Aaron McAllister ignites Basic in Henderson Bowl win
Basic’s high-powered passing attack didn’t look very impressive in the first half on Friday night against Green Valley.
It only took one play for the Wolves to change that.
Aaron McAllister hit DeShawn Eagles with a 79-yard touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage in the second half to ignite Basic’s offense, and the Wolves rolled to a 35-7 home win over the Gators in the annual Henderson Bowl rivalry game.
“It got the crowd alive, it got our team alive and after that, it just started rolling,” McAllister said. “Everything started clicking for us.”
It was the first of three second-half TD passes for McAllister, who passed for 200 yards in the second half.
“They were doing a great job of taking away the things we do well,” Basic coach Jeff Cahill said. “We just decided if they were going to press us, we’re going to take a couple shots and see if our guys can make plays. And both DeShawn and (Frank) Harris ended up doing that.”
The 6-foot-4-inch Eagles won a jump ball over 5-8 Green Valley defensive back Antoin Kealoha near midfield, then sidestepped a defender and raced to the end zone to give the fifth-ranked Wolves (6-1, 3-0 Southeast League) a 21-0 lead with 11:38 to go in the third quarter.
Basic had only 60 yards of offense in the first half, but it didn’t matter as the defense kept Green Valley from getting anything going.
Defensive end Jacob Fulton led the charge, intercepting a pass from Kalyja Waialae and returning it 19 yards for a touchdown with 7:29 to go in the first quarter.
“When Fulton intercepted that from his defensive end spot and scored, that gave us a huge boost,” Cahill said. “I think that was the key to the game right there. That really turned everything.”
Things got tougher for Green Valley when Waialae went down with an injury after taking a big hit at the end of a 6-yard run in the second quarter. That forced running back Braxton Harms into action at quarterback, and he was intercepted three times. Waialae was later helped onto a golf cart, and didn’t return.
“It was unfortunate when he got hurt, but that really hurt them and what they wanted to do,” Cahill said. “They’re down to their third- or fourth-string guy now, and any program would be in trouble with that happening.”
Without a credible passing attack, Basic was able to key on the run and limit Green Valley’s offensive effectiveness.
The bomb to Eagles ignited the offense. McAllister added a 30-yard scoring pass to Dorian McAllister with 6:09 to go in the third quarter, then hit Harris in stride for a 45-yard TD pass to put the Wolves up 35-0 with 10:27 to go.
Eagles finished with three catches for 117 yards and also intercepted a pass, and the 6-3 Harris had three catches for 49 yards.
“It makes it so tough on the defense, because if they rotate to one side, the other guy’s by himself,” Cahill said. “And that’s what was happening. Aaron threw a couple of great balls to those two, and that really sealed the game.”
The Gators (3-4, 0-3) finally got on the board when Eric Faber scored on an 8-yard run with 1:30 to play, but it was far too late to prevent Basic from taking a second consecutive Henderson Bowl.
“It feels good. Two years in a row,” Aaron McAllister said. “We came in here overly excited and we knew what we had to execute well and that’s what we did.”
Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at 702-380-4587 or dseiters@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DamonSeiters
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