Bees strike early, outscore Wolverines 36-7
4A football clash in Idaho Falls
Two winless football teams will clash Friday, Oct. 1 when the Burley Bobcats and Wood River Wolverines clash for the first time in 11 years, on the Bobcat gridiron at 7:30 p.m.
It will be a Great Basin Conference West contest.
Wood River High School varsity football coach Dale Martin said about Burley, ?They?re a lot like us?they shoot themselves in the foot a lot. But if we go out and block and run hard we should win the football game. I think the kids will be ready to play.?
Wood River (0-4, 0-1 league) and Burley (0-4, 0-0) have similar records. The Wolverines (50 points scored, 147 against) have scored more points than Burley, while the Bobcats are a little tougher on defense (27 points scored, 110 against).
Coach Martin said, ?Burley is very big?270, 260, 250 in the line?and very slow. They don?t move too well. On offense they run the power I and throw the ball about 60% of the time. They have a very good tight end who we have to stop.?
Last Friday Burley lost on the road 20-0 to a smaller and quicker Blackfoot squad (1-3). Blackfoot returned a couple of pass interceptions for touchdowns to account for the winning scores. In its only home game to date, Burley lost to Declo 20-13 back on Sept. 10.
?Burley is a very beatable football team,? said Martin. ?We think we can run on them, and get outside on them, and we think we can throw on them. If we play like we did against Mountain Home, we?ll beat them. If we sleepwalk through the game, we won?t.?
The two teams last played a varsity grid game in Oct. 1993, host Burley winning 33-6 over a Wolverine team that included Hoss Schmidt (843 rushing yards) and Bryan Burrell.
It was Burley?s fifth straight win over Wood River by a lopsided 178-33 count. Overall, Burley leads the 11-game grid series dating back to 1982 by a margin of 9-2, outscoring Wolverine grid teams 304-79.
Wood River has lost five straight games at Burley, last winning there 8-0 in 1982. The Wolverines last beat Burley 13-8 on the Hailey gridiron in 1988.
Next home game for Wood River is Oct. 8 against Preston (2-2). Preston lost 27-13 to Pocatello last Friday and plays Century Thursday.
