The Eagles outgained the Red Devils 535-174 in total yards.
Bellbrook (11-2) advances to the regional finals where No. 1 Badin, a 45-10 winner over No. 5 St. Marys, awaits. The teams will meet at a site the Ohio High School Athletic Association will release Sunday. It’s Bellbrook’s first trip to the elite eight since 2001 and just the third overall (1991 was the first). The Eagles have never won a regional title.
Badin beat Bellbrook 17-7 in Week 2.
Tipp, which lost 24-14 at Bellbrook in Week 1, finishes 10-3.
“This was our goal all season,” Ault said. “The seniors had a meeting with coach at the beginning of the year and we said we wanted another league championship and we wanted to make it back to the regional semifinals. Our goal was to make it to the regional finals and win one.”
Ahead 10-7 at halftime, Bellbrook scored on its first four possessions of the second half.
Ault had an 87-yard touchdown run and a 24-yard touchdown reception from Luke Benetis. Etienne ran for scores of 13- and 1-yards.
Borondy, who needed 19 yards to break the Bellbrook single-season rushing record of 2,344 set by Luke Clemens in 1999, gained 42 on the game’s first snap. He finished with 290 yards on 34 carries and scored on a 3-yard run.
“They imposed their will,” Tipp head coach Matt Burgbacher said. “That’s for sure. We knew what we were up against.”
“It all comes down to not trying to go outside of ourselves,” Bellbrook head coach Jeff Jenkins said. “We’re going to do the best that we can do at what we do. Our opponents – they know what we do. We just bank on us just repping this stuff thousands of times.”
Following a fumble recovery by Jason Rindler (on Bellbrook’s only turnover of the game), Tipp scored on a 31-yard pass from Liam Poronsky to Zach Butera to tie the game 7-7 with 57 seconds left in the first half. Bellbrook responded with Conner Peh’s 31-yard field goal on the last play of the second quarter for a 10-7 advantage. A 32-yard completion from Benetis to tight end Carson Labenksy set up the go-ahead kick.
The Red Devils were hampered by the loss of senior running back and linebacker Cayd Everhart, who left the game with a right leg injury with 3:49 left in the first half and did not return. Everhart was the Miami Valley League Defensive Player of the Year and the league’s third leading rusher with 1,470 yards and 21 touchdowns. Tipp had 91 yards of offense with Everhart in the game. It had 83 after he left.
“We certainly hope and pray that he’s OK,” Jenkins said. “He’s one helluva player.”
Said Burgbacher: “It’s part of the ballgame – weather, injuries. It was tough to see him on crutches at halftime.”
Prior to this season’s Week 2 game and next week’s regional final, Badin and Bellbrook’s last meeting was in 1990, when Badin won 21-20 at Bellbrook. The Rams went on to win the program’s only state title that season.
“We upped our non-league schedule to face these types of teams and were facing our Week 1 and 2 opponents in Week 3 and 4 of the playoffs,” Jenkins said. “We know Badin is the real deal. No doubt about that. They don’t have a weakness on their team. It should be one helluva a ballgame.”
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