ALTOONA 34, DUBOIS 13

Nov. 2, 2007

By Rich Rhoades

DUBOIS — The DuBois Beavers had some success shutting down Altoona’s Division I recruit A.J. Alexander, but not quite enough to pull off a massive upset.

Alexander and teammate Cory Becker each scored two touchdowns as the visiting Mountain Lions beat the Beavers, 34-13, on Senior Night at E.J. Mansell Stadium.

Altoona (8-2) secured a high seed in the competitive District 3-6 Class AAAA playoffs with the win while the Beavers finished the season at 2-8.

Alexander has been wooed by major schools like Penn State, Tennessee, Florida State, Clemson, Florida and North Carolina. He visited Tennessee last week and an assistant coach was at the game Friday night.

Alexander, who will be a receiver and return specialist in college, ran 53 yards for a score on the game’s first play from scrimmage. He added a 14-yard TD run that hiked Altoona’s lead to 20-0 early in the second quarter and throw in an 18-yard carry and he had 85 yards on only three attempts.

But that was about it as he was limited to minus-16 yards on his other 10 carries, finishing with 69 on 13 attempts. That put him over 1,000 yards for the season as he now sits at 1,006.

Altoona had other weapons to deal with as Becker ran for 72 yards on only nine carries. He scored the second touchdown of the game on a 4-yard run and added a 17-yarder in the fourth quarter.

The Mountain Lions went 89 yards on 11 plays just before halftime, scoring on quarterback Jarryd Burkett’s 22-yard pass to speedy receiver Tyler Futrell with 9.7 seconds on the clock made it 27-7 following the point-after kick.

Futrell caught six passes for 96 yards, all in the first half. Burkett completed 10 of 18 passes for 163 yards.

Both of the Beavers’ touchdowns came on short fields thanks to a blocked punt and long fumble return.

Andy Malmgren’s blocked punt gave the Beavers the ball at the 11. Two plays later, quarterback Danny Henry hit Josh Means, who bounced off two Altoona tacklers for a 12-yard touchdown reception with under five minutes remaining in the first half.

In the fourth quarter with Altoona’s backups in, the Beavers’ Andrew Gordon returned a fumble off a bad snap over the head of Mountain Lions quarterback Nate Beck to the Altoona 10. Garrett Malmgren ran it in on the next play.

Garrett Malmgren led the Beavers with 80 yards rushing on 14 attempts. Henry and backup quarterback Nick Krause combined to complete eight passes to seven different receivers.

The game was actually the 50^th time the teams have met. Altoona improved its dominance to a mark of 34-15-1 against the Beavers with its 11^th win in 13 meetings. Their next meeting won’t come in the foreseeable future as scheduling changes with the Beavers moving to the Mountain Athletic Conference didn’t allow for a match in schedules.

ALTOONA 34, DUBOIS 13

Score By Quarters

Altoona           13        14        0          7          -           34

DuBois            0          7          0          6          -           13

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

A – Alexander 53 run (conversion failed), 11:48.

A – Becker 4 run (Andrews kick), 6:55.

Second Quarter

A – Alexander 14 run (Andrews kick), 10:14.

D – Means 12 pass from Henry (Bish kick), 4:40.

A – Futrell 22 pass from Burkett (Andrews kick), :10.

Fourth Quarter

A – Becker 17 run (Andrews kick), 10:48.

D – G. Malmgren 10 run (pass failed), 7:11.

TEAM STATISTICS

                                                A                     D

First Downs                            18                    11

Yards Rushing                                    38-166             34-120

Passing (comp-att-int)             10-19-1            8-25-1

Yards Passing                         134                  89

Total Yards                             300                  209

Fumbles-Lost                          3-2                   2-1

Penalties-Yards                       7-60                 8-60

Punts-Avg                               5-28.4              4-25.5

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Altoona — Becker 9-72, Alexander 13-69, Mummert 2-24, Burkett 5-16, Wentz 2-2, Treeese 4-0, Team 3-(-17). DuBois — G. Malmgren 14-80, Shenkle 6-31, Miller 1-14, Bish 2-13, Yamrick 3-11, A. Malmgren 1-3, Krause 4-0, Henry 2-(-13), Team 1-(-19).

PASSING: Altoona — Burkett 10-for-18, 163 yards, 1 TD; Beck 0-for-1. DuBois — Henry 6-for-15, 50 yards, 1 TD; Krause 2-for-9, 39 yards, 1 Int.; G. Malmgren 0-for-1.

RECEIVING: Altoona — Futrell 6-96, Lewis 1-29, Mummert 2-22, Huynh 1-16. DuBois — Hughes 1-32, G. Malmgren 1-15, Means 1-12, Davis 1-10, Shenkle 2-9, McLaughlin 1-7, Bish 1-4.

INTERCEPTIONS: Altoona — Becker.