Announcement
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.
