By RYAN WALKER
MONROE — Adams Central’s 49-24 win over Bluffton notched its fourth consecutive ACAC title Friday night.
The Jets (7-1, 5-0 ACAC) flew high and soared away in the second half, outscoring the upset-minded Tigers (6-2, 4-2 ACAC) 21-8.
Bluffton had its opportunity to make the game quite interesting to the 8,000-plus crowd in attendance.
With 25 seconds left before halftime, Axton Beste completed his second touchdown pass of the night on a 35-yard dot to Eli Bertsch on fourth-and-10. Beste, who was pressured all night, rolled to his right by design and rainbowed a perfect pass to Bertsch for one of his eight catches on the night, putting the score at 28-16.
“I thought Eli Bertsch had a phenomenal night,” Bluffton head coach Brent Kunkel said of Bertsch, who put up a career-best 101 yards. “(It was) kind of his coming out party tonight. He made some great catches because teams all know who A.J. Streveler is.”
That put the score at 28-16 following the two-point conversion and a real shot in the second half.
Adams Central would receive the ball next, but Bluffon’s defense came out of the halftime speech ready to rock.
The first drive stalled for both teams. On the Jets’ second opportunity, it fell short again. On third down on the opening drive, Tavin Frees rushed quarterback Jamison Roach into a short throw to force a third straight incompletion into a punt. A.J. Streveler returned the punt to the Jets’ 33-yard line to set up shop.
Bluffton moved the ball 10 yards and inched closer to make this a one-score contest, but Beste’s pass was picked off by Hayden Bluhm. That was all the Jets needed to gain momentum back, taking the next drive for six plays and scoring on Aaron Hirschy’s 30-yard rush.
“Obviously it deflated us a little bit there,” Kunkel said. “Because it was 28-16 and we had the ball. They get a stop. They get the score. (The) air kind of goes out the balloon a little bit.”
Adams Central would score twice afterward. Bluffton did get a 13-yard pass from Beste to Cooper Craig late in the fourth, but it was too little, too late.
It also didn’t help that Bluffton shot itself in the foot in the first quarter, .
The Tigers drew four penalties in the first quarter, killing their drives. Where it hurt them the most was the emergency punter of Craig, who was in replacing Abram Gehrett (illness) on punting duties.
His first punt went backward for -9 yards. That made life easy for the Jets, who scored three plays later on Matt Heiser’s 19-yard run.
The second punt was nearly blocked, but the Tigers didn’t think to scoop the ball up. Bluhm picked it up and scored the easiest six points he could have imagined.
It’s another week where the Tigers have started the game flat. Similar slow starts have nearly cost them in games against Woodlan, Jay County, and did cost them in losses to Heritage and Adams Central.
The Patriots put up a 21-6 spread on the Tigers last week in the first quarter. The Jets quickly went up 14-0 by the 4:32 mark on Friday.
“You look at the start of the game and that’s on me,” Kunkel said. “We’ve got to figure something out about the way we start. Because you come out and our punter is not here, it’s something you have to overcome. He’s sick. So we made the switch to Coop (Cooper Craig), and obviously, we’ve got to execute those first two punts. I think we punted a grand total of maybe two yards, and then we had a brain fart.”
It’s a loss that stings the Tigers, having a leap of improvement from last week’s 51-20 loss at home to Heritage. The Patriots lost to the Jets 33-14, so Bluffton’s 49-24 loss with the mistakes proves the Tigers are getting better.
But due to the recent rule change with the IHSAA’s success factor, Bluffton might have another crack at this Jets’ squad.
With Adams Central’s three straight seasons in the 1A state championship (all were losses to Indianapolis Lutheran), the Jets bumped up to 2A. They were added to Bluffton’s sectional, and the random draw will be this Sunday at 6 p.m. on the IHSAA’s website.
There’s a chance both will meet up again at a location to be named later. Bluffton would like to do just that.
“This is the team we’ve got to beat to get where we want,” Kunkel said. “And the good news is hopefully this is not the last time we play them. Hopefully, we can watch this, break some stuff down, look at it man-to-man, and figure out what we can do.”
Bluffton’s final regular season game will be against the Franklin County Wildcats (5-3) out of the Eastern Indiana — small football conference. Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m.
ryan@news-banner.com
ADAMS CENTRAL 49,
BLUFFTON 24
At Adams Central High School
Score By Quarters
Bluffton 8 8 0 8 — 24
A. Central 14 14 7 14 — 49
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
AC—Matt Heister 19-yard run (Braylen Cowans kick), 7:20.
AC—Punt blocked, returned by Hayden Bluhm 19 yards (Cowans kick) , 4:32
B—Axton Beste 67-yard pass to Cooper Craig (2-pt completed), 1:29.
Second Quarter
AC—Jamison Roach 6-yard run (Cowans kick), 8:51
AC—Roach 24-yard pass to Max Kaehr (Cowans kick), 5:18.
ı—Beste 35-yard pass to Eli Bertsch (2-pt completed), 0:25.
Third Quarter
AC—Aaron Hierschy 30-yard run (Cowans kick), 0:17.
Fourth Quarter
AC—Roach 22-yard pass to Joey Everett (Cowans kick), 10:12.
B—Beste 13-yard pass to (2-pt completed), 5:01.
AC—Roach 72-yard run (Cowans kick), 4:04.
Team Statistics
AC BLU
First Downs 15 14 Rushes-Yards 30-315 30-53
Yards Passing 78 265
Passing (C-A-I) 4-12-0 20-29-1
Penalties-Yards 2-20 7-50
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0
Punts-Average 2-35 3-12
Time of Possession 16:20 31:40
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Bluffton: Cooper Craig 14-38, A.J. Streveler 1-8, Axton Beste 14-7, Griffin Morgan 1-0. Adams Central: Matt Heiser 14-103, Jamison Roach 5-94, Aaron Hirschy 7-91, Joey Everett 3-28.
Passing: Bluffton: Axton Beste 20-29-1 265. Adams Central: Jamison Roach 4-12-0 78.
Receiving: Bluffton: Cooper Craig 4-105, Eli Bertsch 8-101, A.J. Streveler 4-30, Trey Bustos 3-27, Easton Blair 1-2. Adams Central: Max Kaehr 2-35, Joey Everett 1-22, Braylend Reber 1-2.
