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2014 Bucks
The 2014 Bucks went 8-3 overall and 7-0 in the PAC under 2nd year Coach Mark Pinzone. They made the Division III Playoffs for the 6th time, but bowed out in the first round with a 41-7 loss to Bowling Green. Assistant Coaches were Bill Turner, Joe Yarwood, Rich Nowak, Tom Fasko and Britt Musal. They scored 371 points and gave up 250.
Junior QB Nate Polidori was 51 for 116 for 1,276 yards with 16 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Polidori also had 129 carries for 782 yards and 9 TDs. Junior Trevor Thome was both the leading receiver and leading rusher. He had 25 receptions for 641 yards and 7 touchdowns. He added 94 carries for 816 yards and 13 TDs to those stats. He finished as the leader in points with 136, followed by Junior Nate Scott (66 for 648 yards rushing & 12 for 310 yards receiving) with 74 and Polidori with 60.
Kicker Brendan McBride was 16 for 20 on extra points and 0 for 1 on field goals for 16 points. Jaret Lowry 19 of 23 on extra points and had 2 receiving touchdowns for a total or 31 points on the season.
Try as it might, fifth-seeded Buckeye stumbled out of the box and it led to a 41-7 loss to No. 4 Bowling Green in a Division III, Region 8 playoff opener.
The Bobcats (8-3) move on to play postseason regular and top-seeded Toledo Central Catholic (9-2). The Fighting Irish knocked off No. 8 Rocky River 70-48.
The Bucks (8-3) stubbed their toes early and Bowling Green took advantage at Bobcats Stadium.
“It was hard to recover from that, and we simply couldn’t,” Buckeye coach Mark Pinzone said. “They made the plays and we couldn’t.
“Offensively, we couldn’t put anything together the first couple of series. When you can’t get off the field (defensively), things like that are going to happen.”
The Bobcats pretty much dominated the first 12 minutes, as Buckeye ran only 10 plays for 34 yards and had the ball for only 3:32.
By the time the first frame ended, the Bucks found themselves digging out of a 14-point deficit, as Bowling Green quarterback Devon Garcia showed glimpses of what was to come the rest of the way.
The Bucks went three-and-out on their first possession, fumbled the ball away on their second and then followed with another three-and-out.
The Bobcats scored on three of their first four possessions and before Buckeye could get settled in, it was 21-7 with 7:55 left before intermission.
“We weren’t ready,” Buckeye slotback Trevor Thome said. “They played a lot harder than we did. They jumped on us early. They got us down on ourselves and we couldn’t battle back.”
The Bucks, who turned the ball over four times, were down 28-7 at intermission.
Much of that had to do with the Bobcats front four defensively, as Jeremy Christoff (4 tackles, 4 sacks, forced fumble), Gavin Winters (3 tackles, 1 for loss), Michael Koldan (2 tackles, forced fumble) and Parker Schaible (pass deflection) had strong showings.
Add linebackers Hogan Pash (2 tackles for loss, forced fumble, fumble recovery) and Nathan Meyer (2 sacks) and Buckeye quarterback Nate Polidori was in trouble much of the evening.
Bowling Green accounted for eight sacks and 10 tackles for loss to make things rough for the Bucks.
“They came hard,” Pinzone said. “They’re well-coached. They’re physical up front. We just couldn’t match up well with them. It was a little bit of everything. We weren’t able to get our reads. When you put that together, you have a disaster happening.”
Bowling Green wasn’t bad on offense, either. Garcia finished 14-of-21 for 233 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Ryan Emans had eight catches for 191 yards and two scores.
Throw in a strong outing from David Espen (19 carries, 109 yards, TD) and the Bobcats made the most of their first playoff appearance since 2000.
“We saw it on film,” Pinzone said. “We just couldn’t make the plays. They ran their routes and we couldn’t get in the quarterback’s face. They did what they needed to do and we couldn’t.”
While Buckeye couldn’t get out of the chute early, it was able to put up some decent numbers. Polidori rushed for 143 yards on 23 carries, including a 70-yard score in the second quarter. Thome had two catches for 35 yards and ran five times for 68.
“I had a couple of mistakes myself,” Polidori said. “We kind of got down on ourselves at the beginning. “In that second half, we were ready to go and played better.”
While Buckeye’s season ended on a sour note, the good news is the Bucks, who have never won a playoff game, were able to rattle off eight straight wins prior to Friday.
With a gaggle of players coming back, 2015 might be a season everyone at Buckeye will talk about for years.
“We’re going to be a lot better,” Polidori said. “We’re going to make history.”
Contact Brad Bournival at sports@medina-gazette.com.
YORK TWP. — Championship teams aren’t bought on supermarket shelves. Blood, sweat and tears are required to mold them into works of art.
The Buckeye football team found out vividly what the finished product looks like.
Dominating the second half from start to finish Friday, coach Mark Pinzone’s Bucks rallied to bury neighboring Keystone 35-18 and earn a share of their second consecutive Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division championship.
The cherry on top of the oh-so sweet victory was Buckeye (7-2, 4-0) scored 22 unanswered points to all but clinch a Division III, Region 8 playoff berth.
“It’s unexplainable,” running back Trevor Thome said. “It’s one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had the pleasure of feeling in my life.
“PAC (Stars Division) champs two years in a row? Not many teams can do that. Going back to back is tough. We knew (Keystone) was going to be ready to play — they took it to us in the first half — but we came back and took it to them in the second half.”
The “Big Three” of Thome, Nathan Scott and Nate Polidori had all 400 of the Bucks’ yards total offense and all five touchdowns.
With Wildcats ends C.J. and Austin Conrad and linebacker Nick McLaughlin containing Buckeye’s vaunted jet sweep, Thome had 108 gutsy rushing yards between the tackles and added four receptions for 85 yards. Scott had 69 rushing yards — 33 on a TD that gave the Bucks the lead for good — and Polidori was 5-for-12 for 147 yards while rushing for 76 more.
Huge gains had been the Buckeye staple this season, but it used rugged linemen Hunter Gray, Austin Schnepp, Jalin Brock, Brad Calta, Brenden Morrissey and Jack Schroeder and tight ends Jaret Yohman and Kevin Zacharyasz to pulverize the Keystone defense into submission.
“That’s a heart thing,” Gray said. “We wanted to win it more than they did.”
“It wouldn’t be possible without the offensive line,” Thome added. “It’s as simple as that.”
The defense had its moments, too, limiting the Wildcats (7-2, 3-1) to just 80 yards and four first downs over the final 24 minutes.
Making 900-yard rusher Tyler Polen (13 carries, 47 yards, 2 TDs) a non-factor but getting torched by 5-foot-7 quarterback Denny Szalai (17-for-27, 193 yards; 9 carries, 82 yards) and Kentucky recruit C.J. Conrad (8 receptions, 108 yards) in the first half, the Bucks had a momentum-changing red zone stop in crunch time.
Shortly after a pair of Buckeye defenders collided and botched what would have been an easy pick-six early in the fourth quarter, Keystone faced first-and-goal from the 5-yard line trailing 28-18. Szalai lofted a jump ball to Conrad in the corner of the end zone, but the 6-5, 220-pounder was called for pass interference.
The following two plays resulted in a Bruce Barnby sack of Szalai and a pass batted down at the line by Gray. Szalai zipped a pass over the middle to an open Brandon Buttdolph on fourth down from the 18, but a full-sprint hit by Thome knocked the ball loose.
“That was icing on the cake,” Thome said. “That was the dagger and pretty much ended the game. That’s that.”
The Buckeye offensive line then proved its worth again, leading a clinching 11-play, 82-yard scoring drive that ate 5:39 off the fourth-quarter clock. A 20-yard Polidori strike to Thome on third-and-14 was the key play, and Polidori scored from 15 yards on a QB counter.
Game over.
“We knew we had momentum rolling and if we put that away, they’d shut down,” Gray said. “They did. They couldn’t come back from that.”
The first half featured back-and-forth scoring and potentially demoralizing mistakes. Keystone struck first when Szalai broke contain and scrambled 67 yards for a touchdown, but the Bucks responded quickly when a 62-yard Austin Wredberg reception set up an 8-yard Thome TD run.
The Wildcats took a 12-7 lead on a 7-yard TD run by Polen before Polidori answered with a 14-yard score. Conrad had a 28-yard reception on fourth down to set up Polen’s second short TD with 3:38 left in the half.
A lost opportunity then haunted Keystone.
The Bucks were driving again until a holding penalty pushed them out of the red zone. Polidori threw an ill-advised interception to Jacob Mezera, and Szalai slung a perfect pass to Conrad following a double-move for a 45-yard gain.
On the verge of going up 21-13 with 32 seconds left in the half, a 33-yard field goal snap went through the hands of the holder and kicker Turner Giesel fell on the ball for a 16-yard loss.
That gave Buckeye the boost it needed for a championship-quality second half.
“Honestly, I’m speechless,” Gray said. “The work that our team has put in these past two years, it’s incredible. The way these coaches have brought us together as a team and a family, we wanted to win this for them more than anything else.”
Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.
Buckeye 35, Keystone 18
SULLIVAN TWP. — Buckeye offensive linemen Hunter Gray, Brad Calta, Bruce Barnby, Brenden Morrissey and Jack Schroeder may have well said, “Here it comes. Try to stop it,” every time they put their hands in the dirt.
The jet sweep looked like the best play in the history of football. School and MedinaCounty records fell all over the place because of it.
Averaging a ridiculous 13.7 yards per snap Friday, the Bucks featured the play made famous locally by the dynamite early-2000s Brunswick teams to dismantle archrival Black River 56-27 in Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division action.
“It’s a great feeling, especially because of this rivalry we have here with Black River,” Buckeye slotback Nate Scott said. “It’s a great win, and hopefully we keep it going.”
The Bucks (5-2, 2-0), who beat the Pirates (3-4, 0-2) for the first time since 2009, racked up 548 yards total offense to break a 44-year-old school record (505 vs. Smithville) and covered 24 or more yards on seven of their eight touchdowns.
Everything coach Mark Pinzone’s team did offensively revolved around the jet sweep, be it handing off to Scott (11 carries, 179 yards, 2 TDs) or Trevor Thome (3, 40, TD), countering with quarterback Nate Poldori (7, 87, TD, 3-for-7, 157 yards, 3 TDs) or using play-action to find Thome (2 receptions, 131 yards, 2 TDs) or Austin Wredberg (1, 26, TD) for no-defender-in-sight touchdown passes.
The edge set by key blocking from fullback Kyle Svagerko and wide receiver Justin Lowry was there all night, as the first seven jet attempts went for 27, 31, 29, 26, 13, 20 and 15 yards — a tidy 23.0 average — and one TD apiece for Thome and Scott.
“You know what? That is a great play,” said Lowry, who also kicked four extra points. “Our offensive coordinator, Coach (Bill) Turner, he runs it really well and he makes sure we do everything right. It’s very effective.
“Scott ran hard, and it kept working for us. Coach Turner in the locker room, he said, ‘Hey, it’s working. We’re just going to keep on going until they stop it.”’
The Pirates never did.
Buckeye led 22-0 with 10:23 left in the first half by scoring on three of its first seven plays, which went for an amazing 217 yards. The highlight was a county-record 96-yard TD pass from Polidori to Thome that immediately followed a failed fourth-and-goal by Black River.
After turning the ball over on fourth-down snaps from the Buckeye 35-, 3-, and 34-yard lines earlier in the half, Black River finally avoided being skunked with 44 seconds left in the second quarter when quarterback Mike Hazlett found Dalton Toth (70 rushing yards, 64 receiving) for a 15-yard TD.
Almost like clockwork, however, Polidori directed a no-huddle attack and lofted a floater to Thome for a 35-yard score with three seconds to go before the Black River majorettes wooed the crowd with fire-tipped batons at halftime.
The way the night was going, the 29-7 lead was more than safe.
“It’s a nice sequence of plays that they run — it’s a nice package,” Pirates coach Al Young said. “Right now, they have the folks that you need to run that package, and that’s what makes them effective. Their skill guys right now are better than our skill guys.”
Now in major trouble in the Division V, Region 15 playoff chase, the offense of defending division tri-champion Black River couldn’t keep up with its inept defense, which allowed 50 points for the fourth time this season.
Wingback David Bell rushed for 100 yards, with the longest of his rugged 23 carries checking in at only 10. Toth added 70 yards on 13 totes and fullbacks Colin Filak (13 carries, 39 yards, TD) and Corey Bartolic (8, 36, TD) combined for 75 yards and two TDs, but Black River failed to convert seven of its first nine third downs and was intercepted by Tom Harrington on its 8-yard line.
Only seven of Black River’s 64 rushing attempts went for more than 10 yards — the longest was 17 — and 49 of its 85 passing yards came on a Toth reception down the Pirates sideline in the third quarter.
“We played hard and we played physical,” said Buckeye linebacker Dustin McCullough, who had 2½ tackles for loss, including a sack.
Buckeye had no such problems offensively and boosted its scoring average to 53.0 during its five-game win streak. The Stars Division title and a D-III, Region 8 playoff berth are in sight for the boys from York, Liverpool and Litchfield townships.
If Friday is any indication, they’ll use jets to reach those destinations.
“Each play kept motivating us more and more,” Scott said. “We just wanted to go out there and hand it to them.”
Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.
Buckeye 56, Black River 27
YORK TWP. — “The Quiet Storm” whipped around Edwin Steingass Field like a cyclone Friday.
If he keeps up the pace, Nathan Scott might reach typhoon status by the time the season is over.
A wide receiver employed quite a bit in the Buckeye football team’s run scheme, the junior had a career night in a 39-13 win over Lutheran West in Patriot Athletic Conference cross-division action.
Used early, often and whenever the Bucks (3-2, 2-0) needed him, Scott accounted for 233 yards from scrimmage (151 rushing, 82 receiving) and four touchdowns in a fantasy football-like showing.
“I call him ‘The Quiet storm,”’ Bucks coach Mark Pinzone said. “When he’s playing well and when he’s slacking off a little bit, he’s ‘The Soft Drizzle.”’
Scott was more like a hail storm against the Longhorns (1-4, 0-1), who came into the game minus their first-, second- and third-string running backs.
Defensively, however, Lutheran West had no answer for Scott, who scored on receptions of 22 and 46 yards and ran two more in from 12 and 78 yards.
Buckeye saw a soft spot in the Longhorns’ defense and ran jet sweeps and wheel routes all evening.
“We’ll hold onto this game and keep moving forward,” Scott said. “I didn’t expect a huge game like this. I give all the credit to my teammates.”
Scott’s teammates had a hand in it as the Bucks rolled up 475 yards offense.
With the Bucks putting up 231 yards in a 55-16 win over Oberlin and 372 yards two weeks ago in a 27-7 win over Cloverleaf, it appears they are ready to make some noise as PAC action heats up.
“I think it’s big for our offense to see what they can do,” said Bucks quarterback Nate Polidori, who was 7-of-12 for 217 yards and three touchdowns. “We’re such a dual threat as a team. It’s hard to stop that in high school. When our line gives us time, there’s no stopping us. We had a slow start, but this was huge. When we’re confident, we’re very good.”
One play typified the resolve the Bucks have shown in their three-game winning streak.
Backed up to second-and-23 from its own 10-yard line, Buckeye had a 90-yard score from Scott wiped out in the second quarter thanks to a holding penalty.
Unfazed, the Bucks went back to the drawing board and Polidori hit a wide open Trevor Thome (92 rushing yards, 119 receiving) on a school-record 87-yard pass play to put Buckeye up 20-0.
It was exactly the shot in the arm the Bucks needed and everything Lutheran West wasn’t looking for.
“Those kids are fantastic,” Pinzone said. “We hang our hats on them. They had a great game. They got the break they needed. We’re proud of them. I think that did break their back. That’s tough for any team.”
As strong as Buckeye was on offense, it was equally up to the task defensively. The unit forced four turnovers and came up big when Pinzone needed it most.
The Longhorns were inside the 10 twice in the first half and came up empty both times. The first time a big fumble recovery negated a Lutheran West first down. The second time, the Longhorns turned it over on fourth-and-6 from the 7.
For good measure, Buckeye’s John Garner came up with an interception on first-and-goal from the 4 at the start of the second half.
“That was huge for us,” Pinzone said. “Right now, the defense is something we’ve been relying on. We’ve been bending a little bit, but we worked on some things and we definitely played better.
“The big thing is for the first time all season we can say we’ve had a winning record. That was something we talked about all week. We wanted a homecoming win. We wanted a winning record and our offensive coordinator (Bill Turner) lost his dad this week. We were playing for him as well.”
Contact Brad Bournival at sports@medina-gazette.com.
Buckeye 39, Lutheran West 13
