Football: Devils end search for treasured Boodie

Springbrook 22, Blake 7

But it looks like that problem may have been resolved.

Sophomore Malachi Boodie rushed for 72 of his game-high 87 yards (on 22 carries) in the second half, and scored the clinching touchdown late in the game to put away the Bengals, 22-7. More importantly, he picked up three key first downs on the nine-minute, 80-yard drive with the Blue Devils (3-4 overall, 2-2 in the county’s 4A East Division) up by just one score.

‘‘I’m not sure what really happened in the first half, because I was running hard,” said Boodie. ‘‘But in the second half, the holes started open up, like, gigantic. I was like, ‘Snap, I got room.’ My man [Darius] Hill had my back all the way, the line had my back all the way, the whole team had my back all the way.”

What’s interesting is that Boodie wasn’t even on the team until midway through the season. With injuries to starting tailbacks Carlo Galeano and T.J. Waters, plus a need for more explosiveness in the backfield, the coaching staff decided to pull the speedster up from the junior varsity

Early on, he was stifled, but the Blue Devils’ offense used its ever-improving passing game to get on track. Butler-Poole (10-of-15 passing for 140 yards in the game), whose growth has allowed for more adventurous play-calling and shotgun sets, completed five straight passes, two to junior Jordan Brown and three to sophomore Mitchell Pollard, the last of which to Pollard covered 45 yards and set up the team’s opening touchdown, a 1-yard Galeano plunge. And after Blake (2-5 overall, 1-3 in the 4A East) tallied the equalizer minutes later, Butler-Poole again found Pollard on a 35-yard go-route to set up his own 1-yard quarterback sneak and give Springbrook a 15-7 lead after the two-point conversion was good.

‘‘Phoenix has really stepped up, and he threw the ball fantastic tonight,” said Springbrook head coach Rob Wendel. ‘‘He’s only thrown one pick all year, so you know he’s pretty good. I don’t think he gets the notoriety of some of the other guys around because he doesn’t run.”

The Bengals do have a quarterback that can run, as well as throw, in senior Jeremiah Prophet (7 of 18 for 88 yards). In fact, he might have too strong of an arm — he overthrew or out-muscled several receivers on Thursday night with bullet passes that flew past before teammates even had a chance to get their hands extended.

And though he did orchestrate some pretty drives, several Blake just couldn’t finish. With sophomore Kwabena Asante (12 carries, 79 yards) and junior Daniel Wilson (10 carries, 46 yards) combining for 125 yards rushing, the Bengals controlled the ball for much of the night. And Prophet scrambled them into position for their only score - a 4-yard run around left end by him midway through the second quarter. His throws put the ball deep in Springbrook territory in the early stages of the final period, but he was stopped at the 8-yard line on a fourth-down scramble that proved to be Blake’s last threat.

‘‘Obviously I’m a little bit biased, and I haven’t seen Melvin Harris from Kennedy, but I think Jeremiah’s the best quarterback in [Class] 4A [in the county],” said Blake head coach Tony Nazzaro. ‘‘But we’ve always had good individuals, and I think athletically, we’re as good as anyone we’ve played. But there’s a lot of times where we can get plays and we’re just not making them. We haven’t had a lot of good fortune to go with it but we never use that as an excuse.”

The key possession after the stop of Prophet’s scramble followed a predictable pattern: Boodie left, Boodie right, and Boodie up the middle. It culminated with his 5-yard run for the final touchdown of the game. With his brother Zach — a senior defensive back — cheering from the sidelines, he gave the Blue Devils the dynamic rusher that they hadn’t yet had this season.

And teams should get used to seeing a lot of him. For a long time.

‘‘He’s got that burst of speed that we needed,” said Wendel. ‘‘He can make some plays. Hopefully he stays injury free, because he’s a good kid and he’s [already] a leader. We’re really excited about him.”