WILLIAMSBURG — JJ Miller ran for three touchdowns and passed for three touchdowns to lead No. 2 Williamsburg to a wild 40-34 win Friday night over Blanchester.

Blanchester took the lead 34-32 with 5:40 left in the fourth quarter but Williamsburg went 65 yards in seven plays, Miller hooking up with Austin Elkins from 16 yards out to put WHS on top, 38-34. With the two-point conversion, Blanchester was down six.

On the first play from scrimmage following the touchdown, Blanchester was intercepted and the game the was over.

“It was a tough loss,” Blanchester head coach Justin Schmitz said in the aftermath of the loss. “Obviously it’s one I wish we had but dag-gone it we fought our butts off. I told them all to keep their heads up and I was proud of every single one of them. Plus our young guys got to see what it’s supposed to look like when we get in to one of these types of games. We never gave up.”

Miller’s performance (330 yards passing and 179 yards rushing) spoiled an equally impressive performance from Blanchester’s Bryce Sipple, who ran for 146 yards and two scores while passing for 151 yards and three touchdowns.

Though the Blanchester defense surrendered 525 yards, it made plays throughout the night to put Williamsburg in difficult situations. Miller and Co. were able to answer most of the time as they have done all season in rolling to a 7-0 record and a state ranking of No. 2 in Div. VI.

“We knew going in to this that nobody had gotten after them like we were going to so our whole game plan was to put JJ under pressure and unfortunately he did a couple times,” Schmitz said. “He got out in space and hurt us.”

Tristan Malone, Jude Huston and Sebastian Smith harassed Miller all night, getting to him several times in addition to flushing him out of the pocket.

WHS took the opening kick and went 58 yards in eight plays to the BHS 2 but a fourth down pass fell incomplete. Undaunted with the tough field position, BHS went 97 yards in seven plays — aided by a 15-yard WHS penalty — with Sipple going the final 10 for the score.

Miller took the next play from scrimmage 63 yards for a score then WHS attempted the first of several onside kicks. The home team recovered and turned that in to a 13-6 lead early in the second on Miller’s first TD pass of the night.

After the teams traded interceptions — Isaiah Abbott picked off Miller in the end zone — Blanchester scored on back-to-back drives, both Sipple to Austin Dick pass plays. So with 30 seconds left in the half, Blanchester led 22-14.

For Miller, 30 seconds is a lifetime. The shifty quarterback completed two passes — one for 32 yards and the scoring play for 29 yards — to really take a lot of the wind out of the Blanchester sails. Instead of getting the ball to start the second half with a 22-14 lead, and BHS scored on that opening drive, WHS was within 22-20 at the break.

Sipple took the third play from scrimmage 43 yards, running through what appeared to be a Williamsburg tunnel of players who were unable to slow the BHS freight train. Blanchester grew its lead to 28-20.

The BHS defense stepped up on the next series, recovering a fumble and seemingly scoring a touchdown but a post-turnover block in the back penalty wiped that out.

The offense, however, was effective. Sipple and Sebastian Smith spearheaded a rushing attack that took the ball from the BHS 40 to the WHS 5. One of the key runs came when Smith rag-dolled Miller on a 12-yard gain. But four plays from inside the 5 went for naught and Blanchester was denied important points on the scoreboard.

“The defense just stiffened up and they were bringing the house every time we were in the red zone like that, so hats off to them,” Schmitz said.

Williamsburg had two big runs by Miller to go 99 yards to get within 28-26 with 15 seconds to play in the third.

Another onside kick by WHS was botched by BHS and Miller and the offense was back on the field. Pierce Ayers was on the receiving end of a 27 yard scoring pass as Williamsburg regained the lead.

Blanchester was not fazed. With two WHS 15-yard penalties helping, Blanchester took just over four minutes off the block and went back on top, 34-32, with a Sipple to Smith pass in the back left corner of the end zone doing the honors.

But 5:40 left on the clock proved too much time and Williamsburg took care of things on offense and then defense to close out the win.

“This one loss is not going to define us,” Schmitz said. “Just little mistakes killed us, little mistakes at the end of this.”

SUMMARY

Sept 29, 2023

@Ken Osborne Field at Abrams Stadium

Williamsburg 40, Blanchester 34

B^6^16^6^6^^34

W^7^13^6^14^^40

SCORING

First Quarter

B: Bryce Sipple 10 yard run (Conversion failed) 4:28

W: JJ Miller 63 yard run (Shouse PAT) 4:14

Second Quarter

W: JJ Miller 4 yard run (Shouse PAT) 11:50

B: Austin Dick 22 yard pass from Bryce Sipple (Sipple run) 3:14

B: Austin Dick 7 yard pass from Bryce Sipple (Sipple run) 0:30

W: Alex Ervin 27 yard pass from JJ Miller (Conversion failed) 0:00

Third Quarter

B: Bryce Sipple 43 yard run (PAT failed) 10:43

W: JJ Miller 40 yard run (Conversion failed) 0:15

Fourth Quarter

W: Pierce Ayers 27 yard pass from JJ Miller (Conversion failed) 9:54

B: Sebastian Smith 8 yard pass from Bryce Sipple (Conversion failed) 5:40

W: Austin Elkins 16 yard pass from JJ Miller (Miller pass to Day) 1:36

STATISTICS

PLAYS YARDS: B (54-307); W (51-525)

PENALTIES: B 8-75; W 7-60

RUSHING: B (43-156) Chase Barnes 1-0, Bryce Sipple 28-146, Sebastian Smith 12-71, Austin Dick 3-12; W (26-195) Ayden Holden 8-15 JJ Miller 18-179

PASSING: B (9-11-2, 151 yards) Bryce Sipple 9-11-2, 151 yards 3 TD; W JJ Miller 20-26-1, 330 yards 3 TD (20-26-1, 330 yards)

RECEIVING: B (9-151-3) Zach Musselman 3-55, Sebastian Smith 3-34, Austin Dick 2-29, Isaiah Abbott 1-33; W (20-330-3) Pierce Ayers 6-112, Michael Day 4-38, Ayden Holden 1-5, Alex Ervin 9-144, Austin Elkins 1-8

TACKLES: Zach Musselman 6 Sebastian Smith 5 Chase Barnes 3 Tristan Malone 3 Jude Huston 3 Jarod Daniels 1 Collin Elston 1 Steven Lester 1

SACKS: Sebastian Smith 2, Jude Huston 1

INTERCEPTIONS: Isaiah Abbott 1