Announcement
YORK TWP. — As Buckeye’s football team walked off the field after a 55-16 thrashing of Oberlin, Braeden Stauffer helped carry some equipment into the locker room.
You would never know the sophomore scored a touchdown he will never forget.
Stauffer’s first career score in the closing seconds — an exclamation point on an easy Patriot Athletic Conference cross-division victory — was one of several plays in a stat-stuffing night that carried the Bucks (2-2, 1-0) to their second straight win at Edwin Steingass Field.
Stauffer’s interception in the final seconds, however, was the talk among fans as they walked to their cars.
“It was just an instinct thing. You don’t plan that,” said Stauffer, who is in his first year playing football at any level. “It was great.”
With the game clock at zero, Oberlin quarterback David Payne’s pass bounced off the hands of his intended receiver. Stauffer was there to scoop the ball out of the air and go 90 yards.
“I just reacted,” he said. “I read the quarterback and when he threw, I just popped up. I was lucky that (the receiver) bobbled it and I just made a play.”
It was one of several plays made by Buckeye players from the opening possession, which lasted three plays before quarterback Nate Polidori found John Garner from 13 yards. A three-touchdown quarter by Trevor Thome made it 28-0 at the end of the first.
“I think we were pretty confident and that relaxed us,” said Polidori, who also rushed for 83 yards on eight carries. “We really took it to them and, from the first drive, we knew this was our night.”
After the opening score, the Phoenix (1-3, 0-1) went three-and-out, giving way to the first of two punt return touchdowns from Thome. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound junior returned the first kick 75 yards for a score and then, after recording another score on a 2-yard dive, ran through a truck-size hole for a school-record 85-yard return.
“It felt pretty great,” Thome said. “I have to give all the credit to the punt return team, who set up some great blocks. I had huge lanes to run through.”
The first-quarter performance wasn’t a surprise Buckeye coach Mark Pinzone.
“We were just doing things right,” he said. “Our kids came out ready to play. We talked all week about how it was nice to have the win last week (against Cloverleaf), but we had to put that away and get to the next week. I was very happy with what we did tonight.”
Oberlin snapped the run with a 14-yard scamper by Elijah Briggs, but Buckeye closed the half with rushing TDs by Michael Doerge and Nathan Scott to lead 42-7.
Doerge, who took over the reigns at quarterback in the fourth quarter, also had a 16-yard score to finish with 72 yards on eight carries.
“We kind of could’ve done whatever we wanted,” Polidori said. “It was fun, but there are a lot of things we can clean up. I think I heard (Browns coach) Mike Pettine say once that, ‘I would rather take negatives out of win than positives out of a loss,’ so we have a lot to clean up.”
Note
| Oberlin debuted new gray road jerseys, which arrived earlier this week. The only issue was the word Phoenix was spelled “Pheonix” on the front. |
Contact Dan Brown at sports@medina-gazette.com.
Buckeye 55, Oberlin 16
