Craft leads Eagles over Streaks

By STEVE COLON

Expositor Editor

BOWLING GREEN - The Archbold Blue Streaks ran into a buzz saw on Saturday night in the regional semi-finals of the Division V football tournament. That buzz saw, despite some big plays by a few players, had its sharpest tooth in junior quarterback Aaron Craft.

Craft, who plays quarterback, safety, punts, holds on kicks and returns punts and kick offs, is the star player on the Liberty Benton Eagles' squad. He rushed for 153 yards and four touchdowns while throwing for another 177 yards on offense. He added an interception on defense as the Eagles defeated the Streaks 42-10.

The Streaks got into a hole early as the Craft-led Eagles scored 28 points in the opening quarter.

Craft capped a nine-play, 76-yard drive with a 10-yard scoring run to open the game.

Archbold's David Rupp threw his second pass of the game off the hands of Christian Goering and into those of defender Brennan Lieb who ran the ball to the one yard line.

Craft scored on the next play, and after the Justin Hyde kick, his team was up 14-0 not quite halfway through the opening period.

A delay of game penalty proved costly for the Streaks on the second drive of the game and they were forced to punt.

Craft hit a wide-open Hyde for 61-yards and Craft covered the final 16 yards on two carries to up the score to 21-0 giving the Streaks the ball with just over a minute left in the quarter.

Archbold went three-and-out giving the Eagles the ball on their own 45 with seven seconds left. Craft hit Ryan Cook who ran to paydirt after the catch for a 28-0 lead after 12 minutes of play.

Archbold opened the second period with a scoring drive. After two runs that lost yardage, Rupp hit Breon Price for a 59-yard reception to the eight. A loss of four yards by Jacob Fidler and two incomplete passes brought out sophomore kicker Aaron Bontranger. His 29-yard attempt split the uprights to put Archbold on the board for the only points scored in the second period.

The Streaks could not stop Liberty Benton but did contain them forcing Craft to punt the ball twice.

In the second half, the Streaks opened with a punt but seemed to get some life after Liberty Benton drove 45 yards only to cough up the ball on the 10 yard line.

The Streaks, however, could not move the ball forward, instead losing nine yards before punting from the one.

Craft hit Hyde again for 30 yards and then ran the final five yards for his fourth score of the night halfway through the third quarter and a 35-3 lead.

The Streaks mounted their biggest drive of the game on their next possession. On fourth-and-four, Fidler took the snap to punt and instead ran the ball for 27 yards and a first down.

Rupp hit Filder for 13 yard gain and then hit Drew Smith for a 32-yard gain to the 13. Craft once again came up big for the Eagles picking off Rupp's pass in the endzone to start a 17-play, 90-yard drive capped by a nine yard run from Wade Russell.

The Streaks finally hit the endzone after a 27-yard punt return off a bad punt gave them the ball at the Eagle's 13 yard line. Garrett Morton hit Smith in the endzone for a 16-yard scoring connection and a final score of 42-10.

The Eagles dominated both sides of the ball putting up 434 total yards of offense. They had 20 first downs to Archbold's six while Craft rushed for 177 of the team's 257 yard on the ground. He upped his 82 percent completion percentage going 10 of 12 for 177 yards.

The Streaks could not run on the speedy Eagle defense getting just 42 yards on the ground. Rupp went five of 21 for 100 yards and two interceptions for 156 yards of total offense.

The Eagles will face top ranked Patrick Henry which advanced with a 21-0 win over Bucyrus Winford in the afternoon game at Doyt Perry Stadium. That game will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at BGSU.