PERRY TOWNSHIP —
Perry senior quarterback Cale Burdyshaw has played a lot of football in his career.
In one half of football Friday night at Alumni Stadium, he did something he had never done before.
Burdyshaw rushed for a touchdown, threw for one, and caught yet another as he helped lead the Pirates to a 46-12 victory over Harvey.
In all, Burdyshaw had 89 yards rushing (12 carries) to go along with 125 yards passing. He alone accounted for 12 first downs in the game.
It was enough to give Harvey coach Michael Tucci fits preparing for it.
“It’s incredibly hard (to prepare for him),” Tucci said. “He’s a heck of a football player. He can throw, he can run. He’s big. It’s hard to replicate that in practice with your scout team.”
The way Burdyshaw scored the first of his three touchdowns was probably something that the Red Raiders didn’t even prepare for. With the Pirates leading, 7-6, midway through the opening quarter, the 6-foot-4 Pirate quarterback turned receiver.
He caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from sophomore backup quarterback Michael Sorine to give the Pirates a 13-6 lead near the end of the first quarter.
He followed it up by taking snaps from center and accounting for 53 total yards on Perry’s next drive, capping it with a 21-yard touchdown pass to junior Shane Raddatz in the back of the end zone.
Then, after taking advantage of a zero-yard punt by the Red Raiders on the ensuing drive, Burdyshaw finished another scoring drive with a 13-yard run with two minutes remaining in the half.
“Cale’s done a real nice job for us this year,” Perry coach Matt Rosati praised. “He’s shown some real toughness and some good leadership skills for us. We are very proud of his efforts.”
His first half efforts weren’t done. While he didn’t get credit for the touchdown on the final play of the half, he started it by finding classmate Ryan Bellissimo on a 17-yard strike over the middle. Belissimo, who was hit hard and injured on the play, lateraled the ball to junior Zak Hurd, who took it the remaining 12 yards to give the Pirates a 32-6 lead and complete control of the game heading into half.
“That’s a play we’ve had in our playbook since the first day we put it in during two-a-days,” Burdyshaw said. “We knew that was a play we could go to at the end of the half when we needed it.”
Perry didn’t need much more, as a young Harvey team had difficulty moving the ball. The stingy Pirates’ defense, which started several freshmen and sophomores themselves, held the visitors to just 61 yards of offense in the opening half. That included an incredible 69-yard catch and run by Red Raider junior Lavell Morgan (from quarterback Jalen Powell), that set up Harvey’s only first-half score. The Red Raiders did not get a first down on the ground until early in the third quarter.
Harvey did move the ball better in the second half, including putting together a 69-yard touchdown drive in its final possession (11-yard run by Powell). It was something that encouraged Tucci.
“We had a couple guys who really stepped it up tonight,” Tucci said of his young and winless squad (0-6, 0-3 in Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division). “We’ve been trying to encourage all of them all year that you have to step up your game. Every week I think we are getting a little more of that. It’s just tough when you have sophomores out there. We only have a couple of seniors out there playing for us. It’s just hard.”
Perry (3-3, 2-1) also got a boost by the return of tailback Mason Martin. Seeing his first action since getting injured in the first quarter of the opening game against Riverside, Martin rushed for 76 yards on 7 carries (1 touchdown) and displayed his speed when he caught a pass and burst for 29 yards.
“Mason is a real weapon,” Rosati said. “We’ve been waiting for Mason, waiting for Mason. He adds a whole new dimension to our offense. He’s got a burst. We’re real excited to have Mason ready to go.”
Negin is a freelance writer from Madison.
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