Ellington delivers, Berkeley earns 5th state title

Bruce Ellington's performance in Friday night's Class 4A Division II state championship game was Staggering.

Berkeley's senior quarterback scored on touchdown runs of 28 and 40 yards in the fourth quarter to rally the Stags past Northwestern, 33-24, in front of approximately 8,000 fans at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Ellington did not complete a pass in six attempts. That didn't matter, as he ran wild in leading the Stags to their fifth state title and first since 1996.

Ellington carried 23 times for 191 yards and four touchdowns on a night Moncks Corner will long remember.

Ellington scored on a 28-yard run with 9:55 left to cut the deficit to 24-20. He scored on a 40-yard run 83 seconds later to give his team a 27-24 lead. R.J. Robinson delivered the dagger - a 28-yard touchdown run - with 2:07 remaining.

"I give all the credit to coach (Jerry) Brown and the offensive line," Ellington said. "The line made some big blocks to get me in the end zone. In the fourth quarter, coach Brown started yelling at us on the sideline. The defense started making big plays, and now it was our turn. We huddled together and talked about what needed to be done."

Berkeley became the first team from the Lowcountry to win a High School League state championship since Stratford in 1999. The Stags finished with a 14-1 record. Northwestern, with an eight-game winning streak, finished 9-6.

Northwestern coach Jimmy Wallace praised Ellington.

"It was a great football game," he said. "It was 33-24, and No. 3 is probably as good of player I've seen this year. He's pretty good, isn't he? I don't know how many yards and how many touchdowns he had, but No. 3, if you go back and look at the film, was the difference."

Ellington was pitted against Northwestern quarterback Justin Worley. The 6-5 junior completed 31-of-50 passes for 253 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The Stags outgained the Trojans 442-331 in total yardage.

Robinson carried eight times for 127 yards. Dante Robinson chipped in with 79 yards on 11 carries.

After a scoreless first quarter, both offenses started to get untracked as the Stags and Trojans played to a 14-14 tie in the first half.

Berkeley's first score came on the first play of the second quarter when Ellington capped a seven-play, 43-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.

The Trojans tied the score with 6:59 left in the half when Worley found Robert Joseph in the back of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown pass to cap an eight-play, 69-yard drive.

But Ellington exploded for his second touchdown of the night, a 67-yard run with 5:38 left in the first half, to give the Stags a 14-7 lead.

The Trojans then scored with 18 seconds left in the first half. Worley hooked up with Joseph for a 3-yard score to make it a 14-14 game.

Berkeley outgained Northwestern 206-175 in first half total yardage.

Ellington, who entered the game with 2,000 yards rushing, carried 12 times in the first half for 93 yards.

Worley, who entered the game with 7,752 yards and 90 touchdowns passing the past two seasons, completed 17 of 25 in the first half for 121 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Ellington's four touchdowns pushed his total to 33 on the season.

"What can you can say about Bruce? He's one of the top five, top 10 most dominating players in the state," Brown said. "I've never seen a guy dominate a football game like Bruce Ellington."

Northwestern 0 14 10 0 -24

Berkeley 0 14 0 19 -33

B -Bruce Ellington 2 run (Patrick Jackson kick)

N -Robert Joseph 10 pass from Justin Worley (Ryan Foster kick)

B -Ellington 67 run (Jackson kick)

N -Joseph 3 pass from Worley (Foster kick)

N -Demario Wilson 5 run (Foster kick)

N -Foster 23 FG

B -Ellington 28 run (kick failed)

B -Ellington 40 run (Jackson kick)

B -R.J. Robinson 28 run (kick failed)

B N

First downs 17 27

Rushes-yards 48-442 33-78

Passing 0 253

Comp-Att-Int 0-5-0 31-50-0

Fumbles-Lost 2-2 3-1

Penalties-Yards 4-49 5-36

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - B: Bruce Ellington 23-191; R.J. Robinson 8-127; Dante Richardson 11-79; Rahkeem White 3-28; Tevin Bradshaw 1-18. N: Desmond Cunningham 8-49; Sanbobis McCleod 5-22; Justin Worley 17-6; Demario Wilson 2-1; Robert Joseph 1-0.

PASSING - B: Ellington 0-6-0-0. N: Worley 31-50-253-0.

RECEIVING -N: Joseph 10-73; Stewart Hunt 7-79; Cunningham 6-44; Cody Craven 4-42; Wilson 3-13; McCleod 1-2.

This story was originally published December 5, 2009 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Ellington delivers, Berkeley earns 5th state title."