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Bucks Avoid Major Upset
Fauver, Monaco Make Sure Colts' Streak Keeps Going
9/8/2017 - By TOM HARDESTY The Post Contributor
WESTFIELD TWP. - Buckeye’s football team wasn’t at its best Sept. 8. The Bucks were good enough when it mattered most, coming through with big plays down the stretch to defeat host Cloverleaf 28-14 and avoid a monumental non-league upset. The Bucks handed Cloverleaf its 21st consecutive loss, a streak dating to Week 3 of the 2015 season, but it wasn’t easy. In fact, the Bucks didn’t cement the win until junior tailback Dominic Monaco scored on a 27-yard run with 1:09 left to account for the final margin.
Until then, Buckeye (3-0) was fighting for its life to keep from becoming the Colts’ first victim in nearly two calendar years. “We went into this game with the wrong mentality,” said Monaco, who rushed for 124 yards on 18 carries. “Based on last year’s game we knew Cloverleaf was going to come out strong against us. We knew they would compete and play hard, and we love it. But we were lackadaisical in warmups and it kind of carried over into the game.”
The Bucks bolted out to a 14-0 first-half lead on scoring passes of 23 and 27 yards from senior quarterback Adam Fauver to junior Anthony Watkins and senior Jonathan Neel, respectively, and it seemed like the Bucks had things in hand. But the Colts (0-3) managed to get off the ropes behind the physical running of senior quarterback Travis Hissom, whose 1-yard TD run just 34.9 seconds before halftime cut the deficit to 14-7.
From that point on it was a dog fight. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Buckeye coach Greg Dennison said. “This will be a good learning point for us. It’s good to come away with the win even with all the mistakes that we made.” The Bucks had trouble hanging onto the ball throughout the game, putting it on the ground several times but managing to recover most of their own fumbles. One they didn’t get back, however, came early in the third quarter with the ball at the Cloverleaf 3-yard line.
The Colts recovered a fumble in the end zone to end the threat, keeping the score at 14-7. With the Bucks clinging to that one-touchdown lead, pinned deep in their own territory and needing someone to make a play, Fauver and the offensive line delivered. On third-and-8 from the Buckeye 16, Fauver took the snap, burst through a huge hole on the left side of the line, veered toward the sideline and raced 84 yards to the end zone for a 21-7 lead and some much-needed breathing room. Fauver had a superb night, completing 9-of-13 passes for 125 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 109 yards on 14 carries, including the long TD run.
“Coach gave us a good speech at halftime and it got us going,” Monaco said. “We’ll bounce back from this. We’re excited to get into league play next week. We have a lot to look at on film and we’ll get better.” Dennison was just happy to escape with a victory. “I thought we had a good week of practice, but we weren’t ready,” he said. “But we made enough plays to win the game and that’s all that matters.”
Post Article - Bucks And New Coach Know How To Win
Bucks and New Coach Know How to Win
Dennison Hopes to Pick Up Where Pinzone Left Off
8/25/2017 - By TODD STUMPF The Post Sports Editor
The most successful coach in Buckeye history has left the program. Mark Pinzone, who led Buckeye to its best run of seasons, exited to take over the program at Brunswick. In Pinzone’s place is the most successful coach in Wadsworth history, Greg Dennison, who resigned, although not exactly willingly, two seasons ago and who spent last year as an assistant at Brunswick under Luke Beal, now a member of the Bucks’ coaching staff.
What can Buckeye fans expect from Dennison? For starters, a guy not set in his ways. His m.o. at Wadsworth was never to force kids into a system, but to alter things to best utilize his manpower. That sort of flexibility helped Dennison lead Wadsworth to 148 wins in 21 years, three Suburban League championships and nine trips to the state playoffs, three of which ended in the Elite 8. If the Bucks win four games this year, Dennison will move into second place in career victories by Medina County coaches. If the Bucks don’t win four games this year, it will be one of the great mysteries of all time. Buckeye is well stocked with returning players from a very good team.
“That makes it a lot easier,” Dennison said. “The other two head coaching jobs I’ve had, at Wadsworth and Norton, I went in when both programs were down. We had to do some things. The nice thing about this is, it’s definitely not. We have a nice group of seniors and they’re used to winning.”
Offensively, Buckeye welcomes back senior quarterback Adam Fauver, who missed nearly all of last season with a knee injury. He is joined in the backfield by 1,000-yard rusher Justin Cadedy and juniors Anthony Watkins and Dom Monaco. Johnny Neel is back at receiver. Seniors Dom Kriz, Spencer Murphy and Lucas Conrad give the Bucks a trio of experienced offensive linemen. Good offensive lines were something Dennison strove for at Wadsworth and success more often than not followed when the Grizzlies had them.
“We have a couple guys that started last year,” Dennison said. “They’re starting to understand that the things we’re doing up front are a little different than they did last year. Our kids are starting to buy into that. I think we have potential to have a real good offensive line.” Defensively, Kriz is back up front, with junior Logan Schultz also returning. Turner Mitchell, a senior captain, is at linebacker, with Neel, Canedy and senior Patrick Caniglia making up a very talented and experienced secondary.
“We feel we have some good skill position on both sides of the ball,” Dennison said. The first-year coach singled out Kriz as a player to watch on either side of the ball. “He’s just a good player,” Dennison said. “He’s a guy we just have to have on the field.” Kriz is among a number of players who will spend a lot of Friday night on the field, but Dennison doesn’t anticipate many 48-minute players. “What we try to do with our two-way guys is spell them on both sides of the ball,” he said. “We want to have a lot of maybe one-and-a-half-way guys. They’ll play full time on one side and we can split them on the other side. We have enough guys to be able to do that.”
Buckeye is coming off one of the best seasons in school history. The Bucks were a Week 1 overtime loss away from finishing unbeaten, and that was after losing Fauver in the first game. They went on to go unbeaten in Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division play to win the conference championship and earned the right to host a first-round playoff game, which they lost in a 17-14 heart-breaker to New Philadelphia.
The Bucks were not moved by the competitive balance initiative and remain in Division III, Region 9, which eats up most of Northeast Ohio, Buckeye is the school located furthest to the west in the region. Key games for the Bucks will be Oct. 6 at Black River and Oct. 20 at Keystone. They again open with Revere (home, Aug. 25), Rocky River (away, Sept. 1) and Cloverleaf (away, Sept. 8) as their three non-PAC opponents.
Head Coach Greg Dennison joined the Buckeye Football Family in the Spring before the start of the 2017 Season and became the 16th Head Coach in Bucks' history. Below all of the Head Coaches are listed with the years they coached and their won/lost records. The list is compiled from 1953 through the present season.
Last Updated 11/9/2018
| Coach | Years | Won | Loss | Tie | Win Pct. |
| Harold Srivens | 1953-1955 | 17 | 6 | 2 | .680% |
| John Murphy | 1956-1963 | 46 | 23 | 4 | .630% |
| Roger Aucker | 1964-1966 | 12 | 12 | 2 | .462% |
| Dick Keeman | 1967 | 3 | 6 | 0 | .333% |
| Mike Lewis | 1968-1976 | 44 | 36 | 5 | .518% |
| Ken Woodruff | 1977-1983 | 52 | 30 | 0 | .634% |
| George Hammond | 1984-1986 | 11 | 20 | 0 | .355% |
| Dick James | 1987-1991 | 31 | 19 | 0 | .620% |
| Joe Grosseck | 1992-1993 | 5 | 15 | 0 | .250% |
| Ken Woodruff | 1994 | 2 | 8 | 0 | .200% |
| Rich Dodson | 1995-1997 | 13 | 16 | 0 | .448% |
| Jeff Ladner | 1998-2001 | 16 | 24 | 0 | .400% |
| Chris Medaglia | 2002-2006 | 40 | 12 | 0 | .769% |
| Billy Burke | 2007-2011 | 26 | 25 | 0 | .510% |
| Rick Schuler | 2012 | 3 | 7 | 0 | .300% |
| Mark Pinzone | 2013-2016 | 33 | 11 | 0 | .767% |
| Greg Dennison | 2017-2018 | 20 | 3 | 0 | .900% |
| 372 | 265 | 13 | .582% |
First Team Defense: Dustin McCullough (LB) & Dominik Kriz (P)
Honorable Mention: Justin Canedy (SB) & Ricky Van Boxel (CB)Associated Press Division III All Ohio Team Selections Second Team Offense: Hunter Gray (OL) Third Team Defense: Dustin McCullough (LB) Special Mention: Dominick Kriz (P)
