Bluegrassrivals

Elijah Burdette had three "pick sixes" Friday, returning interceptions for a pair of 43-yard touchdowns and one of 49 yards as Bryan Station blitzed visiting Tates Creek 56-8.

The Defenders (4-1) won their third game in a row and even beat their gaudy scoring average of 45 points.

"I used to play offense all the time and then, my sophomore year, they moved me straight to defense," said Burdette, a 5-foot-10, 185-pound senior. "So I'm like 'I'm gonna have to find a way to score.' So tonight was a good night for me."

Ora Johnson passed for 94 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for 63 yards and a score.

"We started off kind of slow — a little rusty, I think, having a bye week," Coach Frank Parks said. "But we got it clicking."

Tates Creek (2-4) lost its third in a row and for the third time in four games. The Commodores lost their leading scorer, Dennis Oxendine, when he got his knees cut from under him late in the first half.

Bryan Station outgained Creek only 284 yards to 218, but Burdette's three scores and another on a blocked punt proved way too much for the Commodores to overcome.

Burdette and Austin Hendron led the Defenders with six tackles each, with the latter credited for 1.5 sacks.

Austin Yates led Creek in tackles with 3.5.

"It's a team game," Commodores Coach Mike Harmon said. "Offensively, we didn't play well. Defensively, Bryan Station played really well. And, in all honesty, defensively, until late in the game, we played really well.

"But offensively, the same story the last couple weeks. We can't be turning the ball over, let alone throwing three or four touchdowns to the defense. And special teams, we got a kick blocked for a touchdown. We just can't afford to give up those kind of points. ... We're going to get better."

Station led 28-0 at half.

The Defenders went up 6-0 when Johnson faked a handoff and ran up the middle for a 9-yard score with 4:56 left in the first quarter.

Station exploded for 22 second-quarter points, getting a 6-yard pass from Johnson to Kenyon Hipps, a 43-yard interception return by Burdette and Patrick Puckett's 2-yard return of a blocked punt.

The block came a play after Puckett was flagged for running into the kicker.

Tates Creek threatened twice in the half, turning the ball over on downs at the 34 early in the first quarter and ending the half on the Defenders' 9-yard line.

Burdette got the first two scores of the second half, returning interceptions of 49 yards with 9:12 left and 43 yards with 5:34 left in the third quarter to make it 42-0.

"We had a bye week last week, so we had two weeks to prepare," Burdette said. "The quarterback was kind of keying in on the receivers, so it was kind of easy to read where he was going, so I just kind of (zeroed) in and picked it off."

Johnson's 18-yard TD toss to Marcus Floyd with 2:26 left in the third boosted the lead to 49-0 and resulted in a running clock the rest of the night.

Backup quarterback Dallas Bruton found Floyd for an 18-yard score with 5:41 left.

The Commodores scored on the last two plays of the game — a 15-yard pass from backup quarterback Jake Ryan to Casey Grimes, plus a two-point conversion run by Grimes.

Tates Creek 0 0 0 8— 8

Bryan Station 6 22 21 7—56

BS—Ora Johnson 9 run (run failed); BS—Kenyon Hipps 6 pass from Johnson (Anthony Lopez kick); BS—Elijah Burdette 43 interception return (Curtis Sellers run); BS—Patrick Puckett 2 punt-block return (Lopez kick); BS—Burdette 49 interception return (Lopez kick); BS—Burdette 43 interception return (Lopez kick); BS—Marcus Floyd 18 pass from Johnson (Lopez kick); BS—Floyd 24 pass from Dallas Bruton (Lopez kick); TC—Casey Grimes 15 pass from Jake Ryan (Grimes run).

Records—TC: 2-4; BS: 4-1.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/09/21/23463...rylink=cpy

Commodore"s may be down, but with Coach Harmon at the helm I believe they can right the ship. Congrats to Station who deserve a great season after all the turn around at head coach.