Alder Beats Bellefontaine To End Losing Streak, Clinch Playoff Berth

The Pioneers needed Trey Bentley and every other hand they could get on deck to hold off a game Bellefontaine team that was undone by turnovers in the second half.

Bellefontaine, OH — Needing a win to secure a spot in the Division IV, Region 11 playoffs, Jonathan Alder brought all its weapons to AcuSport Stadium on Friday night. 

Yes, that included Trey Bentley, who entered Week 10 as the CBC’s second-leading receiver despite missing all of four games and most of a fifth because of injury. 

The junior played only defense in the first half but pulled double duty in the second and had an impact on both sides of the ball as Alder won 41-28.

He broke up a pass in the first half, intercepted one in the second and caught a touchdown pass as the Pioneers (7-3) prevailed over Bellefontaine (2-8). 

“We didn’t anticipate him playing that much, but we kind of got into the flow of the game, and he said he was feeling good so just rolled with it,” Jonathan Alder coach Brett Glass said. “And he’s he’s a tough, tough, tough, tough competitor.”

Bentley was noticeable from his strong-side linebacker spot in the first half, and his presence was felt right away when pressed into action on offense because of an injury to a Pioneer receiver.

Lining up in the slot, he crossed the formation for a fake jet sweep, drawing enough attention from the defense to open up a lane for Christian Amann to rumble up the middle 13 yards for touchdown that tied the score at 21 early in the third quarter.

On the next possession, Alder linebacker Ben Pitzinger intercepted a pass at the Bellefontaine 42 and returned it for a touchdown to give the Pioneers a 27-21 lead (the PAT failed) and foreshadow things to come. 

Interceptions ended up being the story of the second half as two more promising Chieftain drives ended with the ball in the hands of a Pioneer. 

A 55-yard kickoff return set up the Chiefs at the Alder 16, but JA freshman Alex Boyd deflected a pass near the goal line. It fell into the hands of Bentley, who returned the ball to midfield. 

Then early in the fourth quarter the Chiefs were on the move down 13 when senior QB Blake Loomis looked deep down the middle for Sutton Daring but overshot him and found Boyd again instead. 

That led to a 3-yard touchdown run by Amann that put the Chieftains away, though they added a touchdown late when CJ Butler made a spectacular catch of a Loomis pass in the back of the end zone with 54 seconds remaining. 

“I think there was a lot of fight in our kids for most of the night,” Bellefontaine coach Jason Brown said. “There’s a bit of time there to start the second half where we didn’t play complimentary football, turned it over and hurt ourselves, but beyond that, this football team showed resilience, showed what they could be when this is one of the few times in the season where we were able to kind of have I guess what you would say is the lineup we started the season with.” 

Loomis missed four games with injury, and the Chieftains lost them all. He returned in Week 8 to lead a 34-26 win over Tecumseh, but by then a losing season had been assured. 

Nonetheless, Bellefontaine did not look like a two-win team most of the night. 

The hosts struck first with a 78-yard touchdown pass from Loomis to Dillon Jones on the first play of the game — except it didn’t count. 

Jones caught a screen pass, sidestepped a tackler and sprinted down the visitors sideline for a score, but a flag for holding nullified the big play. 

No matter: The Chieftains scored anyway five plays later when Loomis was flushed from the pocket by both defensive ends and scrambled into the end zone from 12 yards out. That was made possible by a 56-yard run by Bryant Carter, who was tough to stop in the first half but left the game with an ankle injury in the third quarter. 

The Pioneers responded with a long drive after receiving a short kick and taking over at their 37. 

Drew Hughes got it started with a 17-yard swing pass to Ben McCain on second down, and Hughes finished it with a 13-yard keeper for a touchdown six plays later. 

The Pioneers forced a punt on the ensuing drive, then put together a 14-play march that started at their 27 and lasted more than six minutes. 

The crucial moment saw Alder facing a fourth-and-4 at the Bellefontaine 29. Hughes dropped to pass and found McCain open on a smash route for 28 yards and a first down at the Chiefs 11. 

Hughes finished the drive five plays later with a 1-yard sneak for a touchdown and a 14-7 lead, but Bellefontaine responded with its own 14-play drive, covering 79 yards and taking 5:04 off the clock. 

This was a methodical march until the Chiefs faced third-and-3 at the Alder 39. They dialed up a 10-yard gain on an inside pitch to Daring, then one play later Loomis hit Jones in the flat, and he broke a tackle before being brought down at the Alder 8 for a gain of 21. 

That set up an 8-yard TD pass from Loomis to Aven Caudill on a bootleg to tie the score at 14 with 5:08 left. 

The Pioneers looked like they might regain the lead when they drove to the Bellefontaine 17 on the next possession, but a high snap on third-and-1 sailed over Hughes’ head and was recovered by Bellefontaine’s Landon White at the 31 with 1:24 on the clock. 

Not content to take a tie to the locker room, the hosts quickly moved into scoring position and took the lead when Loomis bounced outside, lowered his shoulder and pushed into the end zone on a second effort on what started as a QB sneak up the middle. That made it 21-14 with 17 seconds left in the second quarter. 

“Just do what we do,” Glass said of his team’s rally in the second half. “We didn’t make crazy adjustments. We didn’t do anything crazy different. We just played better.” 

And they get to keep playing as a result. 

Glass told his guys to be ready for film on Saturday while they awaited their official playoff assignment. That figures to be a road game, but beggars can’t be choosers – especially after the Pioneers endured a three-game losing streak from Weeks 7-9.

“Rough,” Glass said of the past month. “You know what I mean? Lose three games in a row:  Our kids aren’t used to losing. Our coaches aren’t used to losing. We had a great week of practice this week and handled a lot of adversity tonight. We lost two starters during the game. Lost a starter during the week in practice this week. So just a lot of guys stepping up all over the field for us and battling through some stuff.” 

Hughes completed 17 of 19 passes for 298 yards and a touchdown and ran for 31 yards and two scores for Alder. 

Amann finished with 171 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries while McCain had 112 yards on six catches.

Bentley was credited with 46 yards on four catches. 

“When we’ve got him on the field, game plan’s a little different, mood’s a little different,” Hughes said. “It’s easier.” 

For the hosts, Loomis completed 26 of 34 passes for 235 yards and ran for 36 yards and two touchdowns while Jones caught six passes for 70 yards and Butler had six catches for 62 yards. 

Although a group of seniors including Loomis and Daring played their finals games in red and black, Brown feels good about the way his team finished the season and believes it will pay dividends in ’27. 

“Obviously the results haven’t been what we want win-loss wise, but you know we played better football. Our kids played tougher football,” Brown said. 

“For our guys, we’ve taken those steps (toward being better next season) in the last three weeks. There were some dark times in the middle of the season where our kids showed a lot of toughness by being together and going through tough times and never giving up on each other and continuing to pour into each other. But then there was a really good switch in the second half of the season as we got into these last three weeks. Started with homecoming and just guys working really hard, executing. We finally played some complementary football. We got our lineup back together. At times tonight we just hurt ourselves, but there’s just a lot of good to build on. Our kids will be eager and excited.”