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Announcement
End Of The Post Season Road For Buckeye
11/3/2017 - By RICK NOLAND Gazette Assistant Sports Editor
YORK TWP. - The Tallmadge football team was better than Buckeye in the biggest spots Friday night. And the Blue Devils also benefited greatly from a controversial spot of the ball.
Those pivotal factors led to Tallmadge’s 27-14 Division III, Region 9 quarterfinal win over the Bucks, who fell to 0-9 in the postseason.
After second-seeded Buckeye (10-1) turned the ball over on downs at the Tallmadge 24-yard line in a 14-14 game, the Blue Devils (8-3) lined up in punt formation on fourth-and-7 from their own 27 on the second play of the fourth quarter.
The snap went to up man Drew Cross, who appeared to be down at the 33½ before bouncing off the ground and landing at the 35. Much to the dismay of Buckeye fans, officials spotted the ball at the latter, giving Tallmadge a first down.
The Bucks sacked Sam Seeker for an 11-yard loss on the next play, but do-everything tailback Ty Shannon then went 73 yards to the Buckeye 3, stepping out of two tackles about 15 yards into the run, then breaking three others well downfield.
Shannon, who had 31 carries for 250 yards and three touchdowns, three receptions for 31 yards and completed a key halfback option on Tallmadge’s next series, scored on the next play to put the Blue Devils up 21-14.
“That’s a deflating play,” Buckeye quarterback Adam Fauver said of the fake punt/questionable spot.
“We thought we were getting the ball back, we’d get a touchdown and we were going to be ahead,” two-way lineman Dom Kriz added. “(Tallmadge) made plays when they had to. That’s what it came down to.”
Down just seven, the Bucks then faced fourth-and-1 from the Tallmadge 47 and were lined up to go for it. A Buckeye lineman jumped, however, and coach Greg Dennison elected to punt on fourth-and-6, with Kriz nailing a 44-yarder to pin the Blue Devils at their own 8 with 7:56 left.
After picking up one first down, Tallmadge faced third-and-8 from its own 20.
Seeker pitched to Shannon, who, with Buckeye’s defense selling out to stop him, threw a 51-yard halfback option to a completely wide-open Zach Boyd.
Five running plays later, Jesse Kanatzar scored from 2 yards out to make it 27-14 with 3:30 left, all but ending Buckeye’s hopes of getting its first playoff win.
“That whole series of events was big,” Dennison said. “We felt good about what we were doing offensively and we were going to get the ball back in great field position (before the spot on the fake punt).”
It was that kind of night for the Bucks, who had an extra point blocked after a 5-yard run by Fauver (19 carries, 87 yards, 2 TDs; 12-for-19 passing, 111 yards) made it a 7-6 game early in the second period, lost two fumbles by Justin Canedy (11 carries, 48 yards; 4 receptions, 16 yards) and just couldn’t string enough plays together defensively to stop the 6-foot, 195-pound Shannon.
“He did everything for them,” Kriz said of the senior tailback. “We just didn’t execute tackling very well and, obviously, he’s a really good player.”
Tallmadge took a 7-0 lead by going 85 yards in 13 plays on the opening possession of the game. The Blue Devils collected six first downs and ate 5:37 off the block before Shannon, who accounted for 65 yards on the drive, scored from 3 yards out.
Behind a 26-yard scramble by Fauver on fourth-and-9 from the Tallmadge 36, Buckeye made it 7-6, but Shannon went to work again after the teams exchanged punts.
The senior accounted for 72 yards on a 69-yard scoring drive — the one play he didn’t touch the ball resulted in a 3-yard loss — to put the Blue Devils up 14-6 with 2:47 left in the second quarter.
Fortunate to be down just eight at intermission after a Canedy fumble gave Tallmadge the ball at the Buckeye 31 with 2:13 left in the half, the Bucks stormed out of the locker room and went 80 yards in nine plays to tie the game. Fauver went the last 6, then threw a two-point conversion to Canedy.
Buckeye then got a punt-forcing sack from Austin Bir, took over on its own 24 and promptly marched to the Tallmadge 23, where it faced second-and-8.
Anthony Watkins was open in the end zone, but Fauver’s pass hung in the air too long and the Blue Devils’ Rich Eyre was able to recover and break up the play.
Fauver was sacked for a 4-yard loss on third down and a fourth-and-12 pass to Logan Schulz netted only 3 yards, setting up the disputed spot on Tallmadge’s gutsy fake punt.
“We did everything we were supposed to do and came up short at the end,” Kriz said. “A couple big plays just didn’t go our way when we needed them to.”
Despite falling short of their goal of winning the first playoff game in program history, the Bucks were fully aware they recorded a perfect regular season and won the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division for the fifth straight year.
“We went 10-0, which I’m really proud of,” said Kriz, who had a sack and punted three times for a 45.7-yard average. “I couldn’t ask for a better senior season. We left everything out there.”
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