By RYAN WALKER
PONETO — It was a sloppy, rainy and windy mess occurred during the Bluffton and Southern Wells football game Friday night, but the Tigers just weathered the storm better.
Bluffton (6-0, 3-0 ACAC) picked up a 45-7 victory over county and conference rival Southern Wells (0-6, 0-3 ACAC) on an expected bad weather night for both squads.
Both fumbled four times and coughed it up twice, — and could have been more. — but the Tigers were able to capitalize on the mistakes to their favor.
The two Raider fumbles in the second quarter set up shop for Bluffton well inside enemy territory, scoring touchdowns on both turnovers.
That certainly helped the Tigers’ 29-point onslaught in the second quarter and they took a 37-0 lead at halftime.
Other bad snaps that didn’t end up in the scorebook were a loss of five or more yards a few times for Southern Wells.
That forced the Raiders to muster a -4 yards of total offense. And the big play was a well-executed hook-and-ladder play from Joshua Aulbach to Lane Dollar on the first play of the game, good for eight yards.
Other than that, the Bluffton front didn’t allow for many chunk plays.
The defense gave up only 66 yards of offense for the night, eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of 38 yards.
Dravin Shoemaker had two of them for a loss of 15 yards and freshman Gavin Griser led the team with six tackles.
“We were ready to play tonight,” Bluffton head coach Brent Kunkel said. “The mantra we talk about is ‘Good.’ We got every kid in the program a shirt that says that. We wore them during a pregame tonight and that’s what we talked about the entire time. Like, ‘It is what it is.’ We can’t control it. We want to embrace it.”
The weather didn’t help coach Blake Blaker’s offense, which has been playing its best since getting back quarterback Trey Slusher from injury. Over the past two weeks, the Raiders have scored 19 of their 25 points from this season and have got 311 yards from Slusher through the air and 63 on the ground.
Slusher did score the only touchdown on a 23-yard scurry and dove ahead of the right pylon, but that was about it with the weather taking away the throwing game.
“We started out playing tough, it’s just one of those things that we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Blaker said. “In our offense, we like to throw the ball a little bit, so the weather didn’t help us. But that’s no excuse. (Bluffton’s) giving us stuff we just couldn’t execute.”
The beneficiary for Bluffton from the ground game was Cooper Craig, who now has back-to-back-to-back 100-yard games. This time, he rushed for 120 yards in the first half on 12 carries (10.0 average) and three total touchdowns.
Khamel Moore also got a few touches, the typical No. 1 running back on the team, as he recovers from a knee injury. He found a hole up the middle for a 12-yard score during that second quarter to make his mark in the game.
Axton Beste is still the leading rusher despite no yards on the ground Friday, but he’s starting to find a budding star in Craig and the health of Moore to back him up, especially with Heritage and Adams Central on the horizon.
“It’s nothing that Khamel’s done wrong, but how do you pull Cooper Craig off the field?” Kunkel said. “The way that kid has played from the first game until now, he’s kind of came into his own here running the ball these three games. Cooper has earned the right to be out there, and he does a lot of good things when he’s got the ball in his hand, so we want to keep feeding him.”
Having Slusher back for Southern Wells has been big for the development of the program. He’s a junior with an ability to throw the ball and run it, taking leadership to a different level. It was evident Friday’s conditions prevented his arm from being showcased, but Blaker is still thrilled to have him back.
“There’s one thing that I’m going to say about Trey Slusher, is that he is tough as nails,” Blaker said. “Anytime you have a kid who is just tough and hardworking and willing to put in the effort — he’s a guy that leads our offense. Getting him back is a huge piece. He can throw the ball well, he can run the ball well. He’s our guy … Without him, you’re missing that heartbeat.”
Next week, Bluffton will face its biggest challenge and again the following week.
Heritage is seeking another win over the Tigers, spoiling their chances at the ACAC last season with a late victory in Monroeville last season. The Patriots have already lost to Adams Central, which will make for an important game to their season with the Tigers.
A week after that, multi-defending ACAC champion and powerhouse Adams Central will host Bluffton.
ryan@news-banner.com
BLUFFTON 45, SOUTHERN WELLS 7
At Southern Wells
Score By Quarters
Bluffton 8 29 0 8 — 0
So. Wells 0 0 0 7 — 0
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
B—Cooper Craig 5-yard run (2-pt conversion), 5:52.
Second Quarter
B—Axton Beste 10-yard run (Kick failed), 11:53.
B—Khamel Moore 12-yard run (2-pt conversion), 8:41.
B—Craig 3-yard run (2-pt conversion), 4:38.
B—Craig 6-yard run (Abram Gehrett kick), 4:10.
Third Quarter
No scoring.
Fourth Quarter
SW—Trey Slusher 23-yard run (Joshua Aulbach kick), 4:53.
B—Parker Barnes 63-yard run (2-pt conversion), 2:17.
Team Statistics
SW BLU
First Downs 3 10
Rushes-Yards 29-65 33-196
Yards Passing 1 19
Passing (C-A-I) 2-4-0 4-5-0
Penalties-Yards 3-15 4-25 Fumbles-Lost 4-2 4-2 Punts-Average 2-27 1-41 Time of Possession 23:00 25:00
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Southern Wells: Trey Slusher 24-52, Robby Freimuth 1-17, Lyrik Maddox 3-(-2), Levi Blake 1-(-2). Bluffton: Cooper Craig 12-120, Parker Barnes 8-64, Khamel Moore 3-20, Colt Ternet 1-2, Axton Beste 6-0, Parker Nash 3-(-10).
Passing: Southern Wells: Trey Slusher 2-4-0 1. Bluffton: Axton Beste 3-4-0 20.
Receiving: Southern Wells: Joshua Aulbach 1-8, Lyrik Maddox 1-(-7). Bluffton: A.J. Streveler 2-15, Trey Bustos 1-5, Bennett Stoller 1-(-1).
