A blocked extra point gave the Bears hope, and quarterback Roman Mathis got them down to the 25-yard line before his pass was picked off by David Green, who returned it 95 yards as time expired to seal the victory and put an exclamation score on the board. The Bucs took it 81 yards with Sanderfer getting 68 of it, his final 23-yard run putting the Bucs on top with just 36 second remaining. It's what we do,' said offensive lineman Jack Frazier. 'We knew if we stayed in the game, they would break before we did. And when Davidson Academy turned back to Stroud on an 80-yard march which the sophomore toted it seven times for 75 of the yards, including another four-yard TD run, it was back to even at 24-all with just 5:41 remaining. I was ready to get the job done,' said Sanderfer, who finished with 13 second half carries for 107 yards.Īfter holding the Bears to their only three-and-out on the night, ran it five times in a 53-yard drive, scoring on another third down carry from the 10 to give Boyd Buchanan the lead back at 24-17. I knew I was going to get back in there eventually and the coaches told me we need you this week. 'It's all about fighting through the adversity. A big kickoff return by Jeri Young took the Bucs all the way to Davidson's 26, and Sandefer's first carry came on a key third down run, finding the end zone from 21 yards out to tie it back up just 59 seconds later. At that point, the Bears had amassed 270 yards of offense to Boyd Buchanan's 145 and all the momentum sat on the visitor's sideline. Stroud ran it nine times in a 65-yard drive to open the second half, scoring on a four-yard run to put the Bears up 17-10 with 5:45 left. With Boyd Buchanan's usually stingy defense searching for answers against Davidson's big offensive line and sophomore tailback Caden Stroud, the right answer was Sanderfer. He went out there with a mindset he was going to win it by himself if he had to,' Rankin admitted. He's a college player and I didn't want to do anything that might hurt that, but the doctor cleared him., We held him off as long as we could, but we got to the point where we had to have him. 'I really wasn't even sure if I was going to let him play. But the one dude who could match up with anything the Bears had going for them was Sanderfer, and when the Bears reeled off 17 unanswered points to erase an early 10-0 Bucs' lead, Rankin turned to his big hoss. They pulled this together,' said a happy Rankin amidst a wild celebration Friday night.ĭespite 17 state titles that might say otherwise, Rankin and staff put together a game plan that gave the Bucs a chance against a special Davidson Academy squad that quite frankly had more talent. I'm not that good of a coach, this one is all them. This wasn't supposed to happen this quickly. 'Yeah this one will go down as one of my top three biggest surprises. kick on Thursday, November 30th in the first of nine BlueCross Bowl state title affairs. Boyd Buchanan (13-0) will meet CPA, a 36-16 winner over Franklin Road Academy in the other semifinal, for the Gold Ball at Finley Stadium in an 11 a.m. Just five weeks removed from tight rope surgery to repair a torn ligament in his ankle, Sanderfer returned to the Buc backfield with a vengeance, ripping off three touchdowns in the final 16 minutes to lift Boyd Buchanan to a 36-24 victory in the DII-AA TSSAA state semifinals.

Happy game rabbit