Basic’s football team struggled to a dismal 0-10 season last fall, so any victories this season leave the Wolves feeling pretty good.
Beating your arch rival in the annual Henderson Bowl — that’s extra special.
Andrew Rodriguez passed for 141 yards and a touchdown, and Dominic Fredrickson rumbled for 77 yards as Basic defeated visiting Green Valley 21-12 on Friday.
“This is the game of games, just because of the rivalry,” said Rodriguez, who completed 10-of-20 passes. “It feels good to have our home crowd, winning at home and taking it from Green Valley.”
Basic (2-1) jumped out to a 14-0 halftime advantage, but Green Valley made things interesting in the second half, capitalizing on a turnover and scoring on special teams.
Green Valley (1-1) got a 19-yard TD pass from Michael Lewis to Boden Hackenbruck after a Basic fumble to cut the lead to 14-6 with 5:45 to go in the third quarter.
The Gators then forced a punt, and Hackenbruck came up with a big play again. He fielded the punt on a bounce at the 20, spun off a tackler before midfield and raced down the right sideline for an 80-yard scoring return that cut the lead to 14-12 with 5:01 left in the third quarter.
With the Wolves struggling to move the ball, Rodriguez came up with some key plays with his legs, rushing for a pair of third-down conversions and keeping a drive alive. He then found a wide-open Shane Moulding down the left sideline for a 43-yard gain that set up a 3-yard TD run by Carl Napoleon that closed out the scoring.
“In the second half our offense was really sputtering, and Andrew, our quarterback, took over,” Basic coach Jeff Cahill said. “He started running the ball, hit that big pass down there and that was the difference.”
Fredrickson put the Wolves on the board early, scoring on a 1-yard plunge with 11:10 to go in the first half.
Basic extended its lead when Rodriguez zipped a pass to Rylee McCarty, who turned it up field to complete a 32-yard scoring play, making it 14-0 with 1:36 left in the quarter.
“It’s real sweet, real sweet,” said Cahill, whose team had dropped the last two Henderson Bowl games by a total of three points. “We came out and we played really well in the first half.
“Second half, they played really well and we had some problems. But I love the way our kids bounced back when the game got close.”
Fredrickson carried the load on the team’s final drive, rushing seven times for 34 yards as Basic was able to run the final 6:26 off the clock.
Rodriguez added 32 rushing yards on 13 carries, and Louden Cahill had six catches for 57 yards for Basic.
Sonny Uranich rushed for 131 yards on 13 carries to lead Green Valley. Lewis completed 13 of 29 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown, and Hackenbruck intercepted a pass for the Gators.
Green Valley struggled with penalties all night, finishing with 145 penalty yards. Basic was penalized for 57 yards.
“We knew we were going to fight adversity in this game, but we were resilient,” Rodriguez said. “We were ready for anything that they were going to throw at us.”
