Announcement
The debate about the best Buckeye football team of all time will never be solved to everyone’s satisfaction. Some people like the 2015 team, which went 10-1, lost to West Geauga in double overtime in the first round of the playoffs and featured stars like Gazette MVP Trevor Thome and quarterback Nathan Polidori.
Others point to the 2005 squad, which also went 10-1 behind stars like Nick Tavernelli, Adam Read and Dustin Supan.
Still others favor the 2002 and 2003 squads spearheaded by twins Darren and Dan Cereshko, noting that while the Bucks went 9-2 in their junior year and 8-3 in their senior season, Buckeye played in the extremely tough Mohican Area Conference at the time.
Old-timers go back to the 10-1 1979 team led by future University of Akron running back Ron Brant, while real old-timers go all the way back to 1960, when Division I college recruits Tom Masters (Eastern Illinois) and Jim Thomas (Vanderbilt) led the Bucks to an 8-0-1 record in an era when there were no playoffs.
It’s a subject that’s already been debated and will continue to be debated whenever a bunch of sports-minded Buckeye alumni get together, but one thing is now certain: The 2018 Bucks will forever be in the history books. Whether they get company next year or the year after or 10 years from now, nothing will ever change the fact that guys like Jacob Doerge, Dom Monaco, Ryan Smith, Anthony Watkins and many, many others helped these Bucks accomplish it first. After losing nine times in nine previous postseason appearances — a number of those losses weren’t close — Buckeye finally got in the win column Friday night by beating Alliance 28-25 in a Division III, Region 9 thriller at Edwin Steingass Field.
“Nathan Polidori ran out on the field and gave me the biggest hug,” junior quarterback Doerge said. “It’s not a competition. We’re all a family. This win is for every single player and every single alum that ever walked through Buckeye.”
And, oh, what a win it was. Up 14-0, 21-6 and still leading 21-19 late in the fourth quarter as they pounded the ball downfield on a rainy, muddy night, the third-seeded Bucks (10-1) were on the verge of finally putting away the stubborn and resilient No. 6 Aviators (7-4).
Then senior running back/linebacker Monaco, so great all night on both sides of the ball, fumbled at the Alliance 12-yard line, with the Aviators recovering and running the ball back 8 yards to the 20. On the first play from scrimmage, Alliance quarterback Brandon Alexander hit Gavin Geier for an 80-yard touchdown and, just like that, the Bucks were down 25-21 with 1:53 to play.
“The first thing that came to mind is, ‘It figures. That’s the story of Buckeye,’” Doerge said. “But then right after that thought, I went right back to offense mode.” Added Monaco: “I’ve always been hard on myself. That fumble got me down, but I knew we had enough time to score. I never really doubted we would win.” Neither did anyone else, it seems.
On the Bucks’ first play from scrimmage after falling behind, junior quarterback Doerge hit do-everything senior Watkins for a 64-yard catch-and-run TD with 1:34 to go. Four Alliance incompletions later, one of the biggest celebrations ever seen in York Township was on. “It’s unbelievable,” said Doerge, whose only two other pass attempts on the night fell incomplete. “I haven’t really processed it yet. It will set in when I go home and I won’t be able to sleep.” Added senior two-way lineman and Ohio State preferred walk-on Smith: “It was the most important game for everybody. It feels like I’m living a dream right now, and that’s how it should be.”
Whether winning a postseason game for the first time in school history qualified them as the program’s best team ever wasn’t all that important to the Bucks. They were just elated to advance to a meeting with second-seeded Kenston (10-1) next week. “Maybe if we aren’t the best team, we are the team with the most heart,” Doerge said. “We were able to fight and do something incredible.”
Make no mistake, these Bucks were fully aware of the program’s 0-9 postseason record. Of course, the 2013 team knew Buckeye was 0-4 in the playoffs going into its postseason game, just as the 2014 team knew that record was 0-5, the 2015 team knew it was 0-6, the 2016 team knew it was 0-7 and the 2017 team knew it was 0-8. Somehow, some incredible way, the 2018 Bucks did what no other team was able to do and ended the winless playoff streak at nine.
“We were very aware of the streak,” said Monaco, who dressed as a freshman and played varsity as a sophomore and junior. “I happened to be a part of three of them. We just have so much heart. We knew as seniors this was our last chance to get a win.”
This time, the Bucks got that win. Finally. No matter how many years go by and no matter how many debates there are about the best team in school history, nothing will ever change the fact the 2018 team was the first to win a playoff game. “That’s all that was in our heads tonight,” Watkins said. “We made Buckeye history.”
