By RICK SPRUNGER
BERNE — Give it up for Axton Beste.
All Bluffton’s sophomore quarterback did in a 33-7 win at South Adams Friday night was complete 15 of 17 passes for 218 yards and four touchdowns while rushing 17 times for 122 more yards.
He completed his first 14 passes and didn’t throw an incompletion until the fourth quarter when the game was already out of reach.
Thanks to his effort, Bluffton turned what was expected to be a close, hard-fought struggle into a blowout by halftime.
It was the opening game in Allen County Athletic Conference play for both clubs, and Bluffton remained undefeated with a 3-0 record overall. South Adams is now 1-2.
“Axton really grew up tonight,” said a proud Bluffton coach Brent Kunkel with a smile after the game. “He’s still learning how to see the field, but he prepares; He works.”
Beste completed four passes on Bluffton’s first scoring drive late in the first quarter, including a 34-yarder to Coleson Teeple and a three-yarder to Declan Grieser for the score that gave Bluffton a lead it would never relinquish.
He only threw the ball twice in the second quarter, but both went for touchdowns. Both were caught by A.J. Streveler, once for 63 yards and the second for 28.
That second scoring toss was set up by Beste carries of 26 and 14 yards that put the Tigers in business on the South Adams 25-yard line.
“That wasn’t our game plan,” confessed Kunkel later about his young sophomore taking over the game. “But (South Adams) was doing a good job keying on Khamel (Moore) and Cooper (Craig). “So we started running out of an empty backfield so they couldn’t do that.”
Even the defense got into the act.
The Tigers forced a three-and-out on South Adams’ first possession, then dug in and held the Starfires on downs at the Bluffton 33-yard line, then forced and recovered a South Adams fumble at the Tiger 22.
The second of those stops came after South Adams had seemingly seized the momentum on a 34-yard run by quarterback Tytus Lehman and his 16-yard pass to Derek McKean.
There was also a 35-yard pick-six by Cooper Craig just 20 seconds after the first of Streveler’s touchdown catches.
With the score 27-0 at halftime, the second half was largely a matter of Bluffton trying to maintain the shutout.
The Tigers scored again on their first offensive series of the third quarter after a failed fake punt by South Adams left the Tigers with a short field at the Starfire 39.
Beste and Elijah Bertsch covered the last 23 yards by themselves in the last two plays of the drive, hooking up for 17 yards and then for the final six.
At that point, Bluffton was a successful two-point conversion away from running the clock on the Starfires, but a pass fell incomplete.
Even then, the defense didn’t stop working.
They slammed the door on South Adams on downs at the 15 after the Starfires had reached the nine late in the third quarter.
And they very nearly held after seeing South Adams achieve a first-and-goal at the Bluffton 1 late in the game.
South Adams finally punched it in on that drive, but needed a fourth down play to do it.
The touchdown came on a 1-yard pass from Lehman to Wanner, but only after two failed smashes into the line and an incomplete pass.
It finally enabled South Adams to get on the board with just 3:17 left in the game.
Lehman finished 12-for-26 for 126 yards for South Adams, including six tosses to McKean.
Bluffton ended up with 369 yards in total offense and 16 first downs to South Adams’ 229 yards and 15 first downs.
Bluffton will next host Woodlan for its homecoming. The Warriors were a 28-6 loser to Heritage last night.
Woodlan is 1-2 on the season.
sports@news-banner.com
BLUFFTON 33, SOUTH ADAMS 7
at South Adams
Bluffton 6 21 6 0 — 33
So. Adams 0 0 0 7 — 7
First Quarter
BL—Declan Grieser 3 pass from Axton Beste (kick failed), 1:26.
Second Quarter
BL—A.J. Streveler 63 pass from Beste (pass failed), 10:14.
BL—Cooper Craig 35 interception return (Abram Gehrett kick), 9:54.
BL—Streveler 28 pass from Beste (Gehrett kick), 2:08.
Third Quarter
BL—Elijah Bertsch 6 pass from Beste (pass failed), 6:32.
Fourth Quarter
SA—Jax Wanner 1 pass from Tytus Lehman (Jackson Garcia kick), 3:17.
Team Statistics
BL SA
First Downs 16 15
Rushes-Yards 33-151 31-123
Passing Yards 218 106
Passing (C-A-I) 15-17-0 12-26-1
Penalties-Yards 6-50 2-10
Fumbles-Lost 2-0 3-2
Punts-Average 3-41.0 1-51.0
Time of Possession 27.38 20:22
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Bluffton: Axton Beste 17-122, Khamel Moore 15-28, Cooper Craig 1-1; South Adams: Dillian Ramirez 15-68, Tytus Lehman 11-6, Will Patterson 4-(-6), Uriel Gutierrez 1-(-4).
Passing: Bluffton: Axton Beste 15-17-0 218; South Adams-Tytus Lehman 12-26-1 126.
Receiving: Bluffton: A.J. Streveler 4-109, Coleson Teeple 3-43, Elijah Bertsch 3-33, Khamel Moore 3-25, Easton Blair 1-5, Declan Grieser 1-3; South Adams: Derek McKean 6-56, Jax Wanner 3-14, Will Patterson 2-3, Caiden Neuenschwander 1-33.
