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From The GAZETTE, by Brad Bournival, Staff Writer
VERMILION — Don "Air" Coryell has nothing on Dan Cereshko and Buckeye's football team.
The former San Diego Charger head coach, famous for his passing assault, would have been smiling from ear-to-ear Friday night after watching Cereshko slice and dice Vermilion in a 30-20 non-conference win by the Bucks.
Cereshko's productivity was one for the record books at Buckeye (4-0) as the senior destroyed a school mark for yards in a game.
Facing man-to-man coverage for most of the night, Cereshko bombed the Sailors (2-2) for 298 yards on a 19-for-31 passing night.
"It didn't seem like I had that much," said the senior, who broke Don Van Drei (1990) and Jim Wolke's (1980) passing mark of 250 yards. "It was easy. The line blew them away up top and I had all the time in the world to throw it.
"With them playing man-to-man, we just ran motion to the corner and I could choose where I wanted to throw it. Most of the time they were wide open."
Were they ever.
Cereshko, who teamed with his brother Darren four times for 93 yards, threw passes to eight different receivers.
His favorite target this time was Tyler Van Drei, as the senior tandem hooked
up seven times for 119 yards and a touchdown.
Most of that came on the same play, as the Bucks loaded the right side and sent the running back in motion to the left.
With the corner choosing between a cutter over the middle and Van Drei, Dan Cereshko dumped it to his rumbling 6-foot-1, 210-pounder. It worked for gains of 26, 43, 13 and 11 yards.
"They were phenomenal tonight," Buckeye coach Chris Medaglia said. "For the first time ever I saw Dan making reads and not forcing it if it wasn't there."
Not that he needed to do that very often.
"It was just like backyard football," said Tyler Van Drei, the younger brother of the previous passing yard co-record holder. "I was wide open every time.
"It was pitch and catch. He'd hit me, I'd run and then we'd go back to the huddle and do it all over again."
As fun as it was for the Bucks, the Sailors never did go away. An 82-yard run at the start of the third quarter gave Vermilion a brief lead, but Buckeye's Matt Tipton came back just 1:18 later, catching an 8-yarder from Cereshko to put the Bucks up for good.
An 18-yard touchdown reception by Nic Espisito from Mike Wisley (5-of-15, 45 yards) made it a 10-point game with 2:24 to go, but the Bucks recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.
Bournival may be reached at 330-721-4045 or Bournival929@msn.com.
From the GAZZETTE by Tom Suits, Special to the GAZETTE.
AVON — Buckeye quarterback Dan Cereshko stunned Avon with a seven-play, 75-yard scoring drive in the first 2:11 as the Bucks rolled over the previously unbeaten Eagles 24-0 Friday night.
The Buckeye quarterback capped the drive with a 13-yard toss to junior Josh Lusk, who was wide open in the end zone.
Cereshko finished the night 11-of-20 for 179 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
"Since last Monday, I was confident we could pass against them the whole game," Cereshko said. "The coaches added a couple of new formations and they worked for us. It made the game fun right from the start.
"I was getting outstanding protection from the offensive line," Cereshko continued. "They did a nice job the whole game. The great thing is, I was passing to my brother (Darren) and we've been doing that in our backyard since we were little kids."
Ryan Hoover also had a great night, catching a 51-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, then booting a 35-yard field goal with 8:26 left in the game. He was also perfect in points after, going 3-for-3.
Defensively, the Bucks (3-0) were awesome, holding Avon to 74 yards rushing and 42 yards passing. They also sacked Eagles quarterback Shawn Stencil four times for 23 yards in losses.
"We played an aggressive defense tonight," Buckeye coach Chris Medaglia said. "This was our Robber package where we played seven in the box and sent our linebackers on nearly every play. We have three very good linebackers in Brad Bauman, Tyler Van Drei and Eric Harrison."
Bauman had a busy night, with a pair of sacks to go with 39 yards rushing on
eight carries, including a 13-yard touchdown with 3:20 left in the half.
"We hit on their quarterback hard in that first quarter, and that was a big momentum getter for us," Bauman said. "We knew we could step up our defense and we really wanted that shutout."
Avon failed to get a first down in the second half until coach Lee Powell sent in the reserves.
"That 34 (Darren Cereshko) got us offensively and defensively," he said. "We needed to adjust to Buckeye's speed, but we didn't adjust fast enough.
"Our defense should have picked off both touchdown passes," he continued. "We just weren't making the plays."
Suitts may be reached at sports@ohio.net.
From the GAZETTE By Craig Gifford, Special to the GAZETTE
YORK TWP. — Buckeye might not wait for spring to unveil this year's track team. However, the only sprinting being done right now is by wide receivers and running backs.
The Bucks connected on several big plays and the defense did just enough to defeat the Wellington Dukes 23-12 Friday night in non-league action.
Despite having only three offensive plays in the third quarter and never fully being in sync the entire game, Buckeye had three completions of over 40 yards and three carries of over 15 yards.
"If this game was any indication, we're going to be in track meets all year," Bucks coach Chris Medaglia said. "If this is who we are, then that's who we are.
"You can't always make the kids fit the system. Sometimes, you have to make the system fit the kids."
The Bucks were nearly schizophrenic on offense, either gaining 2 yards and going three-and-out or taking five plays to go 75 yards for a touchdown.
Trailing 6-3 in the second quarter, Buckeye built all the lead it would need in a span of less than 6 minutes.
Rolling to his left, quarterback Dan Cereshko fired a bullet to a diving Ryan Hoover in the back corner of the end zone, putting Buckeye up 9-6.
Then, using misdirection on the next possession, Cereshko ran a little screen for Drew Megrey in the left flat that turned into a 15-yard touchdown and a 16-6 halftime lead.
"Our offense has really picked up this year," Cereshko said. "We did a good job offensively. I just had to set up and scan the field and make the right read."
After that, the Bucks defense took over.
Wellington was able to rush for 232 yards on 45 carries for the game, including 125 yards by Chris Davis, but the only damage was time taken off the clock.
The Dukes controlled the third quarter, amassing over 100 yards in total offense and shaving the lead to 16-12 on a David Haswell-to-Brandon Fullen touchdown pass.
But for all its success on the ground, Wellington never really got the passing game going, as Haswell finished the night 6-of-21 for 66 yards.
Three times the Dukes were able to get receivers open deep, but pressure from the Buckeye defense and a dropped touchdown pass prevented the game from being closer.
"We started three sophomores on defense," Medaglia said. "We're young up the middle and those guys are only going to get better."
"We really stepped it up the whole game," added Buckeye linebacker Tyler Van Drei, who had a first-quarter interception. "We were on the field for a while, but as they kept getting closer to our goal line, we just stepped it up.
"We got tremendous pressure up front the whole night and that really helped us."
Gifford may be reached at sports@ohio.net.
From The GAZETTE, by Rick Noland, Assistant Sports Editor.
Ron Brant only knows one way to confront challenges.
It's how he ran the football at Buckeye High, where he still holds 13 school records. It's how he dealt with his father's tragic death in a farm accident when Brant was 11 years old. It's how he moved on after losing his job, and it's how he'll address the crowd when he's inducted into the Medina County Sports Hall of Fame during June 19 ceremonies at Buckeye. Straight on.
"He's tough, but you couldn't find a better gentleman," longtime friend and former teacher and coach Ermando Simmons said. "He's one in a million."
Locally, Brant is best known for his exploits on the gridiron, but he overcame an even bigger challenge in his personal life. When Brant was 11, he and his older brother, Larry, were riding on a tractor with their father, Frank. They were going up an incline when the tractor suddenly started tipping. Ron and Larry jumped to safety, but Frank was crushed and died instantly at the age of 42.
"It was a devastating period in my life," Ron Brant said of the March 1973 incident. It was Frank, a carpenter by trade, who had introduced Ron to sports. No longer would he be in the stands for youth games with the Valley City Packers, but his son could still feel his presence.
"I felt he was there pushing me," Ron Brant said. "He was watching me. It was a hidden motivation with me." Ron Brant needed that motivation even more when his mother, Kathy, remarried and moved to New York between his freshman and sophomore years of high school.
At that point, Ron Brant's older sister, Barb, who was 19 and newly married, became the legal guardian of Ron and Larry, neither of whom wanted to leave the Buckeye district. The youngest boy in the family, Terry, moved to New York with his mother and stepfather.
"Those were crazy times," said Barb, whose married name is Cereshko. "Trying to get them through school and starting a life of my own was tough, but we got through it."
They got through it, Ron Brant said, because a lot of folks helped out. For Ron Brant, two of the most important people besides Barb — "I can't say enough about her," he said — were an aunt named Rita Spero, who died of brain cancer in the mid-1990s, and Simmons, his sixth-grade teacher. Spero, Frank Brant's sister, provided many a warm meal and served as a substitute mom on many occasions.
"She just took care of me," Ron Brant said.
Simmons, now 76 and living in Palm Bay, Fla., still speaks with Ron Brant at least once a week and spends part of each summer living with Brant's family in Uniontown. Ron Brant, wife Becky and their three children, who range in age from 8 to 13, think so highly of Simmons they call him Grandpa. "You name it and he did it for me," Ron Brant said. "He was my dad. He took me under his wing, that's for sure."
Simmons, like Ron Brant one of those tough men who gets straight to the point, doesn't view what he did — and still does — as anything special. He was just helping out a kid who needed an adult male in his life. "He went through high school just about on his own," Simmons said. "He was over the house every day. He was a great kid. I never heard him curse, even to this day. If he said one, he said it behind my back."
Near as anyone can tell, Ron Brant's never done anything behind anyone's back. Whether losing his job at Consolidated Freight when that company went out of business or approaching the line of scrimmage with a football in his hands, Ron Brant has always dealt with things straight on.
"He was just a hard-nosed player," said Ken Woodruff, who was in his first year as Buckeye's football coach when Ron Brant was a sophomore and now serves as the school's athletic director. "He was a top-notch individual as well as a top-notch athlete. He was a great kid — the type of kid you built a program around. That's what we did. "He's the best I've seen at Buckeye. We've had some who were faster, but Ron Brant, pound for pound, was the hardest and best runner we've ever had."
During his Buckeye career, Ron Brant was a three-time all-county choice and Gazette MVP in 1979. He finished his prep career with 5,657 yards total offense and 59 touchdowns. As a senior, the 5-foot-10, 185-pounder rushed for 1,698 yards and scored 30 TDs as Buckeye went 10-1 and won an Inland Conference championship.
"We had to practice against him," said former teammate Darryl Chidsey, a defensive back. "If he broke through the line and I was facing him, it was not fun. He'd run you over before he ran around you." Added former quarterback Ken Engel: "Other teams knew he was a good back, but you could hear taunting when we were coming out of the locker room and going through warmups. You could hear trash talk. Then he would run all over them. He wasn't real flashy; he was just good. You'd sit there and say, ‘He got how many yards?' "
Ron Brant's talent earned him a full ride to the University of Akron, where he lowered his time in the 40-yard dash from 4.8 seconds to 4.59 and grew to 5-11, 205. He started at tailback as a sophomore and at fullback as a junior and senior, but his style never changed.
"I'd try to run people over," Ron Brant said. "If the referee was in the way, I'd run him over, too. I tried to elude a few people, but if I could get a good burst up, I'd try to take advantage of it and bull people over. "I'm a different person off the football field, but you get me on the field, you'd better get out of my way. If you're not the aggressor on the football field, you're going to get thumped."
That's Ron Brant coming at you, straight on.
From the GAZETTE, By Steve King, Staff Writer
YORK TWP. — It took almost three years, but Buckeye athletic director Ken Woodruff can say it was well worth the wait.
Pending approval by the Buckeye Board of Education at its regular meeting on Monday night, Buckeye will become a member of the Lorain County Conference beginning with the 2005-06 school year.
This will mark the end of an effort that started in April 2000 when Woodruff, a longtime teacher and coach at the school, was named AD.
"One of the first official things I did when I got the job was to meet with the LCC schools and try to get them to be pro-active about expanding the league," Woodruff said Thursday.
It looked like it was going to happen last year when the LCC announced it was going to expand, but the league changed its mind.
"When the LCC called Tuesday and extended us an invitation to join, it was just a total relief for me," Woodruff said. "The school has waited so many years for this."
Buckeye has eyed the LCC for some time because getting into it made sense for a number of reasons.
But it just didn't happen, and Buckeye has played the last nine years in the Mohican Area Conference.
However, when the MAC began to disintegrate — it will cease to exist after the 2003-04 school year — Woodruff knew that the school had to find something, and soon.
"When (fellow MAC member) Black River accepted the invitation to the LCC last Thursday, I started to get nervous because I knew the clock was running," Woodruff said. "I wanted to make sure we got in, too."
Why?
"We liked the competition in the MAC, but the mileage to those schools is just horrendous," Woodruff said of trips to Loudonville, Clear Fork, West Holmes and Triway. "Our average trip in the MAC is 45 miles one way. Our average trip in the LCC will be just 21 miles.
"And it will be even easier than that on our parents because many of them already work in Lorain County. Plus in the LCC, we'll have natural rivalries with Wellington and Keystone."
In addition to Wellington, Keystone and Black River, the rest of the schools in the new-look LCC will be Oberlin, Oberlin Firelands, Sheffield Brookside, Avon and Columbia Station Columbia.
However, Firelands may bolt for a new league, tentatively called the West Shore Conference. Another current LCC member, Grafton Midview, will also be in that league.
"This has been an up-and-down situation the last couple of years with us trying to get into the LCC, but now that we're in, it will be really nice," Woodruff said.
