With his team holding a seven-point lead at halftime, Boys Town football coach Chris Nizzi reminded his players at the break they the were capable of playing much better, and in the second half, his Cowboys showed how right he was.
Class C1 No. 8 Boys Town scored a special teams touchdown to start the second half and then scored on their next three offensive possessions on the way to a 40-7 win over No. 5 Syracuse Friday night.
“The message was our greatest enemy is ourselves, so let’s go out and take care of ourselves and do what we know we’re capable of doing, and then things will turn around,” Nizzi said. “And it was that simple and it was in that tone. Our kids buy into that stuff, and they have high expectations for themselves, and they came out and changed things.”
Janard Murphy doubled the Boys Town (4-0) lead on the second-half kickoff. He picked up the Rocket squib kick at the Cowboy 21-yard line, ran up the middle to midfield and then cut to the far sideline before racing 79 yards untouched for the score. Felix Cortez followed with the extra point to push the Cowboy lead to 21-7 just 10 seconds into the second half.
“We expected that type of kick during the week, and we’ve been practicing that,” Nizzi said. “Those guys up front did a good job of helping him get some space.”
Murphy used advice from Nizzi to make the touchdown happen.
“I waited patiently,” he said. “How my coach taught me to wait patiently and just wait patiently to see the hole open, and I saw it open and I just scraped it.”
Murphy added his second score of the game the next time Boys Town had the ball. A Damont Anderson interception set up the Cowboys inside the Rocket 40. Murphy finished off the seven-play drive with a 10-yard run. He took the handoff and started to the right and then cut back to the left, beating the Syracuse defense to the corner of the end zone for a 27-7 lead.
Chase White threw his second touchdown pass of the game on the next Cowboy possession. Shawn Lewis recovered a Syracuse fumble near midfield, and three plays later, White connected with Wayne Deir for a 55-yard strike. Deir adjusted to White’s pass while he was in mid-air to come down with the ball and go into the end zone for a 33-7 lead.
White called his own number to close out the scoring early in the fourth quarter. He took a keeper 8 yards around the right side to push the Cowboy lead to 40-7.
White threw for 130 yards and two scores and ran for 24 yards a touchdown.
Boys Town has scored at least 40 points in all four of its wins to start the season, and White said the offensive line has played a big part in that.
“They’ve been creating holes in the defense, giving me time in the pocket,” he said. “So they’re the main thing that I feel like is the reason for success to this offense.”
Lewis opened the scoring late in the first quarter when he took a screen pass from White 57 yards for a touchdown.
“Isaiah (Clark) made a great block, so I just went outside,” Lewis said. “Coaches always tell me to get outside, don’t cut back in. I just did what they told me to do and hit the sideline.”
The Rockets (2-2) answered White’s touchdown with their only touchdown drive of the game. Syracuse drove 70 yards on 17 plays in just under 6 minutes of game time but more than an hour of real time as a 53-minute lightning delay halted the drive halfway through it.
Lawson Stark had a six-yard catch on fourth and four to keep the drive alive after play resumed, and Jake Jannssen scored on a quarterback sneak three plays later to tie the game at 7-all.
The Cowboys took the lead for good on the next possession. Lewis set up the offense at the Rocket 30 with a 54-yard kickoff return. Boys Town needed six plays for a touchdown, with Jalyn Conner running it in from four yards out.
“That really turned things,” Nizzi said of Lewis’ kickoff return. “We were struggling there and Shawn did a wonderful job of fielding a tough kick and then he stuck his foot in the ground and got vertical.”
The Cowboy defense limited the Rockets to 185 yards of offense and forced five Syracuse turnovers (three interceptions and two fumbles). Boys Town limited Syracuse running back Mason Lintz to nine yards on six carries.
“The guys up front did a tremendous job of stuffing the line of scrimmage,” Nizzi said.
Gideon Stark caught six passes for 91 yards for the Rockets.
Boys Town visits Concordia Omaha on Thursday, while Syracuse heads to Nebraska City on Friday.
