A receiver for most of this season and a tight end last year, he has been asked to play fullback the last two games because of an injury to starting fullback Charlie Myers.

He didn't carry the ball in the first half against the Crusaders, but when the Titans went to a different offense in the second half he gained 158 yards on eight carries and a touchdown as Tuscarora downed the Crusaders 28-0.

The win means Tuscarora (7-3) should advance to the Class 3A West playoffs for the second straight season.

"Bobby was the backup and we used him kind of sparingly," Tuscarora coach Dean Swink said. "Then when Charlie got hurt we used him full-time. It's one of those things where you look like a genius when you were kind of being a fool for not putting him back there sooner."

Stup had not played fullback since junior varsity.

In the first half the Titans stayed with a one-back set, but were held to one touchdown.

"Coach at halftime asked us if we wanted to run the Tiger, which is a fullback formation," Stup said. "We said, 'Yeah coach. Let's go with that.'"

"We said we would run three plays. They're our bread and butter plays," Swink said. "I said we were going to find out what we're made of. We're going to drive the ball down their throats or die on the vine with it."

The Titans' offense first got the ball with about nine minutes left in the second half at their own 12-yard line. Except for one first quarter drive, they had not done much offensively in the game.

Stup took his first handoff, ran up the middle, broke to his left and raced 61 yards to the Crusaders 27-yard line. Two plays later, Matt Scott ran it in from the 23, the second of his three touchdowns.

"The hole was humongous. The line's blocking was great," Stup said. "At the end, I just ran out of gas."

Early in the fourth quarter, he took another handoff, went up the middle again and raced 53 yards for a score.

"It was another huge hole, wide open," the 6-foot,-200 pound senior said.

"Bobby is a lot faster than people give him credit for on the field," Swink said. "He runs extremely hard, he's very, very strong. That gets the offensive line fired up."

Then, midway through the final period, Scott scored on an 11-yard run. He had scored on a 35-yard run in the first quarter.

Scott finished with 117 yards on 13 carries.

"Matt is a great speed, power guy," Swink said. "He's not the fastest, he's not the biggest, but he runs hard."

Riverdale moved the ball up and down the field, but couldn't get in the end zone. It got inside the Titans 24-yard line on four occasions.

On one drive, Payton Queen fumbled the ball at the Tuscarora 2 and the Titans recovered it in the end zone for a touchback.

"They are very talented. They've got some skill guys and they score a lot on big plays," Swink said. "We focused more on the big plays."

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