On a chilly Friday night in Dry Fork, the Tunstall Trojans punched their ticket into playoffs with their 48-34 victory over the Bassett Bengals.

Early in the first quarter, Bassett quarterback Dylan McKinney complete the long pass to wide receiver Zykeal Mitchell; but it was stripped and recovered by Clay Hardy. Hardy would move the ball just pass midfield into Bassett territory. On the Bassett 30-yard line, Buckner handed off the ball to Johnathan Tyler; Tyler ran to the outside and down the Trojan sideline to score the touchdown with nine minutes remaining.

The Trojans would pick things up though in the second. After Tunstall started their drive on the Bassett 40-yard line, Lovelace would help his offense drive the ball 16 yards downfield to the Bassett 25. From there, Buckner would connect to a wide-open Irvin for the touchdown; Reagan Dillon would get the PAT to make it 14-0.

On the onside kick, Bassett’s Cameron Langhorne picked up the ball on their own 30 and tried to make a break for it; but was hit by a couple of Trojans that caused the fumble. Tunstall’s Chase Poe would recover the ball on their own 48-yard line. A couple plays later found the Trojans within the Bengals red-zone territory. With the ball placed on the Bassett 29-yard line, Buckner would air it out to Donahue, who broke away from the Bassett cornerback to score the 29-yard touchdown; giving Tunstall a 21-0 lead with less than eight minutes remaining in the first half.

After the Trojans defense allowed two touchdowns on consecutive possessions, they would answer back in the closing minutes. The Trojans started their drive on their own 36-yard line and drove the ball up to the 45-yard line. On 3&1 and 38 seconds remained, Buckner would get some great blocking from his line and scramble downfield to the Bassett 27-yard line. Buckner just needed one play to score as he found Donahue once again in the back of the end-zone; closing out the first half 28-14.

Just minutes later after Bassett made it a 28-21 game, Buckner aired a shotgun pass to Donahue. Donahue would break away from the Bengals safety and completed the 47-yard catch and run for the touchdown; extending their lead 35-21.

Tunstall would run some plays with their offense in Wildcat formation in the opening minutes off the fourth. Michael Pyrtle would get the handoff from Lovelace and ran the ball up the middle to give extend Tunstall’s lead to 41-27. McKinney would once again help his team get another touchdown to answer back to make it 41-34

Buckner would score on a five-yard run to make it 48-34

“This was our biggest goal (the playoffs) going into the season,” said Potts “Of course you take it game by game and with making the playoffs, you can’t win them all if you’re not in it. This is a huge step for this program and hopefully we can keep our feet in the playoffs from here on.”

Tunstall will finish their season with an 5-5 record. They will play Brookville in Lynchburg this Friday. Game time is at 7pm.