BonnerSprings.com

Photo by Kevin Anderson

Jake Barren (56) and the Bonner Springs defense forced a fumble in the fourth quarter from Bishop Ward's Cole Muder.

Photo by Kevin Anderson

BSHS senior Jonathan Walker (1) tries to shake a Bishop Ward defender for a gain of yards in the fourth quarter.

Kansas City, Kan. — The next time you are talking around the water cooler and somebody suggest that kickers don't matter in football, stop them, sit them down and hand them the phone so they can call Bonner Springs High School football coach Lew Kasselman.

His kicker is the reason that the Braves started the season with a victory against Bishop Ward Friday night.

Senior kicker Chance Crawford, who had missed an extra point and a 27-yard field goal earlier in the game, lined up for a 34-yard try with 11 seconds left on the clock. His team was trailing 28-26.

Bishop Ward signaled for a timeout to ice the kicker, but it turned out that the extra time was just what Crawford needed to relax.

The snap and placement were perfect, and Crawford followed through with a kick that split the uprights to give the Braves a stunning victory, 29-28.

The Braves trailed almost every second of the game. Early in the first quarter, Braves junior quarterback Brandon Eastland dropped back to attempt the first pass of his varsity career. The Braves had committed two penalties in a row and were standing in the shadow of their own goalpost. Eastland had no doubt where he was going with the ball, unfortunately for him, the defenders had no doubt either. His pass was tipped in the air and Bishop Ward senior linebacker James Makona brought it in for the interception and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.

Trailing 7-0, the Braves mounted a 14-play drive and capped it with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Eastland to senior Luke Terrell. Crawford missed the extra point and Ward led 7-6.

Junior running back Cole Muder scored on a 1-yard run to put the Cyclones ahead 14-6 at halftime.

After Bonner started the third quarter with a three-and-out, Ward quarterback Beau Stoker hooked up with running back Jeff Keller down the sideline for a 42-yard touchdown, taking a commanding 21-6 lead.

Bonner failed to get its offense going again and pinned Bishop Ward deep in its own territory. Ward fumbled the center exchange and the Braves recovered on the 5-yard line. Eastland ran it in for a touchdown and BSHS was back within 21-14.

On the third play of the next drive Stoker found Joseph Ramirez at midfield with nothing but open field in front of him because a Bonner defender gambled for an interception. Ramirez raced into the endzone with the 70-yard reception, and stretched the lead to 28-14.

Ward had a snap go over its punter's head and through the back of the endzone for a safety. That made the score 28-16.

The comeback was on.

Bonner took the ball down field and had third-and-goal from the 15-yard line. During a timeout, however, the Braves lost a down as the referees showed it to be fourth-and-goal. The BSHS coaching staff was unaware of the mistake and kicked the field goal on what should have been third down, to make the score 28-19.

Bonner then capitalized on another Ward turnover. This time quarterback Peter McKiernan - who replaced Stoker after he was injured on defense the series before - fumbled the handoff attempt and Bonner recovered on the 10-yard line of Ward. Senior running back Garron Wayne punched in a 5-yard touchdown run with 1:50 remaining, and with Crawford's extra point, the score was 28-26.

The Cyclones quickly went three-and-out and bobbled yet another snap in the kicking game, barely getting a dreadful 12-yard punt off that sailed out of bounds.

Eastland completed two passes and moved the Braves down to the Ward 17-yard line to set up the game-winning kick by Crawford.

BSHS improved to 1-0 with the victory and will play Basehor-Linwood (1-0) next week.

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