Buckeye Bucks Football

From The GAZETTE By Chad Grant, Special to the GAZETTE 

SHEFFIELD LAKE — After a one-year hiatus the Buckeye football team returned to the top of the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division.

The Bucks dominated Brookside 42-0 Friday to wrap up their second PAC title in three years.

“This means a lot,” Buckeye running back Cory Reisner said. “We have been through a lot of adversity. We worked hard. We have been through a lot and this feels great.”

At the forefront of the Bucks’ (6-4, 6-1) dominating performance was a defense that played its best game of the season.

“I told the kids at the end that you can’t ask for anything more than getting better every week,” Buckeye coach Billy Burke said. “Tonight we showed that we played the best we have ever played defensively.

“We played a heckuva game as a whole.”

Buckeye forced six turnovers, held the Cardinals (2-8, 1-6) to just 82 yards of offense and returned an interception for a touchdown in the rout.

Turnovers forced by the Bucks’ defense led directly to three of the team’s five other touchdowns.

Buckeye put up 35 points before leading rusher and scorer, Reisner (22 carries, 176 yards) found the endzone for the first time in the fourth quarter.

The Buckeye offense looked sluggish and had trouble with the wet field conditions at times and Burke used a more conservative gameplan for most of the game.

“It got to be a little bit sloppy,” Burke said. “We’re up 21-0, let’s make sure we preserve the right to punt. In football that is a pretty good thing and especially if your defense is playing OK.”

Ryan McCormick, Darrin Read, Jesse Horton and Dickson each found paydirt as Buckeye cruised for most of the game.

Dickson was also the man in the middle of the Bucks’ defense and played in just his second game since coming back from a broken bone in his hand.

“Everyone did a great job of taking care of their responsibilities and doing their jobs,” the Buckeye middle linebacker said.

“When you do your job good things happen.”

Horton had a solid night under center completing 7-of-9 passes for 55 yards and a touchdown despite the sloppy conditions.

Things got a little chippy in the second half as things got out of hand.

Two Brookside players were ejected and the Cardinals were flagged for three consecutive unsportsmanlike penalties late in the third quarter.

Grant may be reached at wp.medina-gazette.com or sports@ohio.net.

From The GAZETTE By Adam Ferrise, Special To The GAZETTE

YORK TWP. — All there was on Buckeye’s football field were smiles, hugs, chest-bumps and primal screams.

How could there not be?

The Bucks started the season winless after three games but battled back.

Buckeye entered Friday in the hunt for the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division title with Keystone and Wellington ahead of them.

But one night changed all of that as the Bucks rolled Keystone 21-6 and got help from Brookside, which beat the Dukes.

With Wellington getting upset by the Cardinals 14-7, the Bucks are in the driver’s seat and can win the division outright by beating the Cardinals next week.

“It’s amazing,” Buckeye senior tailback Cory Reisner said. “We came out 0-3 and not feeling that great about ourselves, but we came back strong. Now we have a chance to win the PAC by ourselves.”

Buckeye had a number of key injuries in its first three games, which coach Billy Burke said was one reason for the rough start.

“The kids have worked so hard,” he said. “I felt so bad the first couple of games the hard work didn’t pay off. But we just kept fighting and persevering and it paid off.”

Behind a front five that dominated the line of scrimmage, Reisner rumbled all over Keystone’s stellar defense for a career-high 250 yards and two touchdowns, including a 91-yard TD run in the second quarter.

Reisner accumulated the fourth-highest rushing total in school history for a game.

“Obviously, he means a lot to us,” Burke said. “He goes out and plays so hard. He was pretty good, but the offensive line who was opening holes for him are pretty good, too.

“Once they finally got back and together, that’s when we started getting on a roll. When we have a solid and consistent offensive line we took off.”

After an interception by Buckeye safety Michael Cullin at the 9-yard line, the Bucks line opened up a huge hole for Reisner.

One snap after the pick, Reisner broke off his 91-yard touchdown, which proved to be the defining moment of the contest.

“Buckeye’s line is big and strong and they have great athletes running behind them,” Keystone coach Don Clairico said. “The thing about playing them is you have to be perfect all the time. You get one guy out of position on one play and they’ll take it to the house.”

The Bucks were just as stellar on defense. They recorded three interceptions — two by Darrin Read — recovered a fumble and only allowed one touchdown in four Keystone trips to the red zone.

Most impressive was how they held Keystone star running back Shane Robinson to just 62 rushing yards and forced Keystone to out of there comfort zone.

“Our offensive line said they couldn’t move their defensive line so we had to go to the passing game a little more,” Clarico said. “They have some big studs.”

Burke said he couldn’t completely enjoy the win because there is still one more game to win.

“It’s like a golfer going up to the 18th green with a two-stroke lead,” he said. “You want to hole the two-foot putt and not two-putt. That’s the situation we’re in: We want to do it right.”

Ferrise may be reached at wp.medina-gazette.com or sports@ohio.net.

From The GAZETTE By Chad Grant Special to The Gazette

COLUMBIA STATION — A good running back knows the names of the guys who open the holes up for him.

Buckeye junior Cory Reisner can recite his linemen’s names without even a second thought.

The big boys opened huge holes as the Bucks scorched Columbia 34-14 in a Patriot Athletic Conference cross divisional game Friday.

Reisner racked up a career-high 252 yards and five touchdowns behind a line that dominated the entire game.

“I have been saying all year that (the offensive line) is what we were going to hang our hat on,” said Buckeye coach Billy Burke, whose ballclub is 3-4, 3-1. “And the last few weeks, we have been putting up a lot of running yards and scoring a lot of points.”

Buckeye’s running game totaled 359 yards on 56 carries and converted 20 first downs.

“We wanted to pound the ball down their throats,” Reisner said. “We knew we could handle them up front and the line did an excellent job.”

Cody Carrow, Dan Novotny, Cody Muhek, Josh Varney, Jake Wuensch and Kelton Keller made sure the Bucks did just that.

Even when Columbia (3-4, 2-2) offered resistance, the 5-foot-10, 160-pound Reisner run through tackles and finished strong.

“He’s a self-starter,” Burke said. “He’s a self-motivator. All we have to do is set up a game and he is ready to rock-n-roll.”

Overshadowed by the performance of Buckeye’s feature back was the play of its stingy defense.

The Bucks picked off Columbia quarterback Matt Jarrell (10-of-27, 68 yards) three times and held the Raiders to 158 yards of total offense.

“All week in practice we have been stressing defense,” Buckeye safety Michael Cullin said. “We knew they wanted to pass, and if we shut down the run, we could force them to pass. That gave us the chance to get some picks.”

Cullin picked off two of Jarrell’s miscues, while Darrin Boulton snagged the third.

But the Bucks’ biggest defensive stand came on the ground. They led 28-14 midway through the third quarter and Columbia had a first-and-goal at the Buckeye 3.

The Bucks’ defense stopped four straight running attempts by the Raiders, including three consecutive tries inside the 1.

“That was crazy,” Novotny said. “The crowd really picked up and we knew they were going to go up the middle. Our tackles dove into the ground and we didn’t let them get anything.”

The two tackles stuffing up the middle were Carrow and Muhek, who provided 505 pounds of bulk.

“I told them that this is the kind of things that people write books about,” Burke said. “That always takes place. It is real hard to hold somebody four plays from 1 yard.”

Grant may be reached at wp.medina-gazette.com or sports@ohio.net.

From The GAZETTE, By Chad Grant, Special to The GAZETTE. 

SULLIVAN TWP. — The hammer and the nail don’t have a rivalry, and lately neither do the Buckeye and Black River football teams.

The Bucks dropped the Pirates 28-14 on Friday for the fourth straight time and stayed in the hunt for the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division crown.

“That’s something we said ever since we have been in conference play,” Buckeye coach Billy Burke said. “We said that we are playing for a conference championship.

“Even when it was Game 1 or Game 2 in the conference. We are still playing for a conference championship.”

The win moved Buckeye (4-4, 4-1) into a tie for the PAC Stars Division crown after Wellington fell 17-13 to Keystone.

The Bucks achieved a rarity in high school football with a balanced attack that was spearheaded by a trio of stars.

Leading the way — as usual — was junior running back Cory Reisner with 229 total yards and three touchdowns.

“The guys up front were getting a huge push,” Reisner said. “And that really opened some things up for us.”

The junior carried the ball 30 times for 194 yards and hauled in three passes for 35 more.

He also made a huge play on defense when he thwarted a Black River (3-5, 3-2) drive late in the second quarter with his first interception of the season.

Reisner picked off the pass with the Pirates, driving in for the potential game-tying score.

“You have to make sure you have your players making plays,” Burke said. “We need to get Cory breaks because he runs so much offense, and at the same time when it comes gut-check time we probably need Cory in the game.

“A player stepped up and made a play.”

It was the second of three interceptions the Bucks made on the night —Darrin Read grabbed the other two.

Read also joined in on the offensive fun with two cathes for 27 yards and his first career TD.

“We called a seam route up the middle and (Horton) put it right in between the safeties,” Read said. “I made the catch, and last week I was 1 yard short of a touchdown and everybody was telling me that I would get my first one this week.”

With the Bucks’ signature play — the jet sweep — being held in check most of the night, they went to the air and had big success early.

“We thought that maybe we could,” Burke said. “They made some adjustments to take away our jet sweep, which has been real successful for us. We had to have something else to do.”

Jesse Horton led the Buckeye aerial attack with 148 yards on 10-of-16 passing.

“We knew what we were going to get from Black River,” he said. “And we knew we could throw on them. They were going to try and stuff our run — our bread and butter. So we knew we had to come out an throw the ball around a little bit.”

Horton also threw for a pair of touchdowns — both in the first quarter — as the senior completed nine of his first 10 throws.

Black River got a big night from Brandon Freeman, who had 167 total yards and the Pirates’ second touchdown.

“He plays hard,” Black River coach Al Young said of Freeman. “He always does. I appreciate that. We’ll keep doing that and hopefully we’ll break through in these next two games.”

Grant may be reached at wp.medina-gazette.com or sports@ohio.net.

Adam Read	169/292	57.9%	2004-05
Nathan Polidori	119/229	52.0%	2012-15
Dan Cereshko	186/360	51.7%	2001-03
Jesse Horton	123/244	50.4%	2006-07
Dustan Dolata	159/323	49.2%	1999-01
Tim Devericks	164/336	48.8%	1994-96
Austin Friel	120/260	46.2%	2008-10
Don Van Drei	150/328	45.7%	1990-91