Bowling Green was defeated by Adams County Christian School, 30-19, in the opening round of the MAIS Class AAA playoffs at home Friday, capping off an outstanding 2018 season.

This year, Bowling Green captured the District 4AAA title and was the No. 3 seed in the playoffs. Friday night was the Buccaneers’ first playoff game since 2015 and their first home postseason game since 2008.

“A lot of people didn’t know what to expect,” Bowling Green coach Boomer Nunez said. “We had a lot of new faces. It was tough to build that camaraderie, but we break down to ‘family’ everyday, the school has kind of bought into that tradition as the whole is a family thing and that’s what it’s all about, especially in high school football. Yeah, the wins and losses are great, but to see the camaraderie, the family build, the relationships, how much better their school has got spirit-wise… That’s what I was trying to accomplish when I got here and I think we did that first year and we’re going to continue to building on that.”

The first half was back-and-forth.

Bowling Green went up 6-0 on Johntae McDowell’s 1-yard run at the 5:39 mark of the first quarter after a snap went over the Adams punter’s head. It was recovered at the 2, but a flag on Adams moved it to the 1.

Adams tied the game on Sterling Yarbrough’s 28-yard pass to D.J. Stampley at the 5:03 mark.

Both two-point conversions were unsuccessful and it was 6-6 through one quarter.

McDowell and Cameron Bell connected for the first of their two touchdowns with this one going for 71 yards to give Bowling Green a 12-6 advantage after the two-point conversion was no good at the 8:55 mark of the first half.

ACCS tallied twice in the final 1:12 of the first half.

Yarbrough hit Jakarius Caston for 28 yards, and on the possession after a turnover, connected with Glaston Magee on an 11 yarder. Caston converted both two-pointers and it was 22-12 at halftime.

Neither team scored in the third, but Adams took a 30-12 lead in the fourth when Yarbrough ran in from the 8. Yarbrough then threw to Paul Cupstid for two with 8:11 to go.

Bowling Green’s final points came after a snap over the Adams punter’s head.

The Buccaneers scored when McDowell hit Cameron Bell in stride in the end zone from 28 yards out. Gage Winget’s extra point was good to make it 30-19 with 1:03 left.
Bowling Green finished the year with an 8-3 record, including the playoffs.