Buckeye Bucks Football

The Ohio High School Athletic Association oversees all sports for high school athletes. They also do the rankings for the football teams which determine which 8 teams make the playoffs at the conclusion of the season. They have alot of good information there for parents and student athletes. Here is the link to the OHSAA site. Another good site for high school football scores and rankings is Joe Eitel's site for Ohio HS scores. Joe ranks all the teams in their respective divisions and though "unofficial" for years he is now the "official" source of the OSHAA for their rankings. Last but not least if you are still not getting enough high school football information to feed your habit try Dan Pasteur's Ohio Fantastic 50, MaxPreps or JJ Huddle.

 Buckeye Pulls Together To Defeat Cloverleaf (9/10/2016)

YORK TWP. — The Buckeye football team played its best when things looked the worst Friday night. Clinging to a four-point lead and about to play the second half without slotback Justin Canedy and receiver Jonathon Neel, the Bucks pulled together behind quarterback Michael Doerge, a determined offensive line and a stout defense to defeat Cloverleaf 28-10 in non-league action. Doerge, who moved from running back to quarterback in Week 2 after starting QB Adam Fauver hurt his knee in a season-opening overtime loss to Revere, rushed 20 times for 196 yards and two scores and was 4-for-4 passing for 38 yards as Buckeye improved to 2-1. “He’s a great leader, a hard worker and he’s very intelligent,” Bucks coach Mark Pinzone said. “He’s a smart player who takes over when we need it. He’s done it two games in a row.”

With the Bucks leading stubborn Cloverleaf (0-3) just 7-3 at intermission, Canedy (13 carries, 69 yards) out for the rest of the night with a hamstring injury and Neel sidelined with what could possibly be a broken collarbone, Buckeye looked like it could be in trouble. But the 5-foot-10, 195-pound Doerge used some great blocking to rush 10 times for 148 yards in the second half, including fourth-quarter scores of 65 and 18 yards that broke the game open. “We needed to do stuff,” the senior said. “I did it. Not just me. I can’t do anything without the offensive line doing what they do. They stepped to the plate.” With Canedy and Ryan Smith recovering fumbles, Keaton Sander coming up with an interception and Josh England, Jacob Kohler and Dustin McCullough making plays all over the field, the Buckeye defense held Cloverleaf to 221 yards on 58 plays.

Colts quarterback Travis Hissom was 12-for-20 passing for 103 yards — Ryan Curtis had three receptions for 41 yards and Nick Soika had five for 31 — but Cloverleaf managed just 118 yards rushing on 38 carries.

More telling, the Colts had just two rushes go for more than 9 yards — 14 was the long — and 19 go for 2 or less. “Offensively, we just have to finish drives,” Cloverleaf coach Justin Vorhies said. “That’s the killer right now. “We have to execute play after play. We know we don’t have that one dominant player — Soika is probably the closest — but we have guys that can get it done.” After Canedy carried six times for 51 yards, including a 7-yard TD, on an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive that gave Buckeye a 7-0 lead just 3:35 into the game, the Colts outplayed the Bucks the rest of the first half. Cloverleaf’s best drive ended in a 23-yard Hissom field goal with 1:54 left in the half, but the Colts wasted a golden opportunity when Al Kozma fumbled at the Buckeye 20.

Still, things looked promising for the Colts, who got great play from linebacker Cory Stallings and a fumble recovery from Chase Eby. “Our defense played well in the first half except for the first drive,” Vorhies said. “We have to get over that.” Just when it looked like anyone’s game, Doerge went nuts in the second half. His 41-yard run — and three other carries for 13 yards — set up a 5-yard TD by Dominic Monaco that put Buckeye up 14-3 with 6:20 left in the third period. Doerge then went 65 yards through a gigantic hole on the left side of the line to make it a 21-3 game with 10:47 left. After Cloverleaf’s Vorhies unsuccessfully went for it on fourth-and-10 from his own 20 — “It’s 21-3. You can’t win if you punt,” he said — Doerge scored from 18 yards on Buckeye’s first play to erase all doubt about the outcome.

The Colts made the final score respectable when Diego Rivera scored from 2 yards against the Bucks’ second string, but Buckeye’s starters had already stopped sweating — figuratively and literally — by that point. “I had faith we were going to be OK,” Doerge said. “I’m a confident quarterback, but it’s not natural to me quite yet.”

"I had faith we were going to be OK,” Doerge said. “I’m a confident quarterback, but it’s not natural to me quite yet.” It might not matter, as Doerge could move back to running back if or when Fauver is cleared to play. “I’d almost prefer to have him take all the stress of running the offense,” Doerge said with a smile. “Then I can just concentrate on running the ball.”

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @RickNoland on Twitter. 

Determined Buckeye Dominates Rocky River (9/3/2016)

YORK TWP. — The Buckeye football team’s defense was a little salty after last week’s overtime loss to Revere. Determined to make up for a disappointing opener, the Bucks completely dominated Rocky River to earn a 27-7 non-league win that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. While Buckeye (1-1) struggled to get rolling on offense initially, the defense was spectacular. The Pirates (1-1) rolled to a 53-13 rout of Fairview one week ago behind Dameon Crawford (244 yards, 4 TD) and Matt Popovich (155). The Bucks limited the entire Rocky River offense to just 139 yards on 43 plays and bottled up Crawford (18 carries, 66 yards) and Popovich (2, minus-1) all night. “We knew from Revere that we needed to step up our game on defense,” defensive back Keaton Sandor said. “We moved some guys around. We moved Dominic Monaco to strong safety, and he really stepped up to the plate.” 

The Buckeye offense was clicking at times in the opening 24 minutes, but badly timed penalties and turnovers kept the game closer than it should have been at 10-0. The defense continued to stand tall, forcing six straight three-and-outs and allowing just two first downs through almost three full quarters. After slotback-turned-quarterback Michael Doerge (8-for-12 passing, 105 yards, TD; 154 yards rushing, 2 TDs) scampered in from 24 yards to put the Bucks up 17-0, the defense showed a tiny crack.

Rocky River put up half of its offensive yardage on a pair of passing plays from Cameron Blue (6-of-18, 85 yards, TD, 2 ints.). Blue found Jack Rodgers for 22 yards, and one play later hit Michael Shoaf for 42 yards and a score.

The Buckeye defense responded, allowing just 14 yards the rest of the way and picking off Blue twice in the fourth quarter. Ricky VanBoxel snagged the first and Sandor the game-sealer. Doerge, who is starting for injured Adam Fauver, and Justin Canedy were all the Bucks needed en route to 433 yards. Canedy had 195 yards from scrimmage (154 rushing) on 29 touches. “We were motivated to come out and do our best to get this win,” Canedy said. “Everybody was saying we couldn’t do it and that motivated us even more. We had great blocking, and that’s why we were successful tonight.” Canedy was the workhorse early, while Doerge took over late.

The offensive highlight of the night came after Doerge faked a jet sweep to Canedy and ran untouched for 90 yards off the right side to knock most of the remaining life out of the Pirates. The score put the Bucks up 24-7 and cemented an important early season win. “They were really worried about the jet,” Doerge said. “So when we faked the jet and I went up there was no safety back there. The linebackers bit on the jet and I was just gone. I outran everybody.” Leading the way was the line of Hunter Gray, Dominick Kriz, Spencer Murphy, Luke Conrad, Cody Jackson and Turner Mitchell. “They did a great job,” Doerge said. “They just did their job. We had a little trouble in the first half running some of our counters and whatnot, but in the end I couldn’t have broken that 90-yarder without someone blocking for me.”

Contact Chad Grant at sports@medina-gazette.com

Buckeye Falls To Revere In Overtime (8/27/2016)

BATH TWP. The graduation of Gazette MVP Trevor Thome, all-county quarterback Nathan Polidori and a host of other talented players from a 10-1 team likely would have been surmountable. Losing new varsity quarterback Adam Fauver to injury and having Division III All-Ohio lineman Hunter Gray available only to snap on extra points and field goals proved too much, however, as the Buckeye football team dropped a 34-28 overtime heartbreaker to Revere on Friday in a non-league season opener. “They’re understanding the process, but they don’t understand the whole process,” Bucks coach Mark Pinzone said. “A lot of these guys played a lot on Saturday mornings (in junior varsity games) last year. There’s a big difference once you get under the lights. It’s a lot different than playing in the sunshine.

The young Bucks, who will play arguably the toughest team on their schedule when they host Rocky River next week, led 21-14 and never trailed by more than a score, but their defense sprung some big leaks at very inopportune times. Revere’s Clayton Langdon, who finished with 261 yards on 29 carries, had touchdown runs of 65, 6, 72 and 7 yards, the latter ending things in OT. Langdon, who owns sub 4.5-second speed in the 40-yard dash, got his 65-yarder on a basic third-and-21 draw play on the first series of the game, while his 72-yarder came on the Minutemen’s second play of the second half. “I want the ball every time. Every single time,” the 6-foot, 190-pound senior said. “I understand it doesn’t work like that, but I’m gonna bust a long one eventually, as long as I get one hole.

Expected to be back next week, Gray’s 6-2, 240-pound presence on the defensive line certainly would have helped the Bucks, who overpursued on several occasions, allowing Langdon to make one quick cut and sprint to daylight. We had some guys who didn’t make plays because they weren’t in their gaps,Pinzone said. When you violate that, a big hole is gonna happen.

Equally costly was a knee injury suffered by Fauver (7-for-10 passing, 45 yards; 7 carries, 39 yards) early in the second quarter. It occurred when the junior was scrambling right, jammed his foot into the turf and went to the ground without being touched. The Bucks were facing second-and-9 from the Revere 11 when Fauver went down — Pinzone is hopeful his QB has just a sprain and no ligament damage — but backup signal caller Eric Keller fumbled away a shotgun snap on his first play.

Despite limited first-team reps and being placed in a very tough position, the senior acquitted himself nicely after that. Keller finished 6-for-12 for 110 yards, including a 29-yard dart to Ricky VanBoxel that tied the game at 28 with 4:20 left in the third period. Keller also hit Jonathon Neel (6 catches, 81 yards) for a great 47-yard catch one series after fumbling, which set up a 10-yard TD run by Michael Doerge that tied the game at 14 with 5:34 left in the first half. On the negative side, Keller put the ball on the ground three times, losing two. The last came on Buckeye’s second play of OT, when he caught the shotgun snap but dropped the ball as he started to move out of the pocket. Two plays later, Langdon scored his fourth TD to end the game. We threw him to the lions tonight,” Pinzone said of Keller. “He stepped up and made some plays. (The last fumble) might have been from a lack of reps, but he handled it well. We’ll rep it up next week so that doesn’t happen again. I’m very proud of him.

Doerge (11 carries, 80 yards) added a 25-yard touchdown run that gave Buckeye a 21-14 lead with 3:16 left in the second quarter, while Justin Canedy (11 carries, 110 yards) went 57 yards for a score on the Bucks’ third play of the game to tie things at 7. Up 21-14 at halftime, Buckeye’s lead could have been greater. It lost potential points on Keller’s first fumble, had penalties turn second-and-goal at the 4 into third-and-goal at the 20 before turning the ball over on downs and missed a 38-yard field goal on the last play of the first half.

Penalties were a big problem for both teams in a game that took 3 hours, 18 minutes, including 3:10 for regulation. Revere was penalized 14 times for 129 yards and the Bucks 10 for 88. We were inside the 5 and came up empty,” Pinzone said. “That can’t happen.

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.

Thome Honored By Ohio Chapter Of NFF 

A big congratulations to current senior Trevor Thome for being selected for one of the Northeastern Ohio Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame's 2015 Scholar-Athlete Awards. This award is very prestigious and is given to the top area scholar athletes based on academics. Jim Tressel will be presenting the award this March to Trevor and the other recipients at the LaCentre in Westlake. Other keynote speakers include former Browns, Kevin Mack and Robert Jackson as well as Youngstown State Coach, Bo Pelini.

If you recall, former Buckeye Bucks quarterback/defensive back, Christian Petek, was given the same award for his academic and athletic achievements in the fall of 2013. Considering there are 235 schools in the area that have players as candidates for this award, As head coach of the Buckeye Bucks Football team, I could not be prouder of Trevor and all of our players who consistently perform so strong in the classroom. While we certainly emphasize the hard work and commitment to winning each and every season, academics and character as young people has been, and always will be the first priority for these young men.