By RICK SPRUNGER
WOODBURN—It wasn’t pretty, but Bluffton got the job done again on Friday night, posting a 28-0 win at Woodlan to keep its perfect record intact at 4-0.
“Well, you know what they say,” smiled Bluffton coach Brent Kunkel with a shrug of his shoulders. “An ugly win is better than a pretty loss. This is a pretty good Woodlan team; they’re going to win some games this year (the Warriors are now 1-3). We’re fortunate to have caught them when we did.”
But Kunkel didn’t think there was anything ugly about his team’s defensive effort.
“Give credit to the kids,” praised Kunkel after watching his team limit Woodlan to 142 total yards in 58 offensive plays, an average of just over two yards per snap of the football. “Our defensive line got pressure on (Woodlan quarterback Ty) Louden, our linebackers contained Drew Fleek, and our secondary had great coverage on their receivers.”
Two defensive stops, in particular, highlighted the Tigers’ effort.
The first came late in the first half, with Bluffton nursing a 14-0 lead.
A 21-yard Fleek run on third-and-10 and a roughing the passer penalty put the ball at the Bluffton 19 with under 30 seconds to play.
Fleek carried it to the 12, but massive pressure by the Bluffton defensive line and blanket coverage in the secondary forced Louden to throw the ball away on second down and then fling it into a crowd in the end zone as the clock turned to zeroes.
Neither pass had a chance, and Bluffton ran into the locker room with the score still 14-0 instead of 14-7.
That proved potentially pivotal midway through the third period when an ill-fated gamble on a fake punt on fourth-and-12 from Bluffton’s own 11 gave the ball back to Woodlan at the 19 in the shadow of the Bluffton goal post. But on second down, Ben Ramseyer picked off a Louden pass to end the threat.
That typified Woodlan’s frustration with the Bluffton defense in the second half.
The Warriors managed just two yards in total offense in the third quarter and didn’t get their first first-down of the second half until the 5:50 mark of the fourth quarter.
Offensively, Bluffton was led by Tucker Jenkins, who rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries and caught three passes for 61 more yards and a third touchdown.
Jenkins was the main threat in a second-quarter drive that Kunkel later thought marked the turning point in the game.
Bluffton was leading at the time, 6-0, on the strength of quarterback Braxton Betancourt’s 33-yard bootleg around the left side in the first quarter. But in the second period, the Tigers were going backward, facing a third-and-22 from their own 26.
Worse, they seemed to be in complete disarray.
They had caught one five-yard delay of game penalty and had to call a timeout narrowly to avert a second on the very next play as players were scrambling from position to position.
But Betancourt found Jenkins across the middle for a pass play that covered 21 yards to the 47.
It didn’t get a first down, but it did set up a very manageable fourth-and-1 from near midfield.
Rather than send in the punting unit, the Tigers gave the ball right back to Jenkins, and he blasted forward for 11 yards and the first down at the Woodlan 40.
Suddenly, it was Woodlan that was in disarray, and Bluffton took full advantage of the situation.
Three more plays advanced the ball to the 26, and Jenkins followed with a burst straight up the middle and through the Woodlan defense for the touchdown that made it 14-0 and gave the Tigers that two-score lead for those two big defensive stops.
Bluffton’s third touchdown late in the third quarter essentially put the game away.
That one also came courtesy of Jenkins, who went for 25 and five yards back-to-back for the score.
Jenkins scored his third touchdown of the game on a 37-yard pass from Betancourt on a third-and-9 play midway through the fourth quarter.
So Bluffton goes to 2-0 in Allen County Athletic Conference play with the win.
The Tigers will travel to Jay County this week in a game that is slated to start at 7:30.
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Bluffton 28, Woodlan 0
at Woodlan High School
Bluffton 6 8 7 7 -— 28
Woodlan 0 0 0 0 — 0
FIRST QUARTER
BL—Braxton Betancourt 33 run (kick failed), 8:25.
SECOND QUARTER
BL—Tucker Jenkins 26 run (Jenkins run), 3:11.
THIRD QUARTER
BL—Jenkins 5 run (Yaroslav Serdiuk kick), 3:07.
FOURTH QUARTER
BL—Jenkins 37 pass from Betancourt (Serdiuk kick), 6:11.
TEAM STATISTICS
BLU WDN
First Downs 14 10
Rushes-Yards 45-234 28-49
Passing (C-A-I) 5-13-0 10-30-1
Passing Yards 75 93
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties-Yards 7-65 5-31
Punts-Average 5-30.0 7-33.0
Time of Possession 26:58 21:02
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: Bluffton-Tucker Jenkins 15-107, Cooper Craig 11-43, Braxton Betancourt 10-68, Axton Beste 3-8, Andrew Hunt 2-6, A.J. Streveler 1-5; Woodlan-Drew Fleek 21-67, Ty Louden 3-(-12), Hunter Bennett 2-(-1), Jack Culler 1-1, Jayse Kuntz 1-(-6).
Passing: Bluffton-Braxton Betancourt 4-12-0 73, Axton Beste 1-1-0 2; Woodlan-Ty Louden 10-29-1 93, Drew Fleek 0-1-0 0.
Receiving: Bluffton-Tucker Jenkins 3-61, Andrew Hunt 2-14; Woodlan-Jayse Kuntz 3-29, Luke Meyer 2-32, Mason Moore 2-14, Drew Fleek 2-11, Brandon Stauffer 1-7.
