ELK RAPIDS -- Max Bullough already had the pedigree.
On Friday night, he began building his resume.
Bullough, a sophomore linebacker/running back for Traverse City St. Francis whose grandfather, father and uncle were all standouts at Michigan State, rushed for 111 yards -- nearly all of it in the second half -- to help the Gladiators rally from a 12-point deficit and defeat Elk Rapids 49-27.
The victory, coupled with Grayling's 16-0 win over Boyne City, gave St. Francis the Lake Michigan Conference championship. With one game to play, the Gladiators are 6-0 in the league, while the Elks, Boyne and Grayling are all 4-2.
"Winning the conference outright is obviously very nice, but if there's a silver lining in this game it's that we were behind for the second week in a row and we came back," said St. Francis head coach Josh Sellers. "We faced adversity and got the job done. A lot of times (in the past) we haven't faced that, then we got into the playoffs and didn't handle it well.
"We already know that we can bounce back if we fall behind."
The Gladiators (7-1) found out something else on Friday night -- Bullough can carry the load if need be. Bullough has started at linebacker all season, but it was his offensive performance that shined through against the Elks.
After carrying the ball once for 15 yards late in the first half, Bullough was a workhorse in the final two quarters, bulling his way up the middle for 96 yards on 17 carries. His 3-yard touchdown run with 3:39 remaining pushed St. Francis' lead to 35-27.
"My linemen made it happen. It was like the parting of the Red Sea," said the 6-foot-3, 204-pound Bullough. "It's nice to have guys like that working for you."
Bullough said it's also nice to have a family of former football players to talk to and learn from.
"They give me so much support," Bullough said of his father, Shane; uncle Chuck; and grandfather Hank Bullough, who played on the Rose Bowl-winning 1952 MSU squad and is former head coach of the Buffalo Bills. "It's like having a coach around 24 hours a day."
Sellers said the decision to put Max Bullough to work in the second half had a lot to do with the confidence of tackle Andrew Buday, who was certain he could open holes on his side.
"It was also the same thing that Boyne hurt (Elk Rapids) with the week before," Sellers said. "We just took our time getting to it.
"The big thing is, Max ran it well. He's a football player. He's a sponge. You tell him something and he's locked in.
"He's been a defensive standout for us. Tonight it was on offense. It was good to see."
Said Bullough: "I felt like I grew up tonight."
The game was closer than the final score might indicate. Much closer.
Elk Rapids (5-2) jumped out to an 18-6 lead on a 77-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Gualtiere to Zac Dreffs, field goals of 28 and 34 yards by Peter Shugart and a 1-yard TD sneak by Gualtiere.
St. Francis, which scored earlier on an 8-yard run by Dan Brick, got back into the game with a touchdown just before halftime. The Gladiators moved the ball 64 yards on seven plays and cut the deficit to 18-13 on a 26-yard TD pass from Spencer Ambrosius to Matt Benson and an extra-point kick by Clark Gingras with 59.5 seconds remaining.
Bullough's 15-yard run kept the drive alive and was a preview of things to come.
On the opening possession of the second half, Bullough had a 21-yard run in 10-play, 63-yard drive that ended in another TD pass by Ambrosius -- this time to Spencer Wheelock for 8 yards.
The Elks' Shugart knotted the score at 21-21 with a 27-yard field goal, but the Gladiators came right back with another long drive, this one covering 64 yards in 13 plays -- five to Bullough. Ambrosius capped the drive with a 1-yard plunge.
Elk Rapids answered -- for the last time, as it turned out -- with an 82-yard drive that took less than four minutes. Gualtiere and Dreffs hooked up twice for pass completions covering 47 yards, and Tyler Smith finished off the drive when he won a race to the left pylon for a 6-yard TD with 7:18 to go that cut the margin to 28-27.
It was all St. Francis after that, as the Gladiators scored three touchdowns in a span of 3:24 -- the first on Bullough's short run, the second (after Parker Prusick's interception) on a 7-yard scamper by Grant Robb and the final TD on a 52-yard interception return by Andrew Rushlow.
"They're a little stronger than we are, and they kind of powered over us in the second half," said Elk Rapids coach Ed Schindler. "We had a lot of opportunities, but we kept stalling the red zone.
"When you're facing a great team like St. Francis, you have to turn those field goals into touchdowns.
"We also had guys run a couple of wrong routes that turned into interceptions," he said. "Those are the growing pains you go through when you're building a program.
"The final score doesn't reflect it, but this game could have gone either way. We'll get there, though. We've come a long way."
Gualtiere finished 11-for-23 passing for 260 yards. Dreffs had six catches for 168 yards, while Charlie Hoch hauled in three passes for 73 yards. Smith led the rushing attack with 129 yards in 15 carries.
Brick gained 78 yards for St. Francis, while Robb added 72.
Print this story
E-mail this story
