Yellow Jackets hand Purple Raiders a stinging defeat
By Keno Sultan
Stark County Prep Press writer
www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com
ALLIANCE--For the first time since 2017, there is a new ruler of the Ohio Athletic Conference.
The Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets used three touchdown passes from quarterback Charlie Bubonics and an attacking defense that forced three turnovers as the Yellow Jackets swung the pendulum of power in the OAC with a 27-21 win over Mount Union in front of a large crowd at Kehres Stadium.
The win secured the outright OAC title and will ensure them of a bid to the Division III playoffs and for the first time, barring an unexpected turn of events, Mount Union may not be in the Division III playoffs, something that will be highly unidentifiable to the Mount Union football fans and team.
Both offenses played to a 0-0 stalemate that saw both defenses dictate the opening 15 minutes of action.
The first mistake was made when the Purple Raiders muffed a punt that was recovered by the Yellow Jackets and two plays after the gaffe, the visitors scores when Charlie Bubonics connected on a short three-yard pass to Connor Awad and Baldwin-Wallace cracked the scoreboard first with a 7-0 lead early into the second quarter.
It became more disastrous for Mount Union when they fumbled the kickoff and again the Yellow Jackets recovered. But the damage wasn't as bad as the Yellow Jackets could not capitalize on it.
Then the Yellow Jackets had a first down off a Bubonics completion to Awad but Awad unexpectedly lost the ball, leading to a turnover and a Mount possession.
After a Purple Raiders three-and-out, Bubonics added to the Purple Raiders troubles when Bubonics connected deep to Xavier Balson for a 50-yard strike deep to the Purple Raiders 25-yard line. Three plays later, Owen Warrick extended the Yellow Jackets advantage to two scores with a field goal spanning 42 yards and they had a stunning 10-0 lead at the half.
Mount Union came out firing to start the second half. Quarterback Mikey Maloney led a drive and capped it with a 30-yard scamper for a much needed touchdown and the Purple Raiders cracked the scoreboard as they truncated the Yellow Jackets deficit to 10-7 with 10:50 left in the third quarter.
The Purple Raiders momentum was gone almost immediately when Bubonics showed great poise and answered with a 51-yard scoring pass to Seandelle Gardner to extend their lead back to 10 points at 17-7 with much of the game left to be played.
All heck broke loose on one play when Maloney took advantage of a broken assignment in the Baldwin-Wallace secondary and located a wide open Brayden Harris for a 57-yard score and just like that, Mount Union found themselves having the momentum again as they trailed 17-14.
Just as easily, Baldwin-Wallace answered as Bubonics threw his third touchdown of the game, a 22-yarder to Colin Quinlan and once again the Yellow Jackets advantage swelled again back to 10 points to conclude the quarter.
The Purple Raiders suffered their third turnover of the game when Maloney had the ball jarred loose and that would prove costly for the hosts.
But they were not done yet. After a Yellow Jackets field goal, the Raiders answered quickly when Maloney connected to Bryan Ashby and now the title was hanging in the balance as the Yellow Jackets lead was now whittled to just 27-21 with 5:12 left
That would be as close as Mount Union would get as Baldwin-Wallace would hold them off the rest of the way. Aside from losing the turnover battle, Mount was also dominated upfront as the Yellow Jackets held the ball for a staggering 40 minutes compared to 19 for the hosts.
10th year Yellow Jackets head coach Jim Hilvert, a two-time state title winning football coach at Cincinnati LaSalle High School took pride in the Yellow Jackets first conference title in 32 years.
"We showed that Baldwin-Wallace grit is all about and we had the fans and alumni come out and support us tonight and we all bleed brown and gold and we want to continue that," he said.
When asked if tonight's game was reminiscent of his second state title win at LaSalle, Hilvert nearly concurred.
"Wow, that's a (darn) good question," he said with ta laugh. "Two different games but tonight is up there with that one. We had not beaten them in 32 year but to do that tonight is awesome."
For the first time since 2017, the OAC has a new ruler. And the Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets left a very stinging reminder of that tonight with an OAC title and automatic Division III birth in their arsenal.
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