Announcement
From The GAZETTE by Brad Bournival, Staff Writer
Mike Kelly didn’t have just one choice following a Week 4 loss to Clearview; the Buckeye quarterback had three picks. That’s how many times the junior was intercepted in a 14-7 loss to the Clippers, prompting a wake-up by the Buckeye signal caller and a completely different attitude for the Bucks.
Since then, the school has won four straight and is perched atop the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division as it heads into tonight’s action with Keystone. “I wasn’t playing good and needed to be smarter with the ball,” Kelly said. “I went at it with the wrong attitude. I needed to go with an attitude of reserve the right to punt.” Not that the Bucks have had to do much of that since Week 5.
Kelly bounced back from his colossal collapse against the Clippers with a 4-of-7, 53yard performance in a 34-18 win over Lutheran West. It was that game against the Longhorns where Kelly got his legs under him. Literally. The 5-foot-11, 162-pound quarterback rushed for 81 yards on seven carries and has never looked back.
Coincidentally, he’s joined Medina County leading rusher and Buckeye teammate Cory Reisner as a cornerstone of the Bucks. “He has become the leader of the offense,” Reisner said. “He’s a big threat. He’s athletic like me, but they have no idea where he’s coming from.” Opponents have no clue because Kelly isn’t Option A for the Bucks. Heck, he’s not B or C either with Ryan McCormick and Shawn Cordes getting looks more often than not. Yet Kelly sits at No. 10 in county rushing with 454 yards on 52 carries and five touchdowns.
“Mike has learned how to hide the ball,” Buckeye coach Billy Burke said. “He knows when to pull it in and go. He ran for close to 300 yards the last two weeks because he can get himself downfield and follow his blocks. He can turn a 4-yard run into a 60-yard gain because no one accounts for him.”
Black River found that out the hard way last week in a 42-14 Buckeye win. Kelly torched the Pirates to the tune of 165 yards on eight carries.
Three of those carries went for scores. Not surprisingly, they weren’t short spurts either, as Kelly found the end zone on runs of 80, 56 and 30 yards. “The way he fakes, he does a hell of a job,” Black River coach Al Young said. “When you throw Reisner in there, he’s very deceptive. “He just hung our kids out to dry. When a kid has that much confidence, he feels comfortable in that role. He didn’t throw the ball that much but the ones he did looked good.”
The last two weeks, Kelly has attempted just three passes - all against the Pirates - and relied more on intuition to avoid interceptions. Add it up, and it’s not hard to figure out why the Bucks are looking at becoming league champs for the third time in four years. “When he sees an opportunity, he takes advantage of it,” Burke said. Because of Kelly, so have the Bucks. Bournival may be reached at bournival929@sbcglobal.net or 330.721.4045.
