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BERWICK – With thunder pounding and lightning crackling, a storm was brewing in Berwick.
And by the time it was over, Crestwood’s upset hopes were completely destroyed.
Bruising fullback Alec Ladonis and sharp-cutting tailback Louis Hampton both ran for over 100 yards and scored a touchdown apiece as Berwick crushed Crestwood, 35-0 in a high school football opener at Berwick’s Crispin Field.
Just call Berwick’s dangerous backfield duo “Thunder and Lightning.”
“Louis is 195 (pounds) and Alec’s 220,” Berwick coach Gary Campbell said. “I think they bring some good size and both have speed back there. We’re going to bring that game.”
The Bulldogs sure brought it to their opener.
Ladonis, a converted tight end-turned-fullback, began Berwick’s 291-yard rushing night with a 30-yard romp on the team’s first play from scrimmage.
“That’s my job,” said Ladonis, a 6-foot senior. “Coach moved me from tight end to fullback and said, ‘You’re going to run over people.’ That’s what he wants me to do.”
That’s exactly what Ladonis did.
Carrying two and three Crestwood defenders for five yards at a time, Ladonis finished with a game-high 132 yards on 17 carries and took a toss for a 7yard touchdown to give Berwick a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
His backfield mate Hampton was equally effective.
The 6-foot-1 running back slashed and gashed his way to a 126-yard rushing night on 19 carries, including runs of 20 and 23 yards, and provided the game’s final score with a 1-yard touchdown run in the final quarter.
“We know we can do that, give each other breaks,” Hampton said of the symmetry with his fullback that worked almost perfectly Friday night. “We just burn people all night.”
The Comets got singed on both sides of the ball.
A tenacious Berwick defense, led by tackle Dominic Morell and ends Roy Dennis and Marc Goodson, held Crestwood to 35 rushing yards and terrorized the Comets into a 3-for-17 passing night. In fact, Crestwood didn’t manage a first down until the clock showed 5:45 in the third quarter.
“All anybody talked about last year was our defense,” Campbell said. “Our kids feel that pressure to perform. They know it’s there.”
Still, the Bulldogs controlled the game – and the clock – with their rushing attack.
That relieved the pressure from sophomore quarterback Jared Pierce, who made his first high school start. Pierce scored Berwick’s first points of the season on a 1-yard sneak in the opening quarter and added a 4-yard scoring scramble early in the third quarter as the Bulldogs put the game away, 28-0.
Pierce also tossed his first touchdown pass – a pretty 5-yard lob to Sean Ridall in the corner of the end zone early in the second quarter.
“I thought he played well,” Campbell said. “I asked him not to turn the ball over.”
He didn’t, and the Bulldog backfield took care of the rest.
“They (the Comets) came out and were hyped up,” Hampton said. “They were ready. We had to match that.”