Inside the ‘magic’ game-winning play Andover Central football used to beat Buhler
When the play call came in, Andover Central senior offensive lineman Drew Daniels had a little bit of an uneasy feeling.
Not only had Andover Central completely lost the momentum, and as a result its lead to Buhler, but now the Jaguars faced third-and-15 from their own 46-yard line with less than 90 seconds left on the clock and they were going with a running back screen pass that had, to be kind, mixed results in practice.
“We’ve struggled with that play ever since I’ve been a freshman,” said Daniels, a four-year starter on Andover Central’s offensive line. “We’ve just never quite gotten it right. We’ve always struggled with the guards getting out to the cornerbacks and staying in front of them so our running back can bounce off of them.”
It turns out coach Derek Tuttle made the right play call at the right time and Andover Central executed it better than ever as senior running back Ashton Barkdull took the screen pass and sprinted untouched 54 yards for the game-winning touchdown in the final minute of Andover Central’s 21-19 win over Buhler on Friday.
After surrendering a 14-0 halftime lead and watching Buhler take control of the game with 19 straight points, No. 4 Andover Central was able to wipe all of that away with a single, bold play call to improve to 2-0 and pick up a victory over a ranked opponent in No. 3 Buhler and one of the top Class 4A West contenders.
“We pulled that play out of our magic hat,” Barkdull said with a grin.
It just so happened on the play Andover Central choose to have Barkdull leak out to the left flat for the screen, Buhler had dialed up a blitz from that very side with the expectation that the Jaguars would attempt a deep pass on third-and-15.
Instead, Buhler’s defense was left vulnerable and Andover Central capitalized with the perfect play call.
“We were caught blitzing and it was just a good call by them,” Buhler coach Steve Warner said.
“We had kind of been hanging onto that call for the whole second half,” Tuttle said. “We figured we would get some pressure and we thought it could work out well. Obviously, we didn’t know it was going to the house. We were just trying to get the first down.”
While Barkdull’s name is attached to the touchdown, it took a full cast of teammates to make the game-winning play work.
It started with the blocking of Daniels, Andover Central’s all-state left guard, and Nate Peak, the senior center, whose job was to slip out to the left side of the field and seal a lane for Barkdull to run through.
The timing of the blocking had always been just a little off in practice, but on Friday Daniels and Peak delivered textbook execution. Peak was in position to wall off a linebacker in pursuit and Daniels sprinted down the field to be there to smother a cornerback for the block that sprang Barkdull for the touchdown.
“Drew is just a relentless football player,” Tuttle said. “I’m talking about every snap in practice and in games, he takes it very seriously about doing his job and doing it right. I think his intensity really helps in a situation like that.”
“A block like that at the end of the game for the game-winning touchdown, you can’t ask for anything better than that,” Daniels said. “There’s so much adrenaline, you don’t really think. You just do what you’ve been practicing every day in practice and rely on your fundamentals.”
Together, Peak and Daniels helped give Barkdull a 10-yard-wide lane where he could make one cut and turn on the straight-line speed that made him a 100-meter dash medalist this past spring on the track for the go-ahead score with 60 seconds left.
“I have to give the credit to our lineman on that play,” Barkdull said. “Drew Daniels is a big boy (6 foot 1, 275 pounds) and he was running as fast as he could down the sideline. I was just running behind him and I was struggling to keep up. He got the key block and all I had to do was run. He did all of the hard work.”
Completing a short dump-off pass was far from the hardest throw Andover Central quarterback Kai Kunz made on Friday, but the touchdown doesn’t happen without Kunz being willing to absorb a hit.
Remember that blitz Buhler called? Well, it didn’t lead to a sack, but linebacker Sam Elliott had a free line direct to the quarterback and he leveled Kunz right as he released the pass. Instead of rushing the throw, which could have thrown off the timing of the blocks, Kunz stood his ground, took the hit and delivered the throw.
“I was on the ground, so I couldn’t see what was happening,” said Kunz, who threw for 163 yards and rushed for 76 yards. “I threw it to the man himself, Ashton Barkdull, and he made me look good. He just took off and did his thing and we scored. It was a wonderful play call by coach Tuttle.”
“As soon as I turned the corner, I knew that we had it,” Barkdull said. “I knew it was a touchdown. It was an incredible feeling.”
Adding to Buhler’s heartache is that it had two very good chances to stop Andover Central from ever setting up Barkdull’s 54-yard touchdown.
Earlier on that possession, Buhler’s defense had the Jaguars backed up into a 4th-and-8 from their own 37-yard-line — only to watch Kunz scramble from the pocket and weave his way for a 14-yard first down to midfield. Two plays later, Kunz forced a pass down the field that hit a Buhler defender in his hands for what could have been the game-sealing interception.
The very next play Barkdull scored.
“We had a chance to win the game and that’s all you can ask,” Warner said. “It was amazing how our kids responded because they were dejected at halftime. We showed we’re never going to quit and we’re going to keep fighting until the end. We’ve got a lot of heart and a lot of character. Obviously we wish we would have made some plays on that last drive they had, but we didn’t.”
Andover Central 21, Buhler 19
Buhler (1-1) 0 0 13 6 — 19
Andover Central (2-0) 14 0 0 7 — 21
AC—Barkdull 7 run (Saye kick, 5:15, 1st)
AC—Tabor 52 fumble return; Stupka 46 pass from Kunz (Saye kick, 1:46, 1st)
B—Rolland 8 pass from B. Neill (J. Neill kick, 3:19, 3rd)
B—B. Neill 16 run (J. Neill kick, 0:34, 3rd)
B—Rolland 7 pass from B. Neill (pass failed, 3:07, 4th)
AC—Barkdull 54 pass from Kunz (Saye kick, 1:00, 4th)
Rushing—Buhler, Elliott 13-21, B. Neill 3-6, Coffey 3-5, Rolland 1-2, D. Campbell 1-(-3); Andover Central, Barkdull 24-91, Kunz 13-76, Tabor 2-59, Rees 1-3.
Passing—Buhler, B. Neill 15-31-1-223, J. Neill 0-1-0-0; Andover Central, Kunz 12-20-0-163.
Receiving—Buhler, Eddy 3-45, Rolland 4-33, Tustian 1-30, Coffey 1-27, McCurdy 1-22, C. Campbell 1-22, McCabe 1-18, Van Bruggen 2-14, Elliott 1-12; Andover Central, Barkdull 2-64, Stupka 3-60, Tabor 5-21, Ek 2-18.
This story was originally published September 11, 2021 at 3:45 AM.
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