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ROCKY RIVER — Eager for the challenge of traveling to take on undefeated Lutheran West on Friday, Buckeye’s football team checked every box in the first half en route to a 35-14 non-league victory.
Defense? Buckeye (3-1) held the Longhorns (3-1) to 2 yards offense in the first quarter and just two first downs in the first half. Check. Offense? The Bucks averaged nearly 7 yards per play in the half, punching the ball into the end zone on the ground four times, including three by senior back Dom Monaco. Check. Special teams? Buckeye had six drives in the first half and its average starting position was its own 49. Check
“You’re a good team if you’re 3-0 and scoring points like they have,” Monaco said. “We just had to get after them.” Buckeye’s defense dominated the first half. Lutheran West ran 18 plays, but three of them went for a loss, the rushing attack totaled 16 yards on seven carries and almost all of the Longhorns’ offense came on two passing plays — an 80-yard TD pass when senior Shawn Naim outjumped a defender in the middle of the field for a 50-50 ball and a 27-yard seam route to Nolan Ragland where another contested pass in the middle fell to Lutheran West.
“We came out and shut them down right away,” said senior defensive end Logan Schultz, who had one of the team’s seven tackles for loss. “It was a great start. We wanted to stop them from running the ball first, but we got some good pressure.”
On the other side of the ball, the Bucks’ hogs up front plowed big holes for Monaco (14 carries, 67 yards), quarterback Jacob Doerge (25 carries, 88 yards, TD) and Armando Nigh (7 carries, 60 yards).
Senior Brock Brumfield cashed in first, though, taking a sweep left on the second series of the game and easily racing for a 32-yard TD and a 7-0 lead. Monaco capped the next two drives with scores, first on a 3-yard run and then on a 2-yarder up the middle.
After the Bucks’ next series reached first-and-goal at the 10 before stalling, Buckeye took its next series and went 59 yards in eight plays, with Monaco taking a pitch left and running down the sideline for a 16-yard score and a 28-7 lead. “The scheme was a lot of it, but people were making plays when they had the chance,” Monaco said. “The line was making some great holes, and when (Doerge) and (Nigh) are popping plays, it frees up everyone — Anthony Watkins, (Brumfield), everybody."
Special teams set Buckeye up all night long, highlighted by a 32-yard punt return from Brumfield and a 50-yard kickoff return by Nigh to start the second half.
“We take a lot of pride in our special teams,” coach Greg Dennison said. “What happened in the first half was it gave us great field position. That’s a credit to our special teams.” And a credit to a Buckeye team that was prepared for a big game. “Our kids know when it’s a big game, and they came to play tonight,” Dennison said.
9/22/2018 - By BRAD BOURNIVAL The Gazette
YORK TWP. — There is a violent yet poetic way to play high school football, and Buckeye’s Greg Dennison has perfected the art in a quarter of a century as a head coach. The Bucks players are 100 percent on board with the efficient, mistake-free philosophy, especially after soundly pulling away from Cloverleaf 20-0 in a tidy non-league game Friday that took a mere 1 hour, 53 minutes.
A 43-6 loss in the season opener at Revere feels like a lifetime ago for Buckeye (2-1), which still has won 39 of its last 41 regular-season games and now can hang its hat on an offensive identity after two games with junior Jacob Doerge as the starting quarterback.
“When I wake up, I want to win,” beaming All-Gazette left tackle Ryan Smith said. “This means everything, so I couldn’t be happier. Everyone did their job after a hard week of practice. We were the tougher team going out there doing what we do.”
The latest victory over the surprising Colts (2-1) — the Bucks have won five straight in the series — was spurred by a single, overarching fact: Buckeye finished drives and Cloverleaf didn’t. The Bucks’ three scoring drives covered 12 plays, 94 yards, 12 plays, 80 yards and 11 plays, 78 yards. Doerge was the catalyst during the first two, which put Buckeye up 13-0 at halftime, while senior tailback Dom Monaco stepped up to put the game out of reach early in the fourth quarter.
Whether the formation was I, pistol or three-receiver spread, the poor-tackling Colts couldn’t stop Buckeye’s line of Smith, Austin DiBiasio, Matthew McBride, A.J. Kirlough, Keegan Varney and tight end Logan Schulz. Doerge had 18 carries for 149 yards, while Monaco contributed 18 for 118 and three short touchdowns. When a Cloverleaf linebacker met the lead blocker at the line of scrimmage, backside help wasn’t there.
When the Colts stuffed the middle, Doerge calmly bounced outside. When Monaco got a head of steam, a broken tackle was almost guaranteed. The Bucks also converted their first six third downs, including third-and-8 and third-and-7 receptions by receiver Anthony Watkins, and recorded 341 yards despite a long gain of 19.
“That’s just our offense grinding and doing what we can do,” Monaco said. “We’re keeping the ball away from the defense.” Cloverleaf entered play with the top two rushers in Medina County, quarterback Brody Stallings and running back Eli Haynes, but finished with only 139 yards on 35 attempts, partly because the Colts had no answer for outside linebacker Monaco, who had three tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.
That wasn’t to say the Colts didn’t have success, as they used 12 plays and the first 6:29 to march deep into Buckeye territory. The drive stalled when Monaco blew up a fourth-and-2 Stallings rush from the 7-yard line, and the Buckseye offense answered behind 66 yards total offense from Deorge to go up 7-0. Cloverleaf punted from the Buckeye 37 on its next drive and allowed another long scoring drive — Doerge had 50 of the 80 yards total offense — and sealed its fate when Stallings failed to convert fourth-and-3 from the Bucks 23 with 4:28 remaining in the third quarter.
The theme of the night took center stage again, as Monaco had five carries for 44 yards and scored from 18 yards with 10:38 left in the game. “Where they made tackles in that 5- to 7-yard range, we didn’t at times and gave up those big runs,” Colts coach Justin Vorhies said. “Offensively, they were able to execute a little bit better than us.”
The road to the Division III, Region 9 playoffs doesn’t get any easier for the Bucks, who travel to shockingly undefeated Lutheran West next week before a home date with star running back Brandon Coleman and Patriot Athletic Conference Stripes Division power Columbia (2-1). No big deal. The Bucks have their swagger back.
“This is a great confidence booster for the team because I think we’re just going to keep on rolling from here,” Monaco said. “We like to run the ball, pound the rock,” Smith said. “I think we’re pretty good at it, too.”
8/25/2018 - By HARRY H. PECK, The Gazette
BATH TWP. — It was pretty ugly for the Buckeye football team. In fact, it was 43-6 ugly in an overwhelming non-league, season-opening loss to a Revere team coming off a 5-5 season. The Bucks, a team hoping to keep up a legacy of winning the PAC Stars Division and making the playoffs, looked nothing like that. A year ago, Buckeye handled the Minutemen 24-10 in a game that seems like long time ago.
The first quarter was disaster and the game was certainly over by halftime, when the Minutemen led 33-6. The Bucks had trouble running a play without a penalty, piling up 74 first-half yards in infractions and 121 for the game. Revere nearly matched the Bucks with 110 yards in penalties as personal fouls were frequent and combined with sloppy play to lengthen the game.
The Bucks looked their best late in the first quarter after taking over on downs near midfield, but were already down 19-0. After a 9-yard run by Jacob Doerge, quarterback Michael Knoll found Armando Nigh open deep in the secondary and delivered a strike to move Buckeye to the 5-yard line. Nigh moved it into the end zone on two carries for Buckeye’s only points.
Any chance of a second-half comeback melted after the Buckeye fumbled on its first play after the kickoff and Revere recovered. The Bucks stopped that drive, but Revere kicker Sam Webster drilled a 32-yard field goal for a 30-point lead that brought on a running clock.
“We’ve got a lot of starters who are new,” Buckeye coach Greg Dennison said. “Some of them are first-year players. We’ve put ourselves in a hole and we have to get out. We can’t give up big plays.”
Revere posted four first-half running plays of 10 yards or more en route to 165 yards rushing. Minutemen quarterback Nathan Klonowski put up 131 yards on 8-for-13 passing in the first half and 219 yards on 11-for-19 for the night. He had first-quarter scoring passes of 50 yards to Bryce Holt and 29 yards to Matt Buser.
A second-quarter pass went for 15 yards to Carter Boggs for a score and the third quarter featured Brandon Trocano hauling in a pass and taking it 80 yards to the house. Matt Buser amassed 122 yards rushing on 11 carries. Doerge had seven carries for 39 yards for Buckeye and Dom Monaco added 30 on seven attempts. Buckeye recorded 62 yards on 25 carries. The Buckeye passing attack tallied 122 yards on 6-for-16, with Doerge and Knoll both playing quarterback and recording interceptions.
Meanwhile, speedster Anthony Watkins was unable to impact the game, especially with Revere kicker Sam Webster drilling each kickoff through the end zone.
