10-0!!!! years ago
No. 6 Tabor cools off St. Mary, 43-8, prepares for Graceland Yellow Jackets
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Mentioning the Bluejays having an undefeated season years ago used to be about as realistic as claiming the grand prize in the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes.
Just winning a single game was hard enough, not to mention going undefeated.
After coming so close the past two seasons, the Bluejays finally etched their name in the school record books, becoming the first team in Tabor history to complete a perfect season.
They did it Saturday in Hillsboro, in miserable, gusting winds against a St. Mary Spire team that had won four straight.
To add to its record-setting season, the Bluejays got a record 371 yards on the ground to trample the Spires, 43-8, in the regular season finale.
Back-to-back defending KCAC champion Tabor will face the 12th-ranked Heart of America co-champion Graceland Yellow Jackets at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Wichita State University's Cessna Stadium.
Three fumbles in the first quarter got the Bluejays off to as bad a start as any they've had this season, giving the Spires numerous chances to gain some footing,
By the time St. Mary could establish anything offensively, the game was too far out of reach.
The Spires had an even harder time hanging on to the ball than the Bluejays, fumbling eight times, and losing three.
At the same time, the Bluejays couldn't get much going against a potent Spire defense and disputable officiating.
The ugly first quarter marked just the third time this season the Bluejays failed to put any points on the board.
When the rain started falling on the Spires the second quarter, it poured, as the Bluejays erupted for 29 unanswered points.
With the wind slowing the Bluejay offense, Tabor kept the ball in Butler's hands.
The NAIA's leading scorer produced, breaking the scoreless game with the first of his four touchdowns, 1:33 into the second quarter.
Butler ripped off huge chunks of yardage with 19- and 30-yard runs in single gulps.
He got 58 of his game-high 235 yards on the Bluejays' first drive of the second quarter.
Butler was hardly surprised on the success Tabor had running the football.
"Today we just played a full game of smash-ball," he said. "We've got the backs to do it (set a school record), we've got the o-line to do it, and we've got the team to do it so it didn't surprise me at all," he said.
Things looked they were going to get worse for the Spires on the ensuing kickoff with Lee Waldron recovering a St. Mary fumble at the Spire 40.
Thirty-four more yards for Butler had the Bluejays knocking on the door again before officiating helped the Spires dodge a bullet.
Butler was stripped of the ball when he was downed by St. Mary's Ryan Jacobsen at the six.
The Spires couldn't do anything with the Butler fumble against the swarming Bluejay defense.
Trailing only 7-0 with 8:02 left in the first half, the last 6:37 for the Spires can only be described as chaos.
Joe Fenske picked off a Terry Wilcox pass and returned it to the Spire 14.
Two plays later and dragging a slew of St. Mary defenders with him, Butler had his second touchdown to stretch the Bluejay lead to 14-0.
The Spires couldn't even hang on to their kick returns with Robert Haude recovering the kickoff at the St. Mary 20.
Butler struck again from seven yards out to increase the lead to 20-0 with just under 5:00 left in the first half.
If that wasn't enough, defensive lineman John Ohm came up with the extra point attempt and took it in for a two-point conversion to leave the Spires in a severe jam.
And it wasn't just Butler that gave St. Mary a headache, but Ben Brown, too.
Brown broke a 54-yard gain on the Bluejays' next possession to set Tabor up at the Spire 20, eventually finishing with a season-high 125 yards on nine carries.
Five plays later, Brown plowed into the end zone to give the Bluejays a commanding 29-0 lead at the break with Butler carrying the ball 25 times for 176 yards.
From 29 plays in the first half, the Spires had managed a woeful 35 yards, all coming on the ground, while surrendering 313.
After the final horn, the Spires had picked up just 225 yards on the day, with seven coming through the air.
Butler added his final touchdown on the opening drive of the second half before leaving the game with a knee injury.
Brown capped off the scoring with :29 left in the third quarter, pulling Spire defenders in with him for an 11-yard score.
St. Mary finally got on the board with 4:44 left in the game against the Bluejay reserves.
Keola Nobriga slipped away for a 37-yard touchdown, then caught a pass on the two-point conversion to make for the 43-8 final.
"It feels real good," an ecstatic Butler said. "This is my second championship ring and it's like the greatest feeling in the world.
"I wouldn't want to go 9-1, 10-0 is something special and we deserved it. The guys have been playing hard all year and we talked about, now we actually did it."
