MidValleySports.Com

Burbank running back James Williams has rushed for 620 yards and nine touchdowns so far in 2012

By Mike Martin

(Burbank)-  It might be a ground game that spurs the Burbank Bulldogs, but whenever running back James Williams touches the ball the feeling for defenses is more along the lines of being hit with an air strike.

He’s that quick.

Williams scored three first half touchdowns to jumpstart Burbank to a 41-20 victory over Arcadia on Friday night at District Memorial Field.

The sophomore running back’s first score came with 3:45 to play in the first quarter when he went 63-yards to paydirt to tie the game at 7-7.

With 7:32 remaining in the second he went 18-yards for the go ahead score. Five minutes after that he vanished into the night from 37-yards out to make it 21-7 in favor of the home team.

Williams finished the game with 176 yards and three scores, but while he was working on his first half masterpiece. The Apaches found some of the offense they spent the first month of the season looking for.

Darius Elliot came into the contest with just eight catches and one touchdown through the first four weeks of the season. Before the evening was over he would catch three touchdown passes from quarterback Zach Yee.

The first came with 5:11 gone in the first when Elliot caught a 33-yard scoring pass from Yee. The second came late in the opening half from 29-yards to narrow the Burbank advantage to 21-14 at the break.

The final one came with under a minute to play from 35-yards out to window dress a game that the Bulldogs had put away in the third and fourth quarters.

While Williams was the glider in the first half, Teddy Arlington was the Sherman Tank in the second. Arlington accounted for 156 yards on the ground and a third quarter touchdown to put his team up 27-14.

In the final frame quarterback Ryan Meredith scored on a sneak and Joseph Pendleton added a 2-yard run.

The victory improved Burbank to 2-0 in the Pacific and 3-2 overall. Arcadia’s record even’s out to 1-1 in league play, 1-4 overall.