Buckeye Bucks Football

Buckeye Dominates Firelands In PAC

By ALBERT GRINDLE the Gazette October 16, 2015

YORK TWP. — Quarterback Nathan Polidori passionately leading the postgame B-U-C-K-E-Y-E chant and the celebratory banging of helmets against lockers probably were heard 30 miles away in northwestern Lorain County. Those messages were proudly brought to you by the Buckeye football team, which is 96 minutes from a 10-0 regular season. Getting near-perfect play from offensive linemen Hunter Gray, Jalin Brock, Brad Calta, Dominick Kriz and Bruce Barnby while running the jet sweep down the defense’s throat Friday, the Bucks obliterated previously red-hot Firelands 42-7 to take sole possession of first place in the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division.

The juicy statistic: Buckeye (8-0, 3-0) gained 300 yards on 17 plays in the first half. “I’m ecstatic right now. I really don’t know what to say,” said Barnby, who celebrated his 18th birthday and won $9 on a scratch-off lottery ticket earlier in the day. “I really love how we all stuck together.” Lining up in a tight, double-slot formation almost exclusively over the first two quarters, Buckeye kept dialing up its signature jet sweep with fullback Kyle Svagerko lead blocking for All-Gazette studs Nathan Scott (7 carries, 111 yards, TD) and Trevor Thome (10, 111, 2), daring the touted defense of the Falcons (6-2, 2-1) to stop it.

Despite a solid showing from All-Ohio end Aaron Miller, Firelands never did. Coach Mark Pinzone’s Bucks scored touchdowns on two of their first five plays, and their first nine snaps covered 13, 11, 11, 28, 84, 13, 2, 27 and 11 yards — an eye-popping 21 average — as Polidori (7 carries, 121 yards; 4-for-5, 72 yards) joined Scott and Thome in the 100-yard club. Of the 300 first-half yards, 298 featured pre-snap jet motion. The lone play that didn’t was a 2-yard TD by Thome on a counter trey that made the score 28-7 one second before halftime.

All of this came against a Firelands defense that allowed a paltry average of 148.2 yards during its now-history six-game winning streak. “It’s the way we executed,” Calta said. “We work very hard on the jet. It just all fell together tonight.” Buckeye started lightning-fast, needing only four plays — all jet sweeps — and 1:30 to score, as Scott went in from 28 yards. A fourth-down stop by the defense then led to Polidori faking a jet and rumbling 84 yards, giving the Bucks 147 yards and 14 points on their first five plays.

Aided by a questionable pass interference penalty on third down, Firelands answered down 21-0 when All-Ohio quarterback Brad Thrasher (21 carries, 98 yards; 6-for-14, 56 yards) went in from a yard out with 25 seconds remaining in the half. The Falcons were slated to receive the opening kickoff of the third quarter, too, and appeared to have salvaged much-needed momentum. But Buckeye wasn’t done. Seeing Firelands was in a prevent defense, the Bucks called another jet and Scott zipped down the sideline for 33 yards before tweaking his left hamstring. Polidori then nailed Justin Lowry (2 catches, 53 yards) for a 26-yard gain to the 2, where Thome easily reached the end zone off left tackle. That’s 24 seconds to run three plays, cover 61 yards and power punch Firelands square in the jaw.

“We took hard steps and we didn’t let anything get to us,” Barnby said. “All we thought about was winning the game, and we made it happen.” The underrated Buckeye defense was stereotypical bend-but-don’t-break. Facing a unique Pistol offense featuring jet sweeps, counters, read options and a line that averaged 6-foot-3, 278 pounds, the Bucks endured 11-, 14- and 11-play drives in the first half but yielded only once. A big reason for that was clutch play near the red zone, as Scott tackled receiver Colin Myers (5 receptions, 35 yards) at the 16-yard line and just shy of the marker on fourth down. Scott later broke up a fourth-down pass intended for Myers with the ball on the 27.

Buckeye, which didn’t face third down or punt until midway through the third quarter, turned both stops into touchdowns and, using that momentum, held the Falcons to 92 yards while forcing two turnovers in the second half. Calta was a load with two tackles for loss (sack) and a forced fumble, linebackers Svagerko (sack), Dustin McCullough (fumble recovery) and Jaret Yohman hounded Trasher and slotbacks Mike Whitacre (12 carries, 51 yards) and Nick Denney (3, 3), and cornerback Lowry was a big reason why Myers only had one reception in the second half.

“On the season, (Firelands) pretty much had a lot of success,” Scott said. “We watched film all week. We prepared to see what they did, and we just lined up and played.” Next up: Another game with first-place implications, this time at Keystone (3-5, 2-1). “I don’t know if I can put this into words,” Calta said. "It's just a great victory, that's all."

SULLIVAN TWP. — Accepting anything less than perfection is not an option for Justin Lowry, Trevor Thome and the rest of the Buckeye football team. Buckeye’s Justin Lowry (11) breaks up a pass intended for Black River’s Allan Benson during the second quarter. (RON SCHWANE / GAZETTE) Minutes after slowly but surely beating the tar out of archrival Black River 48-7 Friday, Lowry and Thome all but thanked the Pirates for giving them a game for 2? quarters. With the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division game of the year on tap next week when Firelands (6-1, 2-0) travels to Edwin Steingass Field, the Bucks (7-0, 2-0) needed to find out what their flaws were, no matter how minor they might seem to the average fan. Buckeye trailed 7-6 after one quarter and had to make two red zone stops to prevent Black River from cutting the deficit to two touchdowns.

The Bucks again did a ton of things well and the defense was stellar, but they clearly were caught off-guard when the struggling Pirates (3-4, 0-2) played physically early on. That can’t happen against Falcons All-Ohio quarterback Brad Thrasher next week. “(The win) feels great, but you know what? I don’t think we played our greatest,” Lowry said. “We haven’t really gotten hit, and I think (Black River) came ready to play and we were expecting another easy win. But, you know what? I think we got in the zone and starting playing good. “It shows us we’re not as great as we think we (are), but we can be great if we’re focused.”

The game still readily belonged to Buckeye despite the slow start. Lowry had two touchdown receptions from Nathan Polidori (9 carries, 39 yards, TD; 5-for-7, 84 yards, 3 TDs), picked off Mike Hazlett on fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line late in the first half and broke up two other passes, while the inside running game made possible by linemen Brad Calta, Bruce Barnby, Jack Schroeder, Jalin Brock, Jaret Yohman and Hunter Gray shined after it became clear Black River was focused on containing the Bucks’ signature jet sweep.

The inside run game allowed Thome to have another standout night. The All-Ohioan had 13 carries for a season-high 171 yards, including TDs of 7 and 76 yards. He also had no fewer than 21 rushing yards on four of Buckeye’s first five scoring drives and set up the other with a 61-yard punt return. Justin Canedy (11-yard reception) and backup quarterback Adam Fauver (37-yard run) found the end zone as well as the Bucks increased their scoring average to 44.7 points. “It was kind of a wake-up call, you know?” Thome said. “Teams aren’t just going to roll over when we come out here and play just because we’re undefeated. This was good for us.”

With the Bucks’ Yohman, Calta, Barnby Kyle Svagerko, Dustin McCullough and Dominick Kriz factoring in tackles for loss when the score was still respectable, Black River couldn’t string much together outside of a seven-play, 52-yard scoring drive that ended in a Travis Sexton 15-yard TD with 1:15 left in the first quarter. The Pirates trailed 28-7 late in the half when Hazlett (8-for-17, 78 yards) scrambled for 19 yards on fourth-and-13 to set up first-and-goal from the 3. The drive stalled on fourth down when Lowry intercepted a slant intended for Medina County leading receiver Allan Benson. “I knew it was a crucial play,” Lowry said. “No 13, Benson, he’s a great athlete. … I had a feeling that was going to be the play call.”

A similar story happened to start the third, as Black River recovered an onside kick and burned 4:33 off the clock. First-and-10 from the 17 resulted in zero points, as Kriz sacked Hazlett on fourth down. “I knew they were an explosive team,” said Pirates coach Al Young, whose team also dropped an interception while trailing 14-7. “They’re fast. They’re a good team — a great team — and I knew we had to have a lot of things go our way. … We left a couple touchdowns out there that hurt.” That was really all the Pirates had left in the tank, as Thome trucked a defender in front of his own sideline on the 76-yard TD — his eighth career score of more than 50 yards — and Lowry caught a textbook 27-yard fade from Polidori late in the third.

The rest of the night belonged to Buckeye’s backups, as Fauver was the game’s second-leading rusher with 75 yards on five carries despite Black River gaining 20, 10 and 13 yards on the final three plays. “Discipline played a big part in it,” Thome said. “Everyone was disciplined and did their job. Do your job and things take care of themselves. That’s what we did.”

YORK TWP. — On a homecoming night when Buckeye celebrated the 50th anniversary of its 1965 Inland Conference champion football team, the current Bucks reenacted a Martha and the Vandellas song from that year: They made sure Wellington had “Nowhere to Run.” Buckeye’s defense held the Dukes to 30 total yards in the first half and 48 in the game en route to a 54-6 Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division victory and a 6-0 start. 

“I think our focus has been taking us to a whole nother level,” Buckeye senior quarterback Nathan Polidori said. “We get our focus going at game time, and the coaches have been doing a really good job of getting us ready.” Polidori got things going in the right direction for the Bucks with a 57-yard punt return for the game’s first touchdown. After muffing the kick, the senior picked up the ball and raced for the right sideline. “It was wide open,” he said. Buckeye didn’t need much more.

The defense set the tone from the start, and after Wellington turned a Polidori fumble into an 11-yard touchdown run by Max Carevic, the Dukes (3-3) went silent. Buckeye’s secondary kept tight coverage on Wellington, which missed its last 16 passes. “It felt like the secondary as a unit was playing really well, and the defensive line was making sure to get to the quarterback,” senior defensive back Justin Lowry said. “We were able to make some plays out there.” Fellow defensive back Nathan Scott, who also ran for a pair of scores, said the Bucks are improving as the season moves along. “We’re definitely getting better each week,” he said.

“We practice like we play, and we’re playing well.” Buckeye Coach Mark Pinzone said his staff did a good job of preparing the secondary. “My coaches are doing a great job,” he said. “The DB coach (Jesse Dooling) is drilling them every day, and a lot of those (defensive backs) are receivers also, so they’re doing a great job of managing their time with the players.” Buckeye came into the game averaging better than 42 points, but Pinzone said his squad has done a good job of remaining focused each week. “I believe in my heart that they’re staying on task, on the field, off the field, in the film room,” he said. “They’re all in.” 

Trevor Thome ran nine times for 102 yards in the second quarter for Buckeye, while Scott picked up 57 yards on the ground to go with his two scores. Kyle Svagerko put away any doubts by starting the second half with two carries — the first for 43 yards and the second for 28 and a touchdown. That started the running clock, and Michael Doerge (3-yard run) and Collin Graham (9-yard run) added touchdowns to round out the scoring.

SHEFFIELD TWP. — It was another ho-hum night, another second-half running clock and another blowout win for the Buckeye football team. The most recent victim was Clearview, which was dominated 47-7 in a Patriot Athletic Conference cross-division game Friday night. The Bucks (5-0, 2-0) made it look easy again, overwhelming the Clippers (1-4, 0-2) and easily dispatching another opponent on their quest for perfection.

“We’ve just got to take it one game at a time,” Buckeye senior Trevor Thome said. “You can’t go 10-0 without being 5-0.” Thome was at the forefront again for the video-game-like Buckeye offense. It wasn’t quite six touchdowns on seven touches like last week against Fairview, but Thome still found the end zone four times while helping the Bucks build a 34-0 halftime lead. The 5-foot-8, 180-pound slotback took four touches to score his first touchdown, but hit paydirt on touches five, six and eight to make it 27-0 early in the second quarter. His biggest run came on a spectacular 73-yarder in which he was pushed to the edge of the sideline before cutting against the grain and sprinting to the end zone to put the Bucks up 14-0 in the first quarter.

It was another tremendous performance for Thome, who had nine carries for 133 yards before retiring to the bench with the rest of the first-team offense early in the third quarter. That final drive culminated in Nathan Scott’s 4-yard plunge that had Nathan Polidori throwing his hands in the air signaling the touchdown immediately after handing the ball off. “We’re really confident in our offense,” Thome said. “When we get down to the goal line, we know we’re going to punch it in because of our great offensive line.

They are very aggressive and give us big holes to run through.” Thome, Scott (10 carries, 83 yards; 2 receptions, 50 yards) and Polidori (6-for-9, 141 yards, TD; 10 carries, 52 yards) have given opposing defenses fits all season. “The defense can’t just key on one guy because if they do, we have plenty of other guys that can make plays,” Thome said.“ 

While the offense was playing pinball again, the defense put forth another outstanding effort. Prior to the second-team defense taking the field, the Bucks had limited Iowa recruit Lance Billings to a meager 47 yards with 5:43 left in the third quarter. Clearview finished with 126 total yards and averaged just 1.7 yards per carry. Billings was a major focus of the Buckeye defense and did just about everything but snap the ball to himself. The 6-1, 180-pound wide receiver/defensive back/punter/kicker/kick returner was bottled up all night, finishing with 54 yards on five receptions and one rush for negative-5 yards.

“We watched film on them all week,” Scott said. “We knew what they could do, and our coaching staff got us really prepared. We were just confident in our ability to go out there and perform.”Buckeye used multiple players to shadow the multi-faceted Billings, as Scott, Justin Lowry and Josh England took turns putting in work. “We were just doing our jobs,” Lowry said. “Nothing really changes. We just go out and play defense.” The Clippers’ lone score came against the backups, when reserve quarterback Jacob Collier found Zavier Tatum-Felder for a 24-yard TD. The Buckeye reserves got that score back when Adam Fauver scrambled in from 10 yards.

YORK TWP. — Buckeye’s Trevor Thome set a school record Friday with six touchdowns. He touched the ball on offense just seven times. And he exited the game for good with 10:05 left in the first half. 

It was that kind of night for Thome and the Bucks, who throttled Fairview 52-0 in Patriot Athletic Conference cross-division action despite playing backups and junior varsity players for most of the final three quarters. Thome’s six TDs — on runs of 2, 2 and 33 yards and receptions of 15, 20 and 38 yards — broke Cory Reisner’s school record of five, set on three occasions in 2008. The slotback’s 36 points also set a school mark. “I can’t say I’d ever predict this,” the senior said. “I felt pretty good. But anyone can feel pretty good with that offensive line.

It was a great team effort and a great team win.” Five of Thome’s scores came in Buckeye’s 39-point first quarter, which also included a 39-yard interception return for a TD by Nathan Scott. “It feels pretty awesome,” Thome said. “It’s something you dream about as a little kid.” All of the 5-foot-8, 180-pounder’s TD receptions came off the right arm of quarterback Nathan Polidori, who finished 7-for-7 for 148 yards and the three scores, giving him a perfect NFL quarterback rating of 158.3. “They were absolutely perfect balls,” Thome said. “He couldn’t have put it in a better spot. That’s what Nate does.” The Bucks (4-0, 1-0) did virtually everything right against the Warriors (0-4, 0-1), as offensive linemen Hunter Gray, Jalin Brock, Jack Schroeder, Brad Calta, Bruce Barnby and Dominick Kriz opened huge holes and provided great protection for Polidori, who was never touched.

Defensively, Buckeye got great play from Jaret Yohman, Kyle Svagerko and Dustin McCullough and fumble recoveries from Brent Medvec and Dylan Fields to post back-to-back shutouts for the first time since recording four straight in 2005. “We don’t play against the other teams,” Polidori said. “We practice and play against perfection.” The Bucks, who also got a 9-yard TD from Fields in the fourth quarter, weren’t perfect, but they were pretty darn close as they continue their march toward what they hope will be a 10-0 season. Thome scored on a 20-yard reception just 1:45 into the game, leading the pajama-clad Buckeye student section to chant, “That’s too easy.” Polidori then hit his longtime teammate for a 15-yard score with 8:31 left in the first, and Scott’s pick-six made it 20-0 with 6:04 to go.

The first of Thome’s 2-yard runs made it 26-0 with 3:13 left, and a 38-yard strike from Polidori to Thome upped it to 32-0 at 2:46. Thome then capped a 39-point quarter with a 33-yard run at the 1:04 mark. A bad punt snap gave the Bucks the ball at the Fairview 2-yard line, and Thome went in again from 2 yards to make it 46-0 with 10:05 left in the first half. At that point, Buckeye had run 15 plays and scored seven touchdowns, leading both coaches to agree to play the rest of the game with a running clock.

“He’s good every night,” Polidori said of Thome. “I’ve played with him since peewee, and I’ve never seen him not be ready to play. He shows up every night.” Buckeye had 219 yards total offense in the first quarter and 247 at halftime, at which time the Warriors had minus-9. Eleven players ended up running the ball for the Bucks, who also used three quarterbacks while racking up 328 yards total offense to Fairview’s 63. “We were just ready to execute today,” Polidori said. “We put it to them early and got a good rest in the second half.”

NOTES: Fairview assistants Garrett Mack, Ben Karaba and Joe Richisson played football at Brunswick, where most of Buckeye’s staff once coached. The Bucks went 4-for-8 on extra points. Richard Gatt was 4-for-7 and Kaleb Ehrbar missed his lone attempt.