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2017 Buckeye Football Team Awards
The Bucks had their season ending awards ceremony in the High School Auditorium in which they handed out their season awards for the team. Those are listed below along with the other awards that were passed out this season. Bucks Individual AwardsMost Valuable Player: Adam Fauver
Offensive Player of the Year: Dominick Kriz
Defensive Player of the Year: Gage Williams
Most Improved Player: Lucas Conrad
Iron Antler Award: Turner Mitchell
Golden Buck Award: Jonathon Neel
Second Team: Pat Caniglia (DB), Jonathon Neel (WR), Anthony Watkins (DB), Turner Mitchell (DL), Austin Bir (LB).
Honorable Mention: Isiah Williams (LB)
Stars Division MVP Offense: Adam Fauver (QB)
Stars Division Coach of the Year: Greg Dennison (HC)
Division III All Northeast Inland District Awards
First Team: Dominick Criz (OL) and Adam Fauver (QB)
Second Team: Ryan Smith (OL) and Gage Williams (Linebacker)
Honorable Mention: Justin Canedy (WR), Dominic Monaco (LB), Logan Schulz (TE) and
Jonny Neel (WR)
All Medina GAZETTE Team Selections
First Team Offense: Ryan Smith (LT)
First Team Defense: Dominick Kriz (P)
Honorable Mention Offense: Adam Fauver (QB), Justin Canedy (WR) and Logan Schulz (TE)
Honorable Mention Defense: Gage Williams (LB) and Dominic Monaco (LB)
Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association Division III All Ohio Team Selections
Third Team Offense: Dominick Kriz (OL)
Honorable Mention: Adam Fauver (QB)
Buckeye Claims Ninth PAC Stars Division Title
10/27/2017 - By JAKE DUNGAN The Gazette
YORK TWP. - As light rain fell on Edwin Steingass Field, the Buckeye football team took aim at perfection Friday in the regular-season finale against Brookside.
After a first quarter in which the Bucks scored four touchdowns, there was little drama as Buckeye rolled to a 49-0 victory to go 10-0 for the second time in three seasons and claim its ninth Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division title.
“I’m just proud of the way the kids responded, really all year,” coach Greg Dennison said. “We’ve improved as the year has gone on. They bought in since Day 1 and it’s exciting. I’m happy for the kids.”
It didn’t take long for Buckeye (10-0, 5-0) to establish dominance, as quarterback Adam Fauver ran 66 yards to the house 2:14 in.
With that big touchdown run and 76 yards passing, the senior became the first Buckeye player with to have 1,000 yards rushing and passing in the same season.
“It feels great, but I really couldn’t have done it without the team around me,” Fauver said. “We have a great line, great receivers and a great supporting cast.”
After Fauver’s run and 6- and 53-yard touchdown passes to Logan Schulz and Justin Canedy, he was out of the game early in the second quarter.
Then Buckeye’s run game took over, particularly sophomore tailback Armando Nigh, who led the team with 130 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. Fellow sophomore Archer Treece added a score in the fourth quarter.
The Buckeye defense kept Brookside (2-8, 1-4) off the board and forced three turnovers, including a fumble returned 20 yards for a touchdown by safety Evan Tesar in the first quarter.
Also in the first quarter, Jonathan Neel returned a punt 72 yards for a TD.
“We talked a lot about having a fast start,” Dennison said. “We were able to do that in all phases — offensively, defensively and on the special teams — so it was good to see everything come together.”
While Buckeye celebrated a perfect season, this is not unfamiliar territory. The Bucks have seen quite a bit of Division III playoff action over the last decade — they clinched a Region 9 berth last week — but have never won a postseason game.
“Just do the little things right,” Fauver said. “That’s what matters in the big games like that.”
Dennison’s focus remains steadfast and clear in his first season at Buckeye.
“The first thing to do is just continue to do what we’ve been doing all year,” he said. “We’ve been improving every week. Our seniors have made sure that we’ve had good focus every week. Those kind of things can’t change.”
For Buckeye's Justin Canedy, The Team Comes First
10/31/2017 - By RICK NOLAND Gazette Assistant Sports Editor
Buckeye's Justin Canedy is one of those kids who is almost too good to be true.
Only 6-foot-1 and 176 pounds, the 18-year-old has high-jumped 6-6, run the 100 meters in 10.88 seconds, dunked about a dozen times in varsity basketball games and scored 21 touchdowns in his football career despite being used primarily as a decoy as a senior.
He carries a 4.53 grade-point average, is ranked eighth academically in Buckeye’s senior class, got a 1,370 on the SAT and plans to study computer science at a college like Columbia, Johns Hopkins or Oberlin.
For good measure, he’s virtually egoless, soft spoken and almost universally liked by students, teachers and coaches at Buckeye, which will host Tallmadge in a Division III, Region 9 playoff game Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“It’s always good to make good grades,” Canedy said Monday following a team film session. “It’s always been important to my family. It leads to success in the future.”
Canedy’s family includes his dad Bruce, a former high school offensive lineman who works as an information technology manager, and mom Diona, an auditor.
Older brother Jordan, 23, earned a computer science degree from Harvard and now works for Google in New York City, while younger brother Jacob, 14, is next to go through Buckeye.
“It’s a family thing,” Canedy said of his planned college major. “My older brother being big into computer science, by dad always being big into computer programming, he passed it down to us.”
As for his athletic ability, Canedy has no idea where it comes from, but he certainly has a ton of it.
With pogo sticks for legs, he can do a 360-degree slam “most of the time” and would be a prohibitive favorite to win a Medina County high school dunk competition.
He runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds, finished sixth in the D-II state high jump competition last spring and qualified for the state meet in the 100.
By the time he graduates, he will have earned 11 varsity letters — four each in football and track and three in basketball, his favorite sport.
It is how Canedy has done all that, though, that is so special. He doesn’t showboat — “I feel bad if I gloat,” he said — or seek individual attention, he’s a total team player and he is probably the person least impressed with all his athletic and academic accomplishments.
“He’s so coachable,” first-year Buckeye football coach Greg Dennison said. “He always does what you ask him to do. He’s the ideal person that you want to have on the team.
“He’s obviously a big reason why we’re 10-0. He’s just so explosive that any time we call a play for him, it’s got a chance to go the distance. He’s fast, but along with that he’s got some power, too. He’s deceiving. He can do a lot of things with the ball.”
Therein lies the rub — and yet another reason why Canedy receives so much respect from his teammates: He hasn’t gotten the ball all that much as a senior slotback.
As a junior in former coach Mark Pinzone’s spread offense, Canedy rushed 132 times for 1,102 yards (8.3-yard average) and nine touchdowns, almost all on jet sweeps.
When Dennison arrived, Buckeye incorporated a lot of I-formation sets, so Canedy has just 37 carries for 313 yards (8.5 average) and three TDs, plus 17 receptions for 266 yards (15.6) and three scores.
Many players with dreams of a big individual senior season would have pouted, but Canedy readily did what his coach felt was best for the team.
“I just adapted,” he said.
“I play my role on the team. I knew it was going to be a change from last year, but I was ready for it.”
Despite once getting a “C” in language arts while in junior high and two non-A’s in high school, Canedy is smart enough to know he’s a big reason why quarterback Adam Fauver has 1,012 yards rushing and 1,026 passing, and why tailback Dominic Monaco has 613 yards and 13 TDs on the ground.
No. 86 won’t mention any of that, but he knows opposing coaches still spend a ton of time game-planning for him.
“I’ve definitely learned being a decoy is important,” he said. “People follow me. I’m fine with being a decoy. It’s better than blocking.”
Canedy broke into a huge smile after mentioning the blocking part, but his coach also grins at the team-first attitude of the Bucks’ fastest and most athletic player.
“That speaks a lot to his character,” Dennison said. “He’s so unselfish. If you have guys like that, you can win. He understands that he’s such a big focus for every game. That leads to a lot of (Fauver’s) runs, a lot of play action. That’s because of him.
“He’s as big a part of our offense then as when he touches the ball. That’s hard for a high school kid to understand sometimes, but he knows he’s helping the team.”
Canedy is most dangerous when returning kickoffs, but no one kicks to him. He’s returned just three all season, for a whopping 60.7-yard average, and two have gone to the house.
“I hate it,” Canedy said of teams squib kicking or simply kicking out of bounds. “I wish they would kick it to me so I’d get more opportunities.”
Then the young man with a 37-inch vertical leap smiled again while adding, “I’d like to make it 3-for-4 (returns for touchdowns).”
That’s as remotely close to bravado as Canedy will ever come, because that’s simply not his nature. And that’s true whether he’s playing football, participating in track and field or serving as an undersized center for the basketball team.
“This will be my 13th year in coaching, and he’s as dependable as any kid I’ve ever coached,” Buckeye athletic director and basketball coach Tom Harrington said. “He’s on time, he works his butt off and he’s unselfish. He’s a great teammate.
“For somebody his size, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid jump better than him. He gets off the floor so quickly. He’s 6-1 on a good day, but he plays like he’s 6-6.”
For Canedy, sports are fun but also a means to an end. His college future will likely include high jumping and sprinting, but he’s way more concerned with making the grade in the classroom at a prestigious school.
That’s why, with something as mundane as calculus already out of the way, he’s taking his second college course while also carrying a high school load that includes Advanced Placement Statistics and AP History.
“Sports,” Canedy said, “are good to keep up my grades.”
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.”
