By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
GREENWOOD – Gunner Ruppert was a one-man wood chipper, devouring flat-footed defenders while leaving a trail of saw dust on the gray Greenwood turf all the way to the end zone.
With his offensive line doing the clear cutting in front of him, Ruppert was a touchdown machine, scoring five times as the Woodmen sawed through Bedford North Lawrence with a devastating, big-play running attack in the Class 4A Sectional 23 semifinal on Friday night.
Ruppert exploded for a career-high 345 rushing yards as Greenwood (4-7) mauled the Stars 48-24, advancing to the sectional championship for a rematch with Martinsville. The No.3 Artesians overpowered Silver Creek 49-13 in the other semifinal.
Perhaps Ruppert’s statistics should be measured in board feet rather than yards. He went the distance on his first carry, broke a 75-yarder in the third quarter, and his monster performance would have been mind blowing had a 62-yard score not been erased by a Greenwood penalty. Give the kid an open door, and he took it to the house with breakaway speed and lightning cuts.
“I can’t do anything but thank my O-line,” Ruppert said. “Those guys in the trenches were putting in the hard work, opening up holes for me. I can’t thank them enough. They do the hard work and I do the easy part.”
The hard part was catching him. BNL (2-9) could not. He erupted for a 47-yard touchdown on his first takeoff, scampered home from 17 to give Greenwood a 13-0 lead, then ripped off a 39-yarder for his third score. His 75-yarder – much like the rest, a hesitation in the backfield, followed by a burst up the middle while gashing through defenders – was the killer, giving the Woodmen a 35-8 lead late in the third quarter. His final blast was from 27 yards with 4:02 left.
“It’s good to see him back,:” said Greenwood coach Justin Boser, who had to patchwork his offense when Ruppert missed four regular-season games with a sprained shoulder. “That’s what he looked like against Mooresville (when he ran for 334 yards in Week 4), the last time he was really healthy. Once he hits a little seam, he’s able to make an explosive play. We really got him going.
“He’s really good at being patient. The line did a great job. When we hit the big ones, we were getting bodies on bodies.”
BNL died heroically, scoring three touchdowns in the second half, when it seemed a mercy-rule poleaxing was inevitable. The Stars converted two turnovers into points, with Brody Horton bolting home for the first score, with Jaden Gilbert tallying twice. But BNL’s passing game, normally its best offensive option, was blanketed and smothered for a long time, and seven pre-snap penalties stopped a lot of momentum.
“Penalties just killed us,” BNL coach Derrick Barker said. “We got behind the chains, and we’re not built to operate in long-yardage situations. It was not our best night. That’s the classic example of Stars beating Stars. When you have penalties before the ball is snapped, you’re going to have a hard time.”
After Greenwood’s stunning first score, BNL forced two punts and posted a fourth-down stop. If the Stare were waiting on the hammer to fall, it came in the second quarter. Ruppert’s third touchdown capped an 88-yard drive, all on the ground, for a 21-0 lead. The final score of the first half came after Greenwood’s Davion Jones picked off a Dayson Kirby pass at midfield. The Woodmen converted that with Parker Jarboe’s 12-yard TD pass to tight end Braden Cave for a 28-0 halftime advantage.
The Stars showed some spunk. Chase Rynders recovered a Jarboe fumbled snap, and Lucas Ira’s 23-yard pass to Dax Short set up the Horton touchdown. But back came Ruppert with that crushing blow from 75 yards.
“He ran really hard,” Barker said. “He’s a good back. We knew he had speed, it was some of the cuts and vision he had that was impressive. Like the old cliche, he was patient to the hole, and ran hard through it.”
BNL’s second score came after Jimmy Farmer recovered a fumble. Ira scrambled for 13 yards, then hit Gilbert for a 25-yard touchdown with 6:48 left. Greenwood came back with two TDs in 27 seconds. After Ruppert finished his night with his fifth, Greenwood’s defense recorded a sack-fumble on Ira, and Leland Morton rumbled over from 15 yards on the next play. The Stars added their late score on Gilbert’s 15-yard catch from Kirby.
“I was proud of that,” Barker said. “It’s not been the season we wanted to have, but the kids kept showing up. It shows a lot about the heart and resolve, to fight back. We made some great blocks at the end, when it would have been easy to settle down and not want contact.”
Ruppert was a workhorse, logging 37 carries. The Woodmen finished with 458 total yards.
Gilbert had 91 yards rushing and Horton added 71 on the ground. But BNL’s aerial attack (with a 1-for-8 start for 1 yard against Greenwood’s three-man rush and clogged secondary) was held to 9 of 25 for 97 yards and two interceptions.
“There’s a lot of things to work on, a lot of lessons going forward to learn from this,” Barker said. “We have to put it to use and grow from it.”
BNL fell to 4-15 overall in November games and 14-40 in its postseason history.
Bedford NL 0 0 8 16 – 24
Greenwood 7 21 7 13 – 48
First quarter
G – Gunner Ruppert, 47 run (William Thompson kick) 11:20
Second quarter
G – Ruppert, 17 run (kick failed), 11:39; G – Ruppert, 39 run (Ruppert run), 4:27; G – Braden Cave, 12 pass from Parker Jarboe (Thompson kick), 0:17
Third quarter
BNL – Brody Horton, 13 run (Dax Short pass from Lucas Ira), 6:14; G – Ruppert, 75 run (Thompson kick), 1:27
Fourth quarter
BNL – Jaden Gilbert, 25 pass from Ira (Ira run), 6:48; G – Ruppert, 27 run (Thompson kick), 4:02; G – Leland Morton, 15 run (kick failed), 3:35; BNL – Gilbert, 15 pass from Dayton Kirby (Horton run), 2:59
Team statistics
BNL – First downs 16 (12 by run, 4 by pass); Rushing 37-193; Passing 9-25-2-97; Total yards 290; Fumbles 1 (lost 1); Penalties 9-51
Greenwood – First downs 13 (9 by run, 3 by pass, 1 by penalty); Rushing 49-404: Passing 4-11-0-54; Total yards 458; Fumbles 2 (lost 2); Penalties 6-43
Individual statistics
Rushing – (BNL) Kirby 1-(-5), Ira 6-18, Horton 10-71, Gilbert 16-91, Crane 1-4, Axsom 2-8, Kern 1-4; (G) Ruppert 37-345, Jarboe 1-(-3), Scaramazzo 7-40, Morton 4-22
Passing – (BNL) Kirby 3-12-1-34, Ira 6-13-1-63; (G) Ruppert 0-1-0-0, Houseman 1-2-0-13, Jabroe 3-8-0-41
Receiving – (BNL) Crane 1-1, Gilbert 3-40, Axsom 1-(-2), Short 3-53, Kern 1-5; (G) Jones 2-29, Ruppert 1-13, Cave 1-12
