By Dan Truttschel/Sports Correspondent
Heading into halftime Friday night, it looked like the Westosha Central football team may have a shot at not only its first win of 2013 but a rather newsworthy upset as well.
The Falcons had all the momentum in their Southern Lakes Conference matchup at Burlington and felt good about where they stood.
And with just 12 minutes left, Central still had a chance – but in the end, it just couldn’t get over that hump.
Burlington scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to break open a close game en route to a 42-14 SLC win. The loss dropped the Falcons to 0-6 overall and 0-4 in the SLC.
His young team seemed to just run out of steam, first-year Central coach Tyson Mengel said.
“They were fighting, fighting, fighting,” he said. “Just having so many guys playing both sides of the ball because of low numbers (took its toll).”
Even though the loss was disappointing, Mengel said he again felt the Falcons made some strides.
If nothing else, the fact the offense had some success was a positive.
“It was a small victory for us,” he said. “I wouldn’t say ‘moral’ because we still got our butts kicked.
The Demons scored the first four touchdowns of the game, two on the ground and two through the air.
Neal Peterson scored on a 2-yard run, followed by a 59-yard touchdown by Hunter Melby, who rushed for 193 yards on just 13 carries.
Quarterback Brad Burling-ton and James Tully then connected on scoring passes of 15 and 5 yards in the second quarter that gave Burlington what looked like a convincing 28-0 lead.
But the Falcons refused to go away quietly.
Central quarterback Greg Kuhfuss hit Zach Biehn with a 5-yard touchdown pass, and then found teammate Seth Kopczynski for a 15-yard scoring play to cut the deficit to 14 points at the intermis-sion.
The second touchdown was set up by two rare plays in football – an onside kick and a tipped ball.
Central recovered the kick with about 40 seconds left in the half, and then Kopczynski caught a tipped pass for the touchdown just before time expired.
After a scoreless third quarter, Burlington finally put the game out of reach with touchdown runs of 13 and 4 yards by Melby and Burling, respectively, in the fourth quarter.
For the game, Kuhfuss completed 16 of 40 passes with three interceptions for 177 yards. Central was held to just 56 yards rushing on 19 carries, including a team-high 19 on six attempts by Jake Carey.
Biehn led the receiving corps with 89 yards on seven catches, followed by Kopczynski with 68 yards on four catches.
Waterford up next
Central faces another tough challenge this week when it travels to Waterford Friday night to face the Wolverines at 7 p.m. Waterford improved to 4-2 overall and 3-1 in the SLC with a 19-14 win over Elkhorn last week.
“I feel like we’re playing a team identical to Burlington (this week),” Mengel said. “(They’re) a tough team, a good line, similar offenses, similar defenses.”