Elijah Endress scores 3 TDs, Bureau Valley takes down Erie-Prophetstown in opener

ERIE – The Bureau Valley Storm defeated the Erie-Prophetstown Panthers 26-7 Friday night in a nonconference season opener, led by three Elijah Endress touchdowns and a huge fourth-down sack.

The Panthers’ first drive went 13 yards and ended in a punt.

E-P got a stop on fourth-and-8 from the 8 on Bureau Valley’s first drive and took over on downs when quarterback Bryce Helms’ pass fell incomplete.

Jeremiah Kochevar led a 92-yard scoring drive on E-P’s second possession of the game. A 55-yard Kochevar scamper took the Panthers down to the Storm’s 46. E-P’s Demetree Larson then took an option pitch from Kochevar 26 yards to the 14. A couple of plays later, Kochevar hit Larson for a 10-yard touchdown pass and a 7-0 lead as 11:53 remained in the second quarter.

E-P’s third drive began at its own 25. The Panthers threatened to score again when Kochevar hit Larson on an 84-yard touchdown pass, but the play was called back on a penalty. An illegal shift wiped out a 15-yard Kochevar run before that.

Bureau Valley’s Connor Scott sacked Kochevar for a 3-yard loss on a mid-second-quarter third down to force a punt, and the Storm took over at E-P’s 40.

On the ensuing possession, Helms escaped a collapsing pocket to his right on 3rd-and-16 after a penalty, reversed left and raced down the sideline for a 43-yard run down to the E-P 3-yard line. Two plays later, Elijah Endress took a draw play in for a 2-yard touchdown.

The game was tied 7-7 at halftime.

Kochevar rushed for 79 yards on seven carries and went 2 for 3 passing for 25 yards and a touchdown in the first half. Endress rushed for 43 yards and a touchdown before the break.

The Storm started firing on all cylinders in the second half.

Endress scored on a 5-yard touchdown run with 1:18 left in the third, stretching Bureau Valley’s lead to 14-7. The play came after the Storm tackled Larson about half a yard short on a critical fourth-and-6 and took over possession at its own 23. That was one of two huge defensive stops in the second half.

“I saw a different fight in them, a different fire,” Endress said about the defense, which pitched a second-half shutout. “In practice we’ve been going all week; we get on each other every single day. If we don’t, Coach gets mad at us, and we don’t want Coach to get mad at us.

“We wanted to have fun – it’s not fun losing – so we went out there, we wanted to hit them as hard we can, and when you hit them as hard as you can, it’s fun.”

Endress forced a turnover on downs with a big sack with 16.9 seconds left in the third quarter. With 8:21 left on the ensuing drive, Helms rolled right and hit Endress in the back-right corner of the end zone for a 20-7 Bureau Valley lead. That was his third and final score of the game.

“I owe all of the running [success] to the linemen. They created the holes, and Cam Lemons, the other running back, opened the hole perfectly for me,” Endress said. “And Bryce Helms throwing me the ball, getting me open.”

Wth 2:48 to play, Helms broke free for a score up the middle on a 20-yard quarterback keeper, capping the 26-7 win.

“I think we were just sick of losing,” Endress said about the second-half breakthrough. “It was kind of the breaking point where, we’re not going to get pounded this whole season or every single year. We really wanted it more than them.”