The Green Wave trailed the state football power by only a touchdown with the first half winding down and had Bloomington facing fourth down and 3 yards to go at the Green Wave 39-yard line.

Lined up for its fifth punt of the first half, Bloomington instead snapped the football to the short man, Stephen Esch.

"Oh, we knew that," Mattoon coach Gerald Temples said. "We told them it was coming."

So Esch had two Wave defenders converging behind the line of scrimmage but slipped through and ran 27 yards to the Mattoon 12.

That set up a Bloomington touchdown 43 seconds before halftime and perhaps summed up BHS' 21-7 Big 12 Conference win over Mattoon Friday at Gaines Field.

"We don't take care of the little things," Temples said. "We don't take care of the ball and we don't make tackles, and we work on that every stinking day in practice."

While the Wave, falling to 2-3 both overall and in the Big 12, did not do those little things, the Purple Raiders got a big game from Valshun Powe.

The senior helped out not only as a linebacker, limiting Mattoon to 79 rushing yards, but in place of season rushing leader David Simmons, running for 134 yards on 17 carries.

Simmons missed the game because of a tooth problem.

But Valshun, moving into the running back slot in the second quarter, provided plenty of bite as the Raiders improved to 4-1.

"Valshun is a very strong athlete," BHS coach Rigo Schmelzer said. "I think we have some good skilled kids. Our problem has been on the line. We had some trouble blocking to get outside and that's a credit to Mattoon's front."

The Purple Raiders' defense rates plenty of credit, too.

BHS kept Marshall Creed under 100 rushing yards for the first time this season as Mattoon's sophomore running back finished with 58 yards on 23 carries.

Jeremy Jordan, another Wave sophomore, completed 10 of 25 passes for 113 yards.

BHS cornerback Josh Mitchell had interceptions in the first and third quarters to thwart the Mattoon attack before Jordan completed 4 of 9 passes for 66 yards in a 10-play, 71-yard drive setting up yet Kyle Drummond's 5-yard touchdown with 4:31 remaining.

That spoiled the Raiders' shutout but not its outstanding showing.

"I'm pleased to see our defense come out and play that way against a good physical team," Schnmelzer said.

Mattoon's defense had forced two BHS punts after defensive tackle Drew Kenton had recovered a fumble on the Raiders' first possession of the game.

But after the Green Wave lost a fumbled handoff on the Bloomington 37-yard line, the Raiders needed just four plays to cover 63 yards with Brent Holtz hitting Mitchell Jordan for a 20-yard touchdown pass in the right corner of the end zone with 48 seconds left in the first quarter.

The score stayed 7-0 and Mattoon seemingly had BHS stopped until Esch ran the fake punt for a first down at the Mattoon 12.

On another fourth down, this time fourth-and-1 at the Wave 3, Holtz kept the ball for an option touchdown run.

Even after Connor James blocked the extra-point kick, Bloomington had a 13-0 lead and the halftime momentum.

Powe's 27-yard touchdown run capped Bloomington's 71-yard drive in the third quarter and left little doubt of the outcome.

"That's the quickest team we've faced and that's probably the best running back we've faced," Temples said. "It's unfortunate. That's a good team and we're right there. We're that close to getting it done."