BGM, Burns too much for Colfax-Mingo in home opener

COLFAX — BGM senior Beau Burns led Class 8-man with 2,391 passing yards and 34 touchdown passes last fall. He also rushed for 1,474 yards and 25 TDs.

And after two games in 2025, it appears he won’t have much trouble putting up huge numbers in 11-man football either.

Burns threw for 248 yards, rushed for 292 and scored eight total touchdowns in the Bears’ 76-12 win over Colfax-Mingo’s football team in the Class A District 6 opener on Friday night.

“The game plan was to slow him down and make others beat us,” Colfax-Mingo head football coach Drake Buscherfeld said. “But he’s a really good player. We were in some good spots but couldn’t make tackles in space. He did it last week and did it to us. I don’t think he’s done making plays.”

Colfax-Mingo, which was down five starters in the game, trailed 20-0 at halftime and was outscored 28-6 in the second.

The entire second half featured a 35-point continuous clock, and Burns and other BGM starters played into the fourth quarter despite the Bears’ big lead.

Burns started the Bears’ first drive with a 26-yard run and then scored on a 32-yard run two plays later.

Colfax-Mingo (0-2, 0-1 in the district) had something going on its first drive. Camden Cunningham hit Wyatt Jay for an 11-yard pass on the Tigerhawks’ first play from scrimmage.

Aided by pass interference and facemask penalties, Colfax-Mingo got into BGM territory before moving into the red zone following Cunningham completions to Fisher Grove and Wyatt Thornton.

But the drive stalled after a negative running play and three straight incompletions.

BGM (2-0, 1-0) answered with a four-play, 80-yard drive that featured a 45-yard pass from Burns to Landon Hassett and a 15-yard TD pass from Burns to Ethan Bridgewater.

The Bears pushed their lead to 20-0 after a 2-play drive following the first of five Colfax-Mingo turnovers. Burns capped BGM’s third possession with a 35-yard TD pass to Nathan Findlay.

“Give credit to them. They’re a good team,” Buscherfeld said about BGM. “They start 10 seniors pretty much both ways. That’s something we just don’t have right now.”

After a three-and-out on offense, Alex Teed got the ball back to Colfax-Mingo when he picked off Burns following a 32-yard run by the Bears’ quarterback.

A big play turned into another turnover though. On third and 15, Thornton caught a deflected pass and sprinted the other way for 76 yards. But the Bears forced a fumble on the play.

Burns gave it right back to Colfax-Mingo when he fumbled two plays later.

Then Cunningham hooked up with Wyatt Carpenter for a 22-yard touchdown pass play early in the second quarter.

It was the only points of the game for the Tigerhawks until Chase Trotter got loose for a 64-yard touchdown run down the home sideline.

Trotter missed the first three quarters of the game after being ejected in the third quarter of the team’s Week 1 loss to Clarke.

He finished with 104 rushing yards and one score on six carries.

“We can only control what we can control,” Buscherfeld said. “He’ll learn from it. He’s a good kid and feels bad. It was just a mistake.”

The Bears scored 28 straight points in the second after Carpenter’s touchdown catch.

Burns connected with Hassett on a 1-yard TD pass play before finding Bridgewater for a 35-yard touchdown.

Burns also scored on a 43-yard TD run and Hassett returned a Colfax-Mingo punt 55 yards for a score.

The Bears outscored C-M 28-6 in the second half. Burns added touchdown runs of 2 and 1 yards and Findlay scored from 2 yards out in the third.

BGM’s final TD came on a 65-yard TD run by backup quarterback Izaha Thompson.

“We have a lot of youth out there,” Buscherfeld said. “We have six sophomores playing both ways. They’re good talents, but it takes varsity reps to get to a certain level.”

Cunningham finished 10-of-25 through the air for 171 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Carpenter caught four passes for 39 yards and a TD, Thornton hauled in two catches for 96 yards and Jay gained 20 yards on his two catches, but the Tigerhawks were limited to 276 total yards in the loss.

Cunningham led the C-M defense with 8.5 tackles and two forced fumbles.

Kyle Wood added four tackles and one fumble recovery, Carpenter and Thornton totaled three tackles each and Fisher Grove forced one fumble and recovered one fumble.

The Bears, who committed six penalties for 58 yards, rushed for 396 yards in the win. Findlay gained 102 yards on five catches and Hassett had 96 yards on six catches and led the defense with 6.5 tackles, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

“Our youth is not the only cause of it,” Buscherfeld said. “We have to keep getting better up front, get better with tackling and keep working at it. We need to control the things we can control like attitude and effort and keep going from there.”

Notes: The Tigerhawks lost four fumbles and turned the ball over five times. BGM committed three turnovers. … Burns leads Class A with 719 rushing yards and 10 rushing TDs after two weeks. He ranks fourth with 366 passing yards and leads the class with a 16.3 yards per carry average. … It was the first meeting in football between the two South Iowa Cedar League rivals since 2017. They previously played every year between 2014 and 2017, and the Bears are 5-0 in the series since that time frame.