MHS Football Team Tops Bluffton
05 Sep 2008

by Eric Christiansen
After playing a solid first half of football last week, the Manchester Squires ran out of gas in the second half in a loss to Mississinewa.
One week later, it was a different Squire team who played four solid quarters of football, pulling out a 20-6 win over visiting Bluffton.
“We ran them hard in practice last week,” Manchester coach Brandon Baker said. “We tried to tell them it wasn’t punishment for losing, but we were tired against Mississinewa. We worked hard during conditioning, and I believe we could have played another quarter.”
Manchester was led by Kyle Henderson’s 128 yards rushing on 28 carries and three touchdowns, while Brady Miller added 75 yards rushing on nine carries.
“Our line did a great job of being able to run the ball when we had to,” Baker said. “Both Henderson and Miller ran the ball well. We did a much better job of hitting the holes that the line created.”
Manchester scored on its first possession of the game.
After forcing Bluffton to punt, Henderson carried the load, picking up 27 yards on four carries, then plunging it in for a one yard touchdown run with 7:19 left in the first quarter. Austin Metzger’s extra point made it 7-0.
Both defenses buckled down the rest of the half with Bluffton punting three times, and missing a 43 yard field goal, and Manchester punting once and turning the ball over on downs three times.
Bluffton made the game closer with a one yard touchdown run with 4:12 left in the third quarter, but the missed two point conversion kept the Squires ahead 7-6.
After a Manchester punt, the Tigers struggled to move the ball and faced a fourth and 6 from the 28. Bluffton decided to go for it, but Corey Thomas had other plans, however, sacking quarterback Jordan Raugh, giving the ball back to the Squires on the Bluffton 25 yard line.
It took Manchester 10 plays and nearly five minutes, but the Squires took the lead whit a three yard touchdown run from Henderson with 6:28 left in the game. Metzger’s extra point made it 14-6.
On Bluffton’s next possession, the Tigers drove to the Squire 30 yard line, but turned the ball over on downs with 4:21 left in the game.
Henderson gave the Squires some security with a three yard touchdown run with 1:16 left to make the final score 20-6, improving the Squires to 1-1 in the early season.
“We had a good play of attack to stop their offense, and our players executed it,” Baker said. “We were aggressive and flew to the football. We talked all week about getting 11 guys to the ball to stop them. Our defense stepped up when we needed big plays.”
Things don’t get any easier for Squires, however, as they travel to Tippecanoe Valley this Friday, a week after the Vikings were shut out by Bremen 42-0.
“We can’t be satisfied with winning one game,” Baker added. “We need to build off the positives and eliminate mistakes. Tipp Valley will be ready to play, so we must play four quarters of good, solid football if we want to win.”
Kickoff is 7:00 p.m.
Rushing - K. Henderson, 28-128-3, B. Miller 9-75; Passing - Kennedy, 3-11-12; Receiving - R. Henderson 1-7, Tyler Shepherd 1-7.