Announcement
From The GAZETTE by RICK NOLAND, Assistant Sports Editor
YORK TWP. — The Buckeye football team has done a 180-degree turn. After losing their first four games, the Bucks have now won four straight, the latest a pivotal 42-14 Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division triumph over county rival Black River on Friday night at Edwin M. Steingass Field. Buckeye (4-4, 4-1), which won for the 300th time in school history, now sits alone atop the Stars Division with two weeks to play. Black River (3-5, 3-2) isn’t out of the race, but the Pirates need help.
“We had so many turnovers the first four games,” said Buckeye quarterback Mike Kelly, who had touchdown runs of 80, 56 and 30 yards. “I wish we could go back. We’re a lot better team now than we were then.” The Bucks went forward against the Pirates, as they amassed 382 yards on 34 rushing attempts, a whopping 11.2-yard average. Kelly finished with eight carries for 165 yards, Cory Reisner had 15 attempts for 130 yards and three touchdowns and Shawn Cordes gained 78 yards on eight attempts.
Black River’s defense actually played well at times, but five Buckeye runs — Kelly’s three TD scampers, a 54-yard Reisner score and Cordes’ 57-yard romp to the 1 — totaled an amazing 277 yards. “We got beat on big plays,” Black River coach Al Young said. “They’ve got better speed. We’re young and they exploited it tonight.”
The game was tied 66 after one— the Bucks scored on a 14-yard Reisner run and Black River answered with a 32-yard pass from Anthony O’Connor to Jake O’Connor — before the Bucks blew the game open by scoring 22 points in a 4:39 span of the second quarter. Reisner started things with a 1-yard plunge. Just 2:04 later, Kelly executed a great fake and went 80 yards around right end. The junior then scored from 56 yards out 2:35 after that before capping his huge night with a 30-yard romp late in the third quarter.
“We were so worried about Cory Reisner,” Young said. “He’s a tremendous back and you’ve got to pay attention to him. (Kelly) caught us on some keeps and we got burned.” Kelly didn’t do it all by himself, as he got great downfield blocks from Darren Boulton, Reisner and Carlton Watkins, respectively, on his TD runs. “Their whole defense focused on Cory,” Kelly said. “It left me wide open. On all my runs, none of them were expecting me.”
The Bucks had 270 yards rushing with 4:39 to play in the first half, then turned things over to a defense led by Matt Shaw (2 sacks), Cody Muhek (sack), Zack Yohman and Zach Maxworthy. “We’re starting to believe,” Muhek said.
Black River moved the ball well at times, but had trouble finishing drives. The best example came at the start of the third period, when the Pirates went 78 yards on 15 plays that took 6:52 off the clock before turning the ball over on downs at the Buckeye 2. “We’ve got to finish,” Young said. “We executed, but we weren’t able to cash in. Credit to them for a great defensive stand. They came to play tonight.”
Matt Joppeck had 12 carries for 99 yards and a TD for the Pirates, while Anthony O’Conner had 18 attempts for 97 yards and Jake O’Connor rushed seven times for 91 yards. Jake O’Connor also had five catches for 45 yards, while brother Anthony was 9-of-19 passing for 73 yards.
The story of the night, however, was the all-around solid play of the Bucks, who beat their county and Stars Division rival decisively despite attempting just three passes. “This is huge,” Muhek said. “This is our biggest rival. We were pumped for this game.” Noland may be reached at rickn@ohio.net or 330.721.4061.
