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Ansbach sophomore Johnny Bunch tries to break free of a  Bamberg tackler Saturday in Ansbach's 24-12 victory over the visiting Barons.

Ansbach sophomore Johnny Bunch tries to break free of a Bamberg tackler Saturday in Ansbach's 24-12 victory over the visiting Barons. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)

Ansbach sophomore Johnny Bunch tries to break free of a  Bamberg tackler Saturday in Ansbach's 24-12 victory over the visiting Barons.

Ansbach sophomore Johnny Bunch tries to break free of a Bamberg tackler Saturday in Ansbach's 24-12 victory over the visiting Barons. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)

Ansbach's Alex Moyalooks looks for running room against the Bamberg defense Saturday in Ansbach. The Cougars won, 24-12, in a game marked by long scoring drives to finish the regular season undefeated.

Ansbach's Alex Moyalooks looks for running room against the Bamberg defense Saturday in Ansbach. The Cougars won, 24-12, in a game marked by long scoring drives to finish the regular season undefeated. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)

ANSBACH, Germany – The Ansbach Cougars completed another undefeated regular season and claimed the Division II-South crown Saturday by beating Bamberg, 24-12.

The Cougars, who have not loss a regular-season game since 2005, shut down Bamberg in the final two quarters to pull away from a halftime tie and keep the streak alive. Still, Ansbach coach Marcus George downplayed the team’s success, and its chances in the D-II playoffs that start this week.

“We are a young football team, we have a lot of new guys playing this year; we are going to have a heck of a time getting past the quarterfinals,” he said.

Bamberg coach Jim Davis said before the game that his team had been starting slowly all season and he knew against the Cougars they would have to be on their best game from the start.

They were. On the first play from scrimmage, Barons junior Tyler Lewis ran 42 yards for a touchdown, his sixth of the season.

But Ansbach answered on its first possession with Alex Moya’s 6-yard TD run finishing off a long drive, then went up 12-6 in the second quarter with another long drive, this one ending with a 1-yard sneak by quarterback Mikael Vicente. On both TDs, Ansbach went for two-point conversions and failed.

Bamberg tied the score at half when Javonte Knuckles scored on a 2-yard run, but was stopped on a two-point try of its own. Knuckles finished the day with 100 yards on 15 carries, which put him over 800 yards rushing in five games.

The Cougars came out in the second half and kept the string of long drives alive, taking the kickoff and marching 70 yards in nine minutes, with Xaiver Jones scoring from 2 yards out.

“Number one, we need to keep the football, we need to run our basic bread-and-butter plays and execute and protect the football and run some time off the clock, and that’s what we did,” George said. “If you go back and look at it there were only three or four possessions per half.”

Bamberg tried to match the Cougars, but was stopped at midfield when junior linebacker T.J. Propp read a third down snap count and leaped over the line to grab a fumbled Bamberg snap. Propp’s defensive play capped a game in which he had eight tackles, three for losses, and one sack.

“I think [the fumble recovery] was a key point in the game — they were [marching] to score and tie the game back up,” Propp said. “I think it put a real big impact on the result of the game.”

Ansbach thought it scored on the very next play when Vicente launched a pass down the sideline to Derrick Flake for a TD, only to see it called back for an illegal procedure penalty. But a few plays later they got that clinching TD when Moya broke free on a 34-yard run.

For the game, Moya had 156 yards and the two TDs on 21 carries. Jones rushed six times for 33 yards and caught two passes for 40 yards, while Vicente had seven carries for 32 yards.

For Bamberg, Lewis carried four times for 76 yards and quarterback NaCari Madison six times for 30 yards, while Zarquel Webb had a pass interception and Erik Passi and Juan Palacios each had a fumble recovery.

blottenbergerd@estripes.osd.mil.

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