The Bluffton University football team took advantage of its lone opportunity to compete this fall, running to a 28-21 victory over Adrian College on a chilly Saturday, Oct. 24. Adrian slipped to 1-2 on the season, while the Beavers head into the spring with a 1-0 mark.
The plan was evident from the first snap of the game when Bluffton handed the ball to Darian Greeley (Belleville, Mich./Chippewa Valley) and he took it 11 yards for a first down.
He ran it four more times before Zachary Nobis (Bryan) gave it to Maalik Tucker (Fostoria) for a pair of 13-yard gains on the ground. Greeley finished off the 8-play drive that covered 75 yards and used up four minutes without a single pass. His seven-yard run to paydirt made it 7-0.
After stuffing Adrian's 4th and goal from the 1-yard line on the Bulldogs' first possession, Bluffton took over at its own 3-yard line. Two plays later, Greeley unleashed a 61-yard run that gave the home team a 14-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game.
Adrian made it 14-6 with 3:26 to play in the first half and then the Bulldogs opened the second half with a five-play, 75-yard scoring drive which knotted the score at 14 apiece at the 12:56 mark of the 3rd quarter. Bluffton answered right back with an 11-play drive that saw Greeley carry it nine times, including a 3-yard scamper that made it 21-14 in the middle of the 3rd quarter.
Nobis hooked up with senior tight end Kais Chiles (Wapakoneta) for a 6-yard pitch and catch that pushed the spread to 28-14 following a 13-play drive that chewed up over seven minutes off clock time. Adrian pulled within a score at the 4:33 mark, but Greeley was more than up to the task as he took seven straight handoffs to extinguish the clock as Bluffton downed Adrian for the first time since 1977.
Greeley put up the most rushing yards for a Beaver since Elbert Dubenion, who played for the Buffalo Bills, went for 294 in 1955. His 285 yards on 41 carries is 3rd on the all time list behind Dubenion and Mike Goings who holds the all-time mark of 314 against Alma in 1962. His 41 carries are also the most ever recorded for a Beaver. Greeley went for three touchdowns in Bluffton's victory on Saturday after rolling up 171 yards on the ground in the first half.
Tucker added 59 yards on just 10 carries. Nobis completed 5-of-11 passes for 51 yards and a touchdown. Brady Hauenstein (Columbus Grove), Stephan Kosakowski (Cleveland/Benedictine) and Dana Shoulders II (Mansfield/Lexington) paced the Bluffton defense with seven stops apiece, including 2.5 TFL's for Shoulders.
Bluffton finished with 423 yards of offense, compared to 442 for the Bulldogs. The 372 yards on the ground were the most since 2011 when Bluffton ran for 381 at Defiance. THe Beavers controlled the ball for nearly 34 minutes, racking up 28 first downs, including 21 on the ground. Bluffton was an efficient 9-of-14 on 3rd down while holding the visitors to 5-of-11 on 3rd down conversion attempts.
Bluffton will be back at Salzman Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021, when the Beavers welcome Rose-Hulman for the Heartland Conference opener.
