing Yough, 40-6, on Friday night at Buccaneers Stadium in Class 3A Big East Conference play.

Alex Arledge passed for 379 yards and five touchdowns, and Zach Miller’s 52-yard interception return with 23 seconds to go put the Bucs at 3-2 overall, surpassing last season’s victory total.

Burrell is 2-2 in the conference. Yough fell to 1-4, 1-3.

“Our coaching staff is doing a great job getting these guys prepared each and every day,” Liotta said. “Our kids have bought in to what we’re trying to do and you can see by the way we’re playing that we’re having fun. We’re flying around and we’re a family and we’re playing well as a team.”

Burrell leads Yough, 7-2, in the all-time series that dates to 1971.

The Bucs scored the first two times they had the ball. Right after a Miller touchdown on a sweep was called back for holding, Miller caught a 19-yard pass from Arledge to begin the scoring.

A fake punt by Yough that resulted in an incomplete pass gave Burrell possession on its 42. On the sixth play of the drive, Seth Fischbach caught the first of three scores, on a 16-yard play.

Miller caught a 40-yard TD pass from Arledge with 3 minutes, 59 seconds to go in the half to put the Bucs in front, 20-0.

“We were humming on offense tonight,” Liotta said. “The defense played well, and we were able to do the things we want to do when we execute. I was very proud of all of our kids.”

Yough took the second-half kickoff and drove 61 yards for what would be its only touchdown of the night, a 3-yard keeper by Gamel Marballie.

But Burrell answered quickly, going 48 yards in three plays following Cole Clark’s recovery of an onside kick.

“You get that touchdown and you think you’re going to come out in the second half and make things happen,” Yough coach Scott Wood said. “But we just continue to make mistakes. We’re a young team. We only have two seniors starting, and that’s it. I think the future is bright for us, but we keep making mistakes.”

Fischbach finished with 204 receiving yards, and Miller caught seven passes for 122 yards. Arledge completed 19 passes, four short of the school single-game record of 23 set by James Liput in 2012.

Burrell had five different receivers catching passes, though Wood didn’t think Burrell’s offensive schemes made it difficult to prepare for.

Said Wood: “I don’t think it’s hard to prepare for them at all. It’s just when you’re young and make bad mistakes, they ran seam routes up the sidelines on us to score all their touchdowns. We beat them 35-6 last year and we mercy-ruled them. We’re young this year. That’s all it adds up to. I’ll remember them throwing the ball on us with a minute left.”

Marballie, the Cougars’ leading receiver last season, is now the quarterback. He ran for 100 yards and completed 11 passes for 78 yards.

Burrell will host Deer Lakes on Friday in what will be a matchup of top quarterbacks — Arledge and Aris Hasley of the Lancers.

Tags: Burrell, Yough