Announcement
YORK TWP. — Championship teams aren’t bought on supermarket shelves. Blood, sweat and tears are required to mold them into works of art.
The Buckeye football team found out vividly what the finished product looks like.
Dominating the second half from start to finish Friday, coach Mark Pinzone’s Bucks rallied to bury neighboring Keystone 35-18 and earn a share of their second consecutive Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division championship.
The cherry on top of the oh-so sweet victory was Buckeye (7-2, 4-0) scored 22 unanswered points to all but clinch a Division III, Region 8 playoff berth.
“It’s unexplainable,” running back Trevor Thome said. “It’s one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had the pleasure of feeling in my life.
“PAC (Stars Division) champs two years in a row? Not many teams can do that. Going back to back is tough. We knew (Keystone) was going to be ready to play — they took it to us in the first half — but we came back and took it to them in the second half.”
The “Big Three” of Thome, Nathan Scott and Nate Polidori had all 400 of the Bucks’ yards total offense and all five touchdowns.
With Wildcats ends C.J. and Austin Conrad and linebacker Nick McLaughlin containing Buckeye’s vaunted jet sweep, Thome had 108 gutsy rushing yards between the tackles and added four receptions for 85 yards. Scott had 69 rushing yards — 33 on a TD that gave the Bucks the lead for good — and Polidori was 5-for-12 for 147 yards while rushing for 76 more.
Huge gains had been the Buckeye staple this season, but it used rugged linemen Hunter Gray, Austin Schnepp, Jalin Brock, Brad Calta, Brenden Morrissey and Jack Schroeder and tight ends Jaret Yohman and Kevin Zacharyasz to pulverize the Keystone defense into submission.
“That’s a heart thing,” Gray said. “We wanted to win it more than they did.”
“It wouldn’t be possible without the offensive line,” Thome added. “It’s as simple as that.”
The defense had its moments, too, limiting the Wildcats (7-2, 3-1) to just 80 yards and four first downs over the final 24 minutes.
Making 900-yard rusher Tyler Polen (13 carries, 47 yards, 2 TDs) a non-factor but getting torched by 5-foot-7 quarterback Denny Szalai (17-for-27, 193 yards; 9 carries, 82 yards) and Kentucky recruit C.J. Conrad (8 receptions, 108 yards) in the first half, the Bucks had a momentum-changing red zone stop in crunch time.
Shortly after a pair of Buckeye defenders collided and botched what would have been an easy pick-six early in the fourth quarter, Keystone faced first-and-goal from the 5-yard line trailing 28-18. Szalai lofted a jump ball to Conrad in the corner of the end zone, but the 6-5, 220-pounder was called for pass interference.
The following two plays resulted in a Bruce Barnby sack of Szalai and a pass batted down at the line by Gray. Szalai zipped a pass over the middle to an open Brandon Buttdolph on fourth down from the 18, but a full-sprint hit by Thome knocked the ball loose.
“That was icing on the cake,” Thome said. “That was the dagger and pretty much ended the game. That’s that.”
The Buckeye offensive line then proved its worth again, leading a clinching 11-play, 82-yard scoring drive that ate 5:39 off the fourth-quarter clock. A 20-yard Polidori strike to Thome on third-and-14 was the key play, and Polidori scored from 15 yards on a QB counter.
Game over.
“We knew we had momentum rolling and if we put that away, they’d shut down,” Gray said. “They did. They couldn’t come back from that.”
The first half featured back-and-forth scoring and potentially demoralizing mistakes. Keystone struck first when Szalai broke contain and scrambled 67 yards for a touchdown, but the Bucks responded quickly when a 62-yard Austin Wredberg reception set up an 8-yard Thome TD run.
The Wildcats took a 12-7 lead on a 7-yard TD run by Polen before Polidori answered with a 14-yard score. Conrad had a 28-yard reception on fourth down to set up Polen’s second short TD with 3:38 left in the half.
A lost opportunity then haunted Keystone.
The Bucks were driving again until a holding penalty pushed them out of the red zone. Polidori threw an ill-advised interception to Jacob Mezera, and Szalai slung a perfect pass to Conrad following a double-move for a 45-yard gain.
On the verge of going up 21-13 with 32 seconds left in the half, a 33-yard field goal snap went through the hands of the holder and kicker Turner Giesel fell on the ball for a 16-yard loss.
That gave Buckeye the boost it needed for a championship-quality second half.
“Honestly, I’m speechless,” Gray said. “The work that our team has put in these past two years, it’s incredible. The way these coaches have brought us together as a team and a family, we wanted to win this for them more than anything else.”
Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.
Buckeye 35, Keystone 18
