By RYAN WALKER
The Bluffton Tigers have finally done it, winning the sectional championship for the first time since 1988 with a 42-35 comeback victory over the Eastbrook Panthers.
“This is a program that they’ve bought in from absolute day one, and this is the culmination of six years of work and even years of work before that,” a jittery and excited head coach Brent Kunkel said after the game. “To be in this moment right now, it’s just a credit to our kids and our community, administration, assistant coaches. Give them all the praise and all the credit. I’m just a guy. These kids bought in.”
Senior running back Anthony Cruz has been in the program for four years and put the Tigers (8-4) on his back for 226 yards and two scores in the win.
“This is a big win for not just myself but for my community,” Cruz said after the game. “We knew this was going to be a hell of a fight, and we were going to battle all the way through. I tried to do my part for my team to try and get them the dub. This season has been hard all the way around.”
The victory did not come easy, as on the other sideline was the perennial power that is the Eastbrook Panthers (8-4), coached by Grant County Hall of Fame’s Jeff Adamson. The Panthers were looking for its 17th sectional title under the head boss and had the advantage for the majority of the game.
In fact, they had not one, but two 14-point leads to split between the first and second half.
Bluffton did get things going first on the first drive of the game, picking off a Joshua Slater pass in the hands of Ben Ramseyer at the Panther 16-yard line. A few plays later, on fourth down and goal at the two, Andrew Hunt pounded through for six.
A well-coached Eastbrook team would respond on the next possession to go 52-yards on eight plays, capped off by a 13-yard keeper from Slater to tie it.
Bluffton was then forced to punt on the ensuing possession, and quarterback Braxton Betancourt, also the punter, booted the ball deep. Thanks to a block in the back penalty, the Panthers were stuffed inside their own five-yard line. Despite the field position, the team’s leading rusher Devin Stupples took a reverse score to the house for 91-yards on the drive’s second play.
The Tigers fumbled the ball right back to Eastbrook and looked outmatched as they drove down for another score, now up by 14. The Panthers ran an offense that had all nine players on the line and two running backs in the backfield, running reverses, and faked out the Tigers from the start.
But the Tigers were not going to go down without a fight.
Anthony Cruz broke free in the middle of the field on a handoff, bursting open until a Panther got him down at the five yard-line on a shoestring tackle. Three straight plays got the Tigers within striking distance. On fourth and one, Braxton Betancourt sold the fake to Cruz up the middle before swiping the ball back, rolling to his left, and galloping in the endzone untouched.
Bluffton would get the ball back after Eastbrook stopped them on fourth down and then lost the ball on the next play. That’s when Betancourt took a shot downfield to a wide-open Brody Lewis for the 41-yard score, tying the game at 21.
The Panthers would go up by seven at the half with a four-yard carry from junior Gage Engle.
Both teams found themselves in a heavy-weight fight, as coach Kunkel put it. Like last week on the road to Tipton, they crawled back and put themselves in position in the sectional final. The Tigers kept on getting up off the mat when they were knocked down.
“Never say die,” Kunkel said. “They’ve refused to quit. It’s that mental toughness, and I think getting that at Tipton last week was huge for our program to kind of get over that hump of bad things happening, and we battled through. We continued to fight and continued to do it.”
Cruz began the first drive in the third quarter with another jolt of speed for 40 yards, again down at the five-yard line. Keeping the punches rolling, he finished the drive he started and ran it in for three yards.
But the Panthers had a response of their own, with Slater seeking a first down, then pitching a lateral to Stupples for 23 yards. It was close to a forward pass but did not draw a flag.
For the remainder of the quarter, both teams traded the ball over on punts and fourth down stops. That changed with 50 seconds left in the quarter when Bluffton got its fourth turnover of the game on a fumble recovery at the Panther 17-yard line.
A play later, Betancourt rolled out to his left and looked though as if he was going to run with it. At the last moment, junior Hunter Wenger freed himself from the defense and caught a pass near the sideline, keeping himself in bounds. After a few moves on the left sideline and a broken tackle, Wenger was in the endzone to tie the game at 35.
Now to the fourth quarter, where Eastbrook took the kickoff to their own 15-yard line and went all the way to the Tigers’ two. They converted five first downs on the drive, all running plays, and found themselves fourth and goal at the two-yard line. The Panthers had run the ball 456 times more than in the air on the season, and both teams lined up for an obvious handoff play.
That was until a false start, backing them up to the seven-yard line, and Eastbrook, all of a sudden, had to play uncomfortably for the first time all game.
Quarterback Joshua Slater went back to pass for just the third time in the game, tossed the ball up for grabs in the endzone into double coverage, and into the hands of Bluffton senior Andrew Hunt for the pick.
“It was a heavy-weight fight, and we kept taking shots, and then we would make a play. Then, we just found a way,” Kunkel said.
It was all Bluffton from that point on.
With the game tied, Cruz broke off for another long run, this one for 50-yards. Six plays later, all of them going to Cruz, he took the lead from eight yards out, diving to the goal line and got the Tigers up seven.
The Panthers had a chance later with three minutes left, keeping the drive alive on fourth down and long with a pass to Stupples for 18-yards near the 47 of Bluffton.
Two plays later, Stupples carried the ball for a long run of 17 yards, but before he went down, Bluffton got the ball loose, and for the fifth and final time, the Tigers had forced a turnover and got the ball back.
Betancourt sealed the deal with a keeper that went for 22 yards, putting the Tigers into victory formation.
The game ended in dramatic fashion and a hard-fought, comeback victory for Kunkel’s Tigers. For the first time in 34 years, Bluffton is on top of the sectional championship.
Bluffton will take on Bishop Luers (7-5) next week in the regional final on the road.
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EASTBROOK 35, BLUFFTON 42
At Bluffton
Score By Quarters
Eastbrook 14 14 7 0 – 35
Bluffton 7 14 14 7 – 42
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
B—Andrew Hunt 2-yard run (Yaroslav Serdiuk kick), 8:49
E—Joshua Slater 13-yard run (Samuel Olsen kick), 5:27
E—Devin Stupples 91-yard run (Olsen kick), 2:32
Second Quarter
E—Gage Engle 6-yard run (Olsen kick), 11:36
B—Braxton Betancourt 1-yard run (Serdiuk kick), 7:59
B—Betancourt pass to Brody Lewis 41-yards (Serdiuk kick), 2:53
E—Engle 4-yard run (Olsen kick), 0:25
Third Quarter
B—Anthony Cruz 3-yard run (Serdiuk kick), 9:07
E—Stupples 25-yard run (Olsen kick), 6:21
B—Betancourt pass to Fletcher Wenger 15-yards (Serdiuk kick), 0:04
Fourth Quarter
B—Cruz 8-yard run (Serdiuk kick), 3:40
Team Statistics
EAS BLU
First Downs 23 15
Rushes-Yards 65-422 45-311
Yards Passing 18 69
Passing (C-A-I) 1-6-2 3-13-1
Penalties-Yards 7-48 2-10
Fumbles-Lost 4-3 2-1
Punts-Average 1-26 1-40
Time of Possession 24:47 23:13
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Eastbrook Devin Stupples 18-225, Gage Engle 23-140, Joshua Slater 16-23, Logen Roush 3–16, Bodie Howell 4-13, Elijah Willhide 1-5. Bluffton Anthony Cruz 24-226, Braxton Betancourt 10-54, Khamel Moore 4-21, Andrew Hunt 5-12.
Passing: Eastbrook Joshua Slater 1-6-2 18, Bluffton Braxton Betancourt 3-13-1 69.
Receiving: Eastbrook Devin Stupples 1-18. Bluffton Brody Lewis 1-41, Fletcher Wenger 1-15, Andrew Hunt 1-13.
