RENSSELAER | Rensselaer defensive lineman Luke Robertson extended his hand and helped Bowman Academy's quarterback Antonio Pipkin off the Harrison Field turf after one of four sacks Friday night.
The Bombers weren’t as courteous as Robertson on offense, shredding the Eagle defense for 382 yards in a 56-6 victory in a second round Class 2A Sectional 25 game.
“They’re fast, and it took us a little while to adjust defensively, but offensively I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage,” said Rensselaer senior Hunter Hickman, who passed for 100 yards and 3 touchdowns and ran for another 48 yards. “Our offensive line did a great job. On one of the touchdown passes I had six or seven seconds to throw the ball.
“That doesn’t happen very often and when you do, you see the results. We ran hard and had good routes.”
Rensselaer (6-5) advances to next week’s sectional championship game at Andrean.
“We’ll take it week by week,” said running back Brad Boget, who rushed for 106 yards.
The Bombers scored three touchdowns in the third quarter for a 49-6 lead, while continuing to harass Pipkin and the Eagle (6-5) offense. Rensselaer finished with nine sacks in the game.
Four of the sacks impacted Pipkin, who threw for 148 yards in the first half but had just the one score to show for his efforts totaling 63 negative yards.
Rensselaer got on the board first with a 1-yard plunge by Rylan Arihood before Bowman struck right back on the next play from scrimmage.
Pipkin found Jalen Knight down the right sideline for an 80-yard scoring pass just 16 seconds later. It pulled the Eagles to 7-6.
Rensselaer put three more touchdowns on the board to take control of the game.
Hickman hooked up with sophomore Ab Kiger on a 16-yard pass to put the Bombers on top to stay at 14-6 with 1:05 left in the first quarter.
On the Rensselaer’s next possession Boget broke off a 36-yard run over the left side for a 21-6 lead. After Bowman turned the ball over on downs near midfield, the Bombers went to work again.
Arihood capped a quick 7-play drive with a 5-yard run and a 28-6 advantage just before the half.
“That just killed us,” Bowman coach Rob Gross said. “We practice hard, and we’ve been out here since June. We never gave up, but we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit too much.
“But they tried. They gave a 100 percent effort the whole time, and I’m proud of them.”
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