By the Salina Journal

OTTAWA -- Ethan Haller threw for 356 yards in leading his Ottawa Braves to a 41-14 win over Bethany to lock up at least a share of the Kansas Conference championship Saturday at Peoples Bank Field.

The Braves (9-0 overall, 8-0 in the KCAC) will travel to Wichita next Saturday to tangle with Friends (8-1 and 7-1) in an effort to win the 2009 title outright and an automatic berth in the NAIA playoffs. Bethany, which dropped its fifth straight contest after winning it's first four, fell to 4-5 and 3-5 and will close its season next week at McPherson.

Despite the final score and Haller's numbers, Swede coach Jamie Cruce felt his team took steps forward.

"That's a very good team we played today, it's not the score we wanted, but we did take a step forward today," he said. "We played better than we have the past four weeks.

"We're not satisfied with the loss, but we made some mistakes, and you can't do that against a team like that.

"If we eliminate some dropped balls, a couple of penalties, you know I think we're going to like the outcome."

While Haller and the Braves got it warmed up eventually, a couple of turnovers kept Bethany in it during the first quarter.

But once he got warmed up, Ottawa began to put the points up.

Haller went five yards to Corey Schultz and 45 to Clarence Anderson and Casey Wieder tacked on a pair of field goals to put Ottawa up 20-0 at the break.

He added a 58-yard strike to Anderson in the third period, and Andy Otto broke off a 59-yard run for another score.

"It was slow (at the start), but I knew we could move the football," Ottawa coach Kent Kessinger said "Defensively, I thought we did a good job against the rush, but we had some problems with our third down situations."

Bethany quarterback Steven Backer finished 21 of 47 passing for 263 yards as Bethany still had chances, especially in the second half.

The Swedes were able to move into the red zone twice in the third quarter but turned the ball over on downs at the Ottawa 14 and 6 before finally getting on the board twice in the fourth.

A 10-yard pass from Baker to Sean Johnson broke an 11-quarter scoring drought for Bethany with 9:30 to play. Less than a minute later, James Johnson recovered Mike Cebold's fumbled snap on a put attempt in the end zone for a final Bethany score.

Join the Discussion:

Salina.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here. Read our full online terms of service policy.

Post a comment
Your best chance of getting your comment posted:

• No profanity
• Be civil
• Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Comment:

Poster:

Enter text seen above:

Read our full use policy.