By Sam Brauen www.blufftonpirates.com
“All things considered, I’m happy with the win, but we got a lot of things to work on.” These were the words from Bluffton head football coach Jeff Richards following his team’s 28-6 victory at Cory-Rawson’s Spike Berry Field to open the 2018 season.
Bluffton scored a touchdown in each quarter on their way to the victory. The Pirates coughed up the ball three times and Cory-Rawson turned over the pigskin four times in the second half as Bluffton cruised to the win.
“We had a lot of guys getting their first taste of being starters and early on it took a while to get their footing,” Richards said. Indeed, there were many first time starters including freshman quarterback Nate Schaadt and freshmen offensive linemen Aaron Tabler and Trent Howard.
Xavier Oneal, Tucker Neff and Nephi Peralta earned their first starts, among others on defense. And while there were several new faces on the field, a learned veteran led the way with a monster night.
Senior running back Deandre Nassar carried the rock 15 times for 261 yards and 2 touchdowns. Nassar broke off a 96-yard touchdown dash in the second quarter and followed it up with a 76-yard burst just minutes later where he was run down from behind.
“We’ll have to talk about that in films,” Richards joked afterwards. The 96-yard touchdown scamper is the second longest scoring run in Bluffton history, tying Steve Shaw’s 1972 effort.
Troy Jolliff raced 99 yards in 1984 for the top mark. Nassar used his speed at times, but also his power to get out of would be tacklers on his way to averaging 17 yards per carry. The offensive line of Landen Luginbuhl, Mickey Ault, Chad Veit, Tabler and Howard opened holes for their running mates all night.
Schaadt had a solid night to begin his career, completing 5 of 9 passes for 86 yards and a score. While he threw a late interception, the freshman also carried the ball 15 times for 77 yards, finding particular success with the zone read.
Senior Logan Rhodes nabbed 3 catches for 65 yards including a 50 yard bomb up the right sideline as well as a spectacular one handed grab over the middle on his way to a 14 yard touchdown to open the scoring. Tucker Neff provided power up the middle on 5 carries for 23 yards
Defensively, Bluffton held Cory-Rawson to just 101 total yards on the night. The lone Hornet score came off a muffed punt at the Pirate 10 yard line. Other than that, the Pirate defense held CR in check. In the second half, Bluffton turned Cory Rawson over time and time again.
Nephi Peralta, whose 2017 season came to an end in Week 3, intercepted two Tommy Stauffer passes. The second one Peralta returned 25 yards for a Pirate score. Tyson Shutler tracked down a long Stauffer pass down the middle for another interception and the Pirates jumped on a fumbled punt return as well.
“I liked the work from our D-line guys Mason Ault, Xavier Oneal, Mickey Ault, Jason Althaus and Chad Veit. They controlled the line for us,” Richards mentioned post game. Mason Ault had a big sack in the first half and Zavier Oneal and Mickey Ault both had tackles for loss. Nassar led the team with 11 tackles and Tucker Neff added 7.5 tackles.
Bluffton will travel to Van Buren next Friday evening. The Black Knights were 35-16 losers to Carey in Week 1. The Pirates faced off against Carey in the final scrimmage of the preseason.
Game Notes: Nassar's night was nearly more historic than it ended. The senior only had a few carries in the fourth quarter and still finished with the fourth most rushing yards in school history for a single game. Josh Falk holds the record with 309 in a 2006 contest with Ada. Jeff Powell had 283 and 282 yards in 1996 games.
