After trailing to visiting Paulding 8-7 at the end of one quarter, host Bluffton dominated the final three periods by scoring 35 straight points to post a 42-14 win in Northwest Conference action.<\/p>\n
The Pirates struck first on a 60-yard touchdown run by Kaleb Jefferson to go in front before Paulding grabbed its only lead of the contest.<\/p>\n
Fernando Garcia plunged three yards for a score that helped the Panthers take an 8-7 lead after one quarter.<\/p>\n
Bluffton, though, rallied for a pair of scores in the second stanza to take control.<\/p>\n
Dakota Bricker ran 77 yards for a score and DeAndre Nassar added a two yard rush for a touchdown that put the Pirates on top 21-8 at the break.<\/p>\n
Bricker found Brice Rayle on a 34-yard touchdown toss in the third quarter before the Pirates also picked up a two-yard run for a score by Jefferson that stretched the lead to 35-8.<\/p>\n
Paulding did get a five-yard run for a score by Payton Beckman in the fourth quarter to set up the final 42-14 margin.<\/p>\n
The Panthers return to action on Friday when they host Delphos Jefferson in Northwest Conference play. The Wildcats come into the contest at 3-2 after a 41-32 victory over Allen East at Stadium Park in Delphos Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After trailing to visiting Paulding 8-7 at the end of one quarter, host Bluffton dominated the final three periods by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[158,1587,2095,59,4942],"class_list":["post-19158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school","category-sports","tag-bluffton","tag-football","tag-panthers","tag-paulding","tag-pirates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-4Z0","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 00:14:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}