Buckeye Bucks Football

From The GAZETTE by Albert Grindle, Staff Writer

What a huge, huge week for Medina County football. Brunswick at Strongs­ville with first place in the Northeast Ohio Confer­ence Valley Division at stake.  Black River at Buckeye for Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division supremacy. Highland at Wadsworth with Suburban League title hopes hanging in the balance. 

You might as well change Friday night to Judgment Night. The Brunswick game is, without question, the big­gest, with the teams sport­ing a combined record of 13-1. The Mustangs’ loss came to powerful Lake­wood St. Edward. The Blue Devils might be drained after an emo­tional roller coaster against Solon on FSN, but just when you think they might actually lose a game, coach Rich Nowak’s troops prove you wrong. Strongsville quarter­back Kellen Pagel, son of former Browns signal caller Mike Pagel, is a stud and an untested Brunswick secondary could have its hands full. My head says 24-23 Strongsville, but my gut says 24-23 Brunswick. Hopefully for the Blue Devils, Jeff Kravetz will be ready if he needs to kick another game-win­ner. 

Black River-Buckeye is, in my humble opinion, pound-for-pound the best rivalry in the county. Yeah, Medina and Wadsworth don’t like each other. Highland and Cloverleaf hate the Grizzlies, but the feeling isn’t mutual yet. But there’s no question the Pirates and Bucks would like nothing better than to pound one another into submission. It’s great that the con­test actually means some­thing for the first time since 2002, too. Back then it was the Mohican Area Conference on the line and Buckeye’s defense made two goal-line stands, Darren Cereshko recovered a late Pirates fumble, and Ryan Hoover’s field goal with 2:12 left gave the Bucks a 10-9 win. 

Friday’s game won’t be that low scoring with a pair of defenses that give up over 300 yards a game, but I forsee a 35-28 Buckeye win — only because the Bucks’ size up front and the three-pronged running attack of Cory Reisner, Mike Kelly and Ryan McCormick will be the dif­ference. 

Wadsworth-Highland is a game that has late-season meaning for the first time since 2001, when both teams were 7-0. Last sea­son’s Week 4 contest — won 36-21 by Wadsworth — simply was too early on the schedule. The Hornets are rolling behind a stellar defense (7.6 ppg) and a balanced offense. The Grizzlies are coming off a 21-7 loss to Tallmadge, the best 4­3 team in Division II. 

Wadsworth wide receiv­er Anthony Schrock’s injury status — indica­tions are he will play — could play a crucial role. If the 6-foot-3 junior can go, he’ll face two smaller cor­nerbacks — Jarrod Swick (5-9) and either Aaron Maslowski (5-10) or Kyle Callari (6-0) — and could cause major matchup prob­lems. If Schrock doesn’t suit up, the passing game prob­ably won’t be the same. Louden Gordon can only do so much by himself. Slippery quarterback Caleb Busson is a night­mare, though, and speedy Aarick Jones can bust a big one at any moment. 

I’ll give the edge to the Hornets 24-17, but don’t be surpised if they can’t get recent history out of their heads and Wadsworth pulls it out. Reason being, in 2006 Highland thought it had tied the game in overtime when Josh Darling rum­bled into the end zone, but the play was called back for aiding the runner. Wadsworth won 20-14. Last year, the Grizzlies scored 23 unanswered points in the fourth to win by 15. All that aside, it should be another great one.