Bradshaw Leads Dawgs to Win At Sabetha

From the Capital Journal:

Jacob Bradshaw carries Rossville to 34-28 win at Sabetha

Bulldawg quarterback rushes for 270 yards, throws for 204 as Rossville continues quest for third straight 3A state title

SABETHA — On a night where Jacob Bradshaw accounted for 474 yards of total offense, any number of plays could have gone down as his biggest in Saturday’s Class 3A playoff clash with Sabetha.

But one stuck out for the Rossville quarterback, and it was hard to argue it might have been the biggest play in the Bulldawgs’ 34-28 win.

With Rossville holding the slim six-point lead, the Bulldawgs faced third-and-5 at their own 32 with four-plus minutes left. Needing to get the first down to avoid giving the ball right back to Sabetha after the Bluejays had scored, Bradshaw kept on a rollout read-option run-pass.

He was hit well short of the first down but broke free from the Bluejays’ tackle and finished with a 9-yard run that all but finished off the victory for Rossville.

“It was really my choice and I had a lot of faith in myself to go pick up the first down,” Bradshaw said. “Once we got that first down, we knew we could run out the clock.”

That Rossville did and the Bulldawgs’ drive for a third straight Class 3A state title cleared a major hurdle. The victory moves Rossville (10-1) into next week’s quarterfinals where it will play host to Caney Valley (9-2), which raced past Osage City 43-16.

Getting there took everything Rossville had as Sabetha went toe-to-toe with the Bulldawgs from start to finish. The Bluejays scored first on a 60-yard touchdown run by Blake Plattner and had the game’s final score on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Christian Meyer to Trae Snyder.

And in between, the Bluejays did enough to hold a 14-13 halftime lead and keep the pressure on Rossville the entire way. But the Bulldawgs, tested and strengthened by their state-title runs, had an answer for everything Sabetha came up with, namely in the form of the playmaking Bradshaw.

“They’re an old-school football team who’s going to come out and hit you,” Bradshaw said. “We knew we had to come out and be physical. They came out and put some points on the board, but we are one of the most experienced playoff teams and that’s a benefit for us. We’ve been in this position before and we know what it takes in tough games like this.”

Bradshaw racked up 135 yards rushing and 87 passing in the first half alone, but Rossville trailed 14-13 with a missed PAT the difference. A second-half team much of this season, Rossville looked like it might bury Sabetha when Bradshaw busted runs of 19 and 14 to set up a 14-yard touchdown run by Dawson Hammes and then found Wyatt Dyche all alone for a 15-yard scoring pass on the Bulldawgs’ next possession, capping a 95-yard march to make it 28-14.

Sabetha wouldn’t go away and put together a 16-play scoring drive with Snyder scoring on a 1-yard run. Rossville quickly grabbed back the momentum when Bradshaw hit Cole Schumacher for a 72-yard touchdown bomb two plays after Snyder’s score, but the Bluejays again came up with an answer when their little-used passing game delivered.

Meyer hit Noah Garber for a 37-yard connection and three plays later found Snyder for the score to cut the deficit to six. All Sabetha needed was a defensive stop, but it couldn’t corral Bradshaw on the key play and Rossville iced the game with runs of 22 by Perry Foster and 13 by Bradshaw.

“It was just one big play and one big drive where we couldn’t stick it in the end zone and that’s huge in a game like this,” Sabetha coach Garrett Michael said. “He’s the best running back we’ve seen all year and he just happens to be a quarterback threat and it’s hard when he can throw it and run it like he does. We just tried to contain him and didn’t do that on a couple plays.”

Bradshaw finished with a career-best 270 yards rushing and also threw for 204 yards. Schumacher caught 10 passes for 156 yards.

Sabetha, which finished the year 9-2, got 107 rushing yards from Snyder, while Meyer threw for a career-best 106 yards.

“They’re so difficult to stop because they’re really good at what they do,” Rossville coach Derick Hammes said of Sabetha. “But we had the kind of stops we needed throughout the course of the game, and from that aspect our defense did a nice job. And offensively we were able to respond and ice the game.”

Rossville (10-1) 7 6 15 6 — 34

Sabetha (9-2) 7 7 0 14 — 28

Sab — Plattner 60 run (Cox kick)

Ross — Hammes 1 run (Andresen kick)

Ross — Bradshaw 1 run (kick failed)

Sab — Snyder 2 run (Cox kick)

Ross — Hammes 14 run (Andresen kick)

Ross — Dyche 15 pass from Bradshaw (Schumacher pass from Bradshaw)

Sab — Snyder 1 run (Cox kick)

Ross — Schumacher 72 pass from Bradshaw (kick failed)

Sab — Snyder 27 pass from Meyer (Cox kick)

GAME IN FIGURES

Ross Sab

First downs 26 16

Rushes-yards 47-340 51-214

Passing 204 106

Comp-Att-Int 12-19-0 5-7-0

Punts 1-46.0 4-35.0

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-0

Penalties-Yards 2-20 3-20

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Rossville: Bradshaw 33-270,, Hammes 10-44, Dyche 1-6, Foster 1-22, Team 2-minus 2. Sabetha: Snyder 30-107, Plattner 11-87, Meyer 6-2, Edelman 3-16, Gruber 1-2.

PASSING — Rossville: Bradshaw 12-19-0, 204. Sabetha: Meyer 5-7-0, 106.

RECEIVING — Rossville: Schumacher 10-153, Dyche 2-48. Sabetha: Edelman 1-6, Renyer 1-15, Plattner 1-21, Garber 1-37, Snyder 1-27.