By RYAN WALKER
Heritage came into Bluffton with something to prove, and it did.
The Patriots (6-1, 3-1 ACAC) demolished the hosting Tigers (6-1, 4-1 ACAC) 51-20 with conference complications on the line. Bluffton was seeking a chance at a winner-take-all ACAC showdown at Adams Central next week, but that won’t be the case any longer.
Right from the start, Heritage used its lethal weapons on offense and shut down Bluffton’s on the other end.
Four different names were called on the five touchdowns scored by the Patriots in the first half. Eli Tigulis quarterbacked three of them — one was for 34 yards with a Tigers’ defensive hand in his face, and miraculously dropping a dime to tight end Zeke Litchfield in the endzone. Then, Tigulis threw a 27-yarder to backup runningback Lucas Weber for 27 yards. The third connected to Braden Walter on a screen for 13 yards.
Weber ran for two yards and Walter for 60 to finish the scoring drives in the first half. It was a rude awakening for the packed Bluffton crowd.
The Tigers tried to respond, as Eli Bertsch returned a 75-yard kickoff to the six-yard line and quarterback Axton Beste snuck in on a run to pick up six points. Toward the end of the half, Beste scrambled for a 16-yard score and eased the blow to a 14-point deficit hopefully into halftime. But that was when Walter scorched the Tigers’ defense for 60 yards to the house.
“All credit in the world goes to heritage coach (Jeremy) Hullinger, his staff, their players,” Bluffton head coach Brent Kunkel said. “They came out and they were highly motivated. They were sharp, they were fast, they were physical. They punched us in the gut repeatedly.”
Heritage scored twice more and began a shocking running clock against the fifth-ranked team in 2A in the recent poll by the Associated Press.
Cooper Craig found the end zone on a six-yard carry late in the fourth quarter, but other than that, the Tigers were stalled out in the second half.
Total yardage favored Heritage with 462 total yards to Bluffton’s 183 — and 354 of those were credited to the run game behind by a strong offensive line. Up front, the line is headlined by Charlie Riddle, who has Division I interest, that helps the ACAC’s leading rusher Nasir Martin and Weber.
Beste, the Tigers’ leading passer and rusher, was forced to make plays with his arm all night. The strong Patriots’ defense contained his legs in the pocket and the secondary held A.J. Streveler, Bertsch and Trey Bustos. Beste finished with just 145 total yards and was picked off three times.
“I will ride or die with Axton Beste for the next two and a half years, but this was a 3A defense that he saw tonight,” Kunkel said. “There’s a difference in the level of competition, and he’ll learn from it. He’ll probably watch this film more than I will tonight to get better. We’ll study and get back, we’ll both get better.”
On the ground, Bluffton has averaged 192 yards. It had 100 yards less than that Friday night, and held Craig to 38 yards. The three games prior, he had 100 or more at least.
The loss will put Kunkel and his Tigers on a seven-day recovery plan, as they’ll make the trip down to Adams Central next Friday.
The Jets lost early in the season to Garrett, but the multi-time ACAC champ and three straight 1A state runner-ups will take its six-game win streak and look to cement the conference yet again at home against the Tigers.
“We needed a game like this,” Kunkel said. “We needed to be humbled a little bit. We needed to get punched. My money’s on our kids responding — I really think we will. So it sucks right now. We’ll sit in it, but sometimes you got to take your medicine and move on.”
ryan@news-banner.com
HERITAGE, BLUFFTON 0
At Bluffton
Score By Quarters
Heritage 21 14 9 7 — 51
Bluffton 6 8 0 6 — 20
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
H—Eli Tigulis 34-yard pass to Zeke Litchfield (Cam Rauner kick), 7:55.
B—Axton Beste 6-yard run (kick failed), 7:40.
H—Lucas Weber 2-yard run (Rauner kick), 6:30.
H—Tigulis 27-yard pass to Weber (Rauner kick), 4:26.
Second Quarter
H—Tigulis 13-yard pass to Braden Walter (Rauner kick), 9:14.
B—Beste 16-yard run (2-pt good), 2:45.
H—Braden Walter 6-yard run (Rauner kick), 1:51.
Third Quarter
H—Rauner 32-yard field goal, 7:20.
H—Walter 28-yard touchdown (2-pt failed), 1:30.
Fourth Quarter
H—Weber 65-yard run (Rauner kick), 11:42.
B—Cooper Craig 4-yard run (kick failed), 4:24.
Team Statistics
BLU HER
First Downs 8 20
Rushes-Yards 25-92 36-354 Yards Passing 91 108
Passing (C-A-I) 10-19-3 9-13-0 Penalties-Yards 4-20 3-24 Fumbles-Lost 1-0 0-0
Punts-Average 3-20 2-34
Time of Possession 25:17 22:43
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Heritage: Braden Walter 9-139, Lucas Weber 5-118, Nasir Martin 13-75, Bryson Berg 3-21, Killian McBride 1-16, Zeke Litchfield 1-(-6, Eli Tigulis 3-(-8). Bluffton: Axton Beste 14-54, Cooper Craig 11-38.
Passing: Heritage: Eli Tigulis 9-13-0 108. Bluffton: Axton Beste 10-19-3 91.
Receiving: Heritage: Lucas Weber 2-42, Zeke Litchfield 2-38, Braden Walter 3-21, Greyson Mullins 2-7.Bluffton: A.J. Streveler 2-51, Eli Bertsch 2-23, Trey Bustos 4-20, Cooper Craig 2-(-3).
