BELLBROOK ­— To say his Bellbrook teammates and coaches had grave concerns about him might be an overstatement, but junior quarterback Kevin Crane had never taken a varsity snap and his preseason performances were something less than awe-inspiring.

“After our first two scrimmages, I thought we’d never score a point this season,” Bellbrook coach Kevin Basinger said.

“He just played nervous through the scrimmages. … He really surprised me tonight.”

Crane threw for three touchdowns in a 21-14 comeback victory over spunky Miamisburg here Friday. He connected on a 13-yard scoring toss to tight end Matt Longo with 7:25 to go for the decisive points and finished 7-of-12 passing for 189 yards.

“I don’t think anyone saw that performance coming,” Longo said, “but he did a heckuva job.”

Crane admitted fighting jitters but said, “When the game started, I was too pumped up (to be nervous).”

Bellbrook junior running back Steve Rasso rushed for 195 yards on 27 carries. Junior receiver Thomas Crute caught TD bombs of 67 and 66 yards.

The Golden Eagles had a 437-252 edge in total yardage but wasted three trips deep into Viking land with various miscues.

Trailing 21-14, Miamisburg reached the Golden Eagle 6-yard line with 2:40 to go. But junior QB Cody Hamblin, who carried the short-handed visitors most of the night, lost a fumble near the end zone while fighting for extra yardage.

Miamisburg tailback Troy Tanner rushed for 52 yards and two TDs in the first half, but he didn’t play after that because of an undisclosed injury.

“These seniors have won three games in their careers. This is one of the best football games they’ve played,” Vikings coach Tim Lewis said.

“We made a lot of mistakes — we’ve just got to get better. We’ve got nine more.”