With his team down by 10 points in the fourth quarter, Berkeley’s Bruce Ellington scored a pair of touchdowns to lead the Berkeley Stags to a 33-24 AAAA Division II state championship win over Northwestern Friday night in Columbia.
The Stags scored 19 unanswered points in the fourth quarter behind Ellington’s two touchdowns and R.J. Robinson’s late 19-yard dagger to the heart to nail down Berkeley’s first state championship since 1996.
“I have never seen anybody dominate a football game like Bruce Ellington,” said Stags head coach Jerry Brown, who brought home his fourth state championship and third with Berkeley.
“One down, one to go,” Ellington said displaying his state championship gold medal around his neck.
Way back in the summer, Ellington made the bold claim that his senior class would bring home two state titles this year, one in football and one in basketball.
His Stags are halfway there.
“We seniors got together and set the goal of winning two state championships, one in football and one in basketball,” the Stag sensation explained.
Ellington could just shake his head in wonderment. Sometimes he even surprises himself.
“Amazing, just amazing,” he said, “but all the credit goes to Coach Brown and the offensive line. They made the blocks that opened the holes to put me in the end zone.”
Ellington, who rushed for 196 yards on 23 carries, scored on touchdown runs of 3, 68, 28, and 40 yards, the final two coming less than a minute-and-a-half of each other as the Stags rallied after a disastrous third quarter that nearly saw their championship hopes go down in flames.
With the teams tied at 14 at the start of the second half, the Stags took their first possession and promptly scored on a 78-yard touchdown by R.J. Robinson, only to see the big play called back on a pair of personal fouls.
Forced to punt with their backs against the end zone, Berkeley gave Northwestern excellent field position and all-world quarterback Justin Worley quickly delivered, picking the Stags defense apart with quick passes to record-setting wide receiver Robert Joseph and well-timed runs on shotgun draws to DeMario Wilson who scored on a five-yard run up the middle to give the Trojans a 21-14 lead.
On its next possession and buried deep in its own territory, Berkeley coughed up the football on the drive’s second play, the only Stag turnover of the night. But the BHS defense stepped up, allowing a Ryan Foster 23-yard field goal.
With just over 16 minutes left in the game and Berkeley down by 10, the nearly 9,000-strong crowd thought the state title would be heading north on I-77 to Rock Hill.
The Berkeley defense, that came of age in the playoffs, stepped into the limelight in the second half, effectively shutting down the Trojan passing game.
“The defense really stepped it up and made the big plays,” said defensive coordinator Ed Moore. “We had some unfortunate breaks in the third quarter and got behind.
“The defense made up their minds they were going to stop Worley and they made the plays when we needed it most.”
Though Worley completed 31 of 50 passes for 253 yards and a pair of touchdowns, both tosses to his favorite target Joseph, he could not find the end zone in the second half and was forced to rush several passes. The signal-caller was sacked four times and fumbled once due to tight secondary coverage and the pass rush of Jaquel Yeadon, Steven Sawyer and Jamichael Beckford.
Playing a nickel defense most of the night, Worley was forced to seek out second and third targets, and Trojan receives gained little yardage after the catch due to big hits by Evan McKelvey, D.J. Weathers and Dante Rollerson.
In the battle of stats, Berkeley’s ground attack got the better of Northwestern’s aerial assault.
In addition to Ellington’s 196 yards rushing, Robinson carried eight times for 127 yards, Dante Richardson chewed up 79 yards up the middle on 11 carries, and Rahkeem White chipped in with 48 yards on six touches.
In the end it came down to what has been the Berkeley bread and butter all season, its versatile and lethal ground game.
The Stags wrap up the season of a lifetime with a 14-1 record. Northwestern, again the bridesmaid, finished at 9-6.