PORTLAND – They were called gimmicky, lucky, pass-happy, too slow, too small, too purple…

John Bapst had been called nearly every name in the book this year before its 21-14 Class C title win over Winthrop, except one.

Well, make it two.

“We’ve never been classified as a running team, although we have a running back with over 1,100 yards, we’ve got another one at 400, the quarterback’s got 500. We’ve run for some yardage,” Bapst coach Dan O’Connell said.

The Crusaders also hadn’t been called state champion, not since 1976, and wouldn’t until they became the running team that it seemed nobody thought they could be, especially against a defense as dominant as Winthrop’s had been this season.

Perhaps the raw numbers will help shed some of the old labels. Bapst rushed for 246 yards against a Winthrop defense that had given up an average of 91 yards rushing per game during the regular season, averaging a healthy 4.8 yards per carry. The Crusaders compiled 20 first downs, including 13 rushing, against a defense that had given up 25 first downs during the entire regular season.

Bill Wetherbee, the aforementioned 1,100-yard back, rushed for 166 Saturday, most of them around and through the corners of a defense once thought too fast to be run around. Quarterback Derek Smith contributed 41 net yards (with two Winthrop sacks and a couple of kneel-downs from the victory formation factored in). Fullback Chase Huckestein paved the way with textbook blocking and added 26 hard-earned yards of his own and the Crusaders’ only rushing touchdown of the game.

“They stepped it up in the run game,” Winthrop coach Joel Stoneton said. “The Wetherbee kid is just an amazing running back, and we didn’t tackle very well when we did have the play snuffed out.”

“Because we’re spread (offense), we automatically get classified as a passing team,” O’Connell said. “Billy’s a great ‘I’ tailback. He’s a great runner. Chase runs the ball hard. Derek runs the ball hard.”

Smith threw for over 2,000 yards this season and was the focal point of Winthrop’s defensive game plan. The Ramblers picked him off twice in the first half, and while the Crusaders had success running the ball from the start, the Ramblers were able to hem them in when it mattered most, particularly on four consecutive runs inside their own 5-yard line to snuff out Bapst’s first drive of the game.

But Bapst came out for the second half even more determined to run. Smith, Wetherbee and Chris Fogler opened the half with back-to-back-to-back runs of between 13 and 16 yards to march the Crusaders to the Winthrop 23. Andrew Smithgall stopped the drive with an interception, but the tone had been set.

John Bapst went back to the ground on its next possession for seven plays of a nine-play, 62-yard TD drive. Smith gave them the lead with a remarkable 25-yard touchdown pass to Wetherbee on fourth-and-nine, but all of the damage before that had been done by a suddenly smashmouth running game.

“The line did a great job up front and Chase Huckestein was throwing blocks left and right for me where I could get out in the open field,” Wetherbee said. “The line was with me down the field.”

“If we just block it the way the coach draws it up, we let those guys do the work with the ball in their hands,” senior left guard Taylor Dube said. “We trust them and they trust us.”

Winthrop quickly tied the game, but Bapst didn’t panic. It went back to the ground, stretching out the Ramblers’ defense on sweeps and double-handoffs, then puncturing it with quick hits up the middle.

“Our offensive line was throwing great blocks,” Huckestein said. “The first guy that came in sight for me, I hit them and Billy just followed behind my back and we grinded it out. We were trying to get the cornerbacks on me so I would have one-on-one blocks on them. It’s hard for a cornerback to win that matchup.”

“By being able to spread them out, it gave them some things I don’t know if they saw in their region,” O’Connell said. “And then being able to hit them up the middle is what I think made it most effective for us.”

Huckestein’s 8-yard TD run put the Crusaders in front for good, and then they churned out a five-minute drive late in the fourth quarter on nine straight running plays to help secure the lead.