by NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio — Bay senior running back Nick Best used his 6-foot, 205-pound frame to run all over the field Friday night as the Rockets defeated Holy Name, 16-6, to move to 4-0.
Best finished with 175 yards on 30 carries and scored twice as the Rockets also won their Great Lakes Conference opener at North Royalton’s Serpentini Stadium. Best had touchdown runs of 9 and 1 yards, the latter one putting Bay ahead 16-0 in the third quarter.
Bay used a strong ball control offense, as the Rockets’ first punt didn’t come until nine minutes remained in the game.
“We wanted to run down their throats, we had a great line and were able to get a solid push off the ball,” Best said. “We executed the game plan really well on both sides of the ball.”
Bay had to rely on its running game even more so then normal this week as starting quarterback John Koz injured his shoulder in Week 2 and backup Daniel Brajdic suffered a concussion last week, allowing third-stringer Jack Jelen, also the starting safety, to get the start behind center. With the ball controlled running offense, not too much was asked of Jelen in the throwing department as he only had three attempts. Jelen completed two of them for 27 yards.
Bay coach Ron Rutt was not concerned with having to start his third string quarterback and said he had plenty of faith.
