Bluffton took advantage of its lone opportunity to compete this fall, running to a 28-21 victory over Adrian on a chilly Saturday in Ohio. 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 and he took it 11 yards for a first down. He ran it four more times before Zachary Nobis gave it to Maalik Tucker for a pair of 13-yard gains on the ground. Greeley finished off the eight-play drive that covered 75 yards and used up four minutes without a single pass. His 7-yard run to paydirt made it 7-0.
After stuffing Adrian's fourth-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.
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| Darian Greeley ran for 285 yards and three touchdowns in Bluffton's homecoming win vs. Adrian. Bluffton athletics file photo |
Adrian rallied to tie the score, as running back Steven Moses scored his first TD of the afternoon at the 3:26 mark in the second stanza from 4 yards out to cap a 94-yard drive in 12 plays. Moses added a 1-yard plunge on the first drive of the second half, punctuating a five-play, 76-yard drive. The two-point conversion run by Moses tied the score at 14-all. Bluffton answered with an 11-play drive that saw Greeley carry it nine times, including a 3-yard scamper that made it 20-14 in the middle of the third quarter.
Nobis hooked up with senior tight end Kais Chiles 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 third 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 five of 11 passes for 51 yards and a touchdown. Brady Hauenstein, Stephan Kosakowski and Dana Shoulders II paced the Bluffton defense with seven stops apiece, including 2.5 tackles for loss 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.
Moses ran for 159 yards on 29 carries and three touchdowns for Adrian, all career highs after his recent transition to the offensive side of the ball. Freshman Preston Smith led all receivers with nine receptions and 158 yards, both career highs.