In the end, Bridgeport exposed Robert C. Byrd to a little too much Dylan and too much defense on this afternoon. As it turned out, the Eagles didn’t have the cure for either.

 

The result was a 35-14 win over RCB in the Class AA quarterfinals at a packed Wayne Jamison Field. Now, BHS will face Wayne at home next weekend for the right to play for a state championship.

 

The Class AA top-ranked Tribe moved to 11-1 with the win thanks to the offensive play of Dylan Tonkery and a defense – outside of allowing a few big first half plays – that continued its string of lights out performances. And the numbers back that up.

 

Tonkery finished the game with a career-high 196 yards on 24 carries and scored three touchdowns. For good measure he added a pick six for a fourth touchdown. Ironically, his previous career high was 168 yards in the regular season matchup with the Eagles, who seem to bring out the best in the speedy junior.

 

“I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s because they’re our Harrison County rivals,” said Tonkery of his strong play against RCB this year. “It’s a fun game for us and we’re always ready to play when we play them. Everyone seems to do their job when we’re playing them and I think it was a good game today for everyone.”

 

It certainly was for the defense. After allowing RCB 169 yards of offense in the first half thanks to a trio of big pass plays, Bridgeport completely shut down the Eagles in the second half.

 

Just how dominant was the Tribe in the final two periods? RCB ended the game with 160 yards of offense for a total of negative-nine yards in the final half. For the game, RCB managed minus-23 yards rushing on 23 carries.

 

“To be honest, Byrd just got tired. We were able to get the rush. Trust me, I’d take credit if I could for making a change that led to that pressure, but I can’t,” said BHS Coach Josh Nicewarner with a laugh. “If anything, we didn’t blitz as much. We let our front four control the tempo.”

 

A big part of it was the pressure by the front four and even the linebackers that the Indians were able to put on the RCB quarterback – particularly in the final two periods. Michael Gray, Justin Massie and Mitchell Winkie all had sacks in the game, while the Tribe’s line was constantly in the backfield.

 

“That pressure just changes the name of the game and that was the case in the second half,” said Nicewarner.  “ … What can you say about this defense? You take a couple of plays out and it’s a different story. I don’t think we won in convincing fashion, but I think we showed the heart and passion you need if you want to get to Wheeling.”

 

And the game actually swung completely into the favor of Bridgeport thanks to its defense where the Indians had a swarm of players chasing down the Eagles’ quarterback. With the score 21-14 to start the fourth period, Tonkey stepped in front of an RCB pass and ran it back 53 yards for the score and what would  become a 28-14 advantage with 11:49 to play. The Eagles wouldn’t recover.

 

“I saw (Robert C. Byrd tight end Justin) Noble underneath me and saw the quarterback staring at him. I just took off and when he threw it I made the pick and had some open field,” said Tonkery.

 

Before that play, the game was still up for grabs. For a while, it appeared as if the playoff game was going to follow the exact same script as the regular season outing where things were touchy for the first half. That again proved to be the case as the Eagles started off strong by forcing a three-and-out on the Indians’ first offensive possession and then struck in lightning fashion.

 

On 3^rd-and-2, the Eagles’ Alex Banko got just behind the Indians defense and Julian Marino’s pass down the right sideline was on the money. Banko caught the ball in stride and raced 75 yards for the score. Following Zach Messersmith’s point-after kick it was 7-0 Eagles with 8:31 showing in the first period.

 

RCB got another defensive stop on Bridgeport’s next offensive possession and the game had a feeling that momentum was starting to sit squarely on the Eagles’ sideline. However, BHS did what it’s done all year whenever there was an issue – it leaned on its defense.

 

With the Eagles facing a 3^rd-and-5 on its next possession, Winkie managed to chase down Marino from behind for a 12-yard loss and force the guests to punt. Although a big punt return by John Wilfong was nullified by a block in the back, the Indians still started in great field position at the Eagles’ 46. On the second play after the punt return, Tonkery had a run for the ages.

 

The junior running back took the ball and raced down the right side of the field. On three different occasions, Tonkery appeared dead to rights, and on all three occasions he broke free. In the end, he went 44-yards for the score in a highlight reel run followed by the first of five successful Nick Strogen point-after kicks to make it 7-7 with just one second left in the first period.

 

“I don’t really know what happened, but I just kept running hard and my feet going,” said Tonkery. “I was just trying to get to the end zone and my teammates were helping out with a bunch of blocks.”

 

RCB inadvertently helped out with a bunch of missed tackles. Tonkery broke at least six on the run.

 

Bridgeport got the ball back two plays later when Luke Southern picked off Marino and set up the Tribe in good field position; this time at the Robert C. Byrd 44. Five plays later, Tonkery again proved elusive as he ran into a wall of RCB defenders, managed to keep his legs moving and then outrun the Eagles to the end zone for an 18-yard score and a 14-7 advantage with 10:53 left before halftime.

 

“It was just a matter of keeping my feet moving again and hitting the holes,” said Tonkery. “Once I found the open space I knew it was a matter of getting there.”

 

For RCB Coach Bruce Carey, watching Tonkery’s touchdown runs were hard to take. Knowing that his players had Tonkery potentially stopped more than once on both runs made it even harder to swallow.

 

“It’s frustrating because we appeared to have him on both runs. Tonkery cut back against us a lot the last time we played and I thought I had that covered and, we were hitting him, but we just didn’t wrap up for some reason,” said Carey. “That’s the last kid you can to try to arm tackle because he’s not going to go down by bumping him on the shoulder.”

 

Even with Tonkery’s demoralizing runs, the game was far from over despite the fact the game was setting up just like the regular season outing. In that game, RCB went up early on a huge pass play before eventually falling behind and never recovering. This time, however, the visitors from Clarksburg bounced back quickly once BHS took the lead. And they again used the big pass play for the second time to get the job done.

 

Refusing to stay to the regular season script, RCB still appeared to be in trouble on a 3^rd-and-9 play from its own 27 when Marino found Ben D’Annunzio on a perfectly called pass play out of the backfield that was good for 35 yards. Two plays later, Marino showed the same touch as he did on his first scoring pass by hitting Devonti Birch for a 34-yard scoring strike. Messersmith’s point-after made it 14-14 with 6:26 left in the second period.

 

“We’ve got skill guys we felt had better speed than they did and it worked for a while. Banko turned a short one into a big play by outrunning everyone, but (Birch) was able to outrun his defender from the start,” said Carey. “That part was working, but you have to be able to run a bit if you want it to continue to work and we weren’t able to do that, particularly in the second half.”

 

While RCB was back in the game, there was still plenty of time for another first half drive, which meant RCB had both the clock and Tonkery to deal with. Following a strong return on a short kickoff by Mackenzie Holmes, Bridgeport used a clock-eating, methodical drive that covered 55 yards and ate up all but 30 seconds of the game clock.

 

Tonkery did the scoring honors with a two-yard plunge to make it 21-14 heading into the half. Tonkery managed to earn a first down on three third down plays on the drive. The touchdown would be all the offense that would be needed.

 

Bridgeport did add a final score in the second half following Tonkery's pick six. Massie, who had 2.5 sacks in the game, stripped the ball and recovered it at the RCB 11-yard line late in the fourth quarter as the Eagles were trying to make one last run. Two plays later Dante Bonamico did the honors with a two-yard run for the game’s final points.

 

Despite losing, RCB became the first team on the season to score more than seven points against Bridgeport in the opening half and the 9-3 Eagles did it in a manner that other teams were able to score – through the air. The visitors had 169 yards of first half offense thanks mainly to Marino completing 6-of-8 passes for 160 yards. The ground game was virtually non-existent as the Eagles finished with nine yards on nine carries.

 

Bridgeport had 178 yards offensively in the first two periods and was led by Tonkery. The speedster finished with 13 carries for 121 yards in the opening half. All of Bridgeport’s yardage came on the ground as the Tribe did not attempt a pass. For the game, QB Zack Spurlock was 0-for-1. With Tonkery at full throttle, no passing was necessary.

“If we see that Dylan show up every week he’s going to be a holy terror,” said Nicewarner. “Guys were opening up holes, but there were a lot of plays they snuffed out where Dylan took it upon himself to make plays for us. Certainly that first one, you have to wonder how many tackles he broke. It showed his balance and his strength.”

 

Marino finished 9-of-18 for 183 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Banko finished with six receptions for 109 yards.

 

Bridgeport finished with 260 yards of offense, including 50 carries for all 260 yards. After Tonkery, Bonamico finished with 41 yards on 17 carries.

 

BHS will learn when it plays Sunday. Wayne, a 35-17 winner at Mingo Central, can play Friday at 1:30 or 7:30 p.m. and can choose either of those times Saturday. The game with Pioneers will be a rematch of last year’s Class AA state championship game.

 

Frankfort and Westside will play in the other Class AA semifinal next weekend. The Falcons are the No. 2 seed and are the only undefeated team in Class AA at 12-0.

 

Editor's Note: In top photo, Dylan Tonkery cuts back for some of his game-high rushing yardage, while in the next two photos BHS's defense makes several key plays. In the fourth photo, RCB's Alex Banko heads in for the game's first score. In the next photo, Mitchell Winkie makes one of several big plays, while the next photo shows Coach Josh Nicewarner congratulating Tonkery after his first period touchdown run. Luke Southern (8) is shown returning his first half interception and that photo is followed by Michael Gray putting pressure on RCB's quarterback. Mackenzie Holmes is then shown on a kickoff return that helped put BHS in good field position that led to the score that put the Tribe in front for good. Dante Bonamico is shown in the next to last photo battling for yardage, while fans packed the stands on both sides this afternoon. All photos by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.