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1993 Bucks
The 1993 Bucks went 3-7 on the season under Head Coach Joe Grosseck. Assistant Coaches Rich Dodson, Gary Cox, Bill Turner, Mike Koshar, and Ken Woodruff. They scored 117 points while giving up 163.
QB Willie Schwinn was 62 of 144 for 767 yards with 5 TD's and 16 INT's. Dave Kucharski was the leading receiver with 9 recptions for 141 yards and 32 points. Adam Shaw led all rushers with 505 yards 3 TD's and 18 points scored. Keith Curtin led all tacklers with 98. Most Valuable Player was Dave Kucharski and the Golden Buck Award Winner was Keith Curtin.
1994 Bucks
The 1994 Bucks went 2-8 on the season under Head Coach Ken Woodruff. Assistant Coaches Rich Dodson, Bob Jenne, Mike Koshar, and Bill Turner. They scored 142 points while giving up 311.
QB T. J. Powers was 36 of 89 for 506 yards with 3 TD's and 9 INT's. Les Brock was the leading receiver with 20 recptions for 298 yards, 1 TD and 22 points. T. J. Powers led all rushers with 554 yards on 72 carries 5 TD's and 38 points scored. Jared Bodak led all tacklers with 91. Most Valuable Player and Golden Buck Award winner was Jared Bodak.
From The GAZETTE: By Lisa Gayle Grayson, Staff Writer
WILLARD — Dan Cereshko knows he has a tricky right knee, he just did not expect it to pull one of its gags Saturday night.
The timing could not have been worse for the Buckeye football team.
With the Bucks making a second-half comeback in their Division II regional playoff game at Willard, Cereshko went down with a sprained right knee after tackling Willard running back Nate Williams with 1:21 remaining in the third quarter.
The Bucks went on to lose the game 42-21.
The cornerstone of Buck-eye's offense as its quarterback, the junior was also being used at cornerback Saturday.
"I had to go out and do it on defense as well as offense," said the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Cereshko, who first had problems with the knee during baseball season. "I could bend it but to put it straight forward, there was pain. I knew I was done."
Buckeye scored on its previous possession off a 14-yard pass by Cereshko to his twin, Darren. The Bucks only trailed 35-21 at that point.
But when Dan Cereshko was injured, Darren Cereshko was called upon again. This time, it was to escort his brother off the field.
"I said, ‘Come on, we need you,'" Darren Cereshko said. "I didn't know if it was worse than it was, but I figured it was his (ailing) knee."
But Dan Cereshko was unable to return to the game, instead spending the waning moments on crutches. He finished with seven rushes for 29 yards, and was 6-of-13 for 96 yards with two interceptions. He was 3-of-4 in the third quarter prior to his injury.
"I told him, ‘Can we amputate it? Give you a fake one?'" Buckeye coach Chris Medaglia said. "He said, ‘I wish, Coach.'
"I wish that if Daniel was healthy, it would have given us a shot. I would have been nice with 8½ (minutes) to go to have had him to get it done."
Freshman Adam Read filled in at quarterback, going 0-for-3 with two interceptions.
"I had gone in a couple of other games, but I was really nervous," the 6-1, 160-pounder said. "I think I got the jitters a little. I thought I could handle it and the guys were helping me out and like, ‘Come on, you can do this.' I felt I could do it, I just needed to throw the ball earlier."
Added Medaglia: "As a freshman, I told him nothing was going to change when he went in the game. We were down 14. What was I going to do, run the ball and run the clock out? I had to take a shot and not roll over and die."
From The GAZETTE: By Jason P. Skoda, Staff Writer
WILLARD — The Buckeye football program waited 50 years for its first playoff game, only to let it slip away in a 10-second span.
Willard defeated the Bucks 42-21 in a Division III regional playoff game Saturday after the Crimson Flashes scored 28 unanswered points in the first half, making the most of a total of seven Buckeye turnovers.
The Flashes (10-1) struggled on their first possession, but showed their quick-strike ability on their next drive as quarterback Nick Strance hit Nick Dials for a 64-yard bomb.
Then the Willard defense showed its quickness as
Buckeye quarterback Dan Cereshko fumbled after missing the handoff on a trap play. Willard defensive tackle Gabe Sanders scooped up the ball and scored on a 14-yard jaunt.
"My fault. I didn't get there in time," said Cereshko, who left the game in the third quarter with a knee injury. "It was kind of a downer. Before we knew it we were losing, but we still had a shot."
Buckeye, which scored on its opening drive with a 37-yard pass from Dan to Darren Cereshko, went from a 7-0 advantage to down 14-7 in a span of 10 seconds.
"That is a very good football team. They have a lot of great athletes," rookie Buck-eye coach Chris Medaglia said. "You watch them on film and they look very good and then when you see them in person, they're even better."
The Bucks had no answer to Strance and Willard's high-octane passing game. They were forced to put Dan Cereshko on defense more than they would have liked, and he ended up getting a knee injury making a tackle.
"It seemed like we were outnumbered out there," said Darren, who had four catches for 75 yards and two touchdowns. "No matter what defense we called they always seemed to have another receiver open. It was tough."
Strance completed 13-of-24 passes for 192 yards and three touchdowns, all to Dials. J.J. Ditz had five receptions for 67 yards, while Dials hauled in four passes for 111.
"Everybody stepped up tonight," said Dials, who also picked off a pass and forced a fumble in the first half. "If I got behind the (Buckeye) defense, I thought I could break open. That set some other things up. I just did what I could to help the team."
Willard pushed it to 20-7 with 2:46 left in the first quarter when Strance connected with Dials again, this time for 34 yards. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound senior beat Darren Cereshko on the play.
It was the first time Cereshko, who has 12 interceptions, was beaten deep all season.
Buckeye's third of seven turnovers, a Dan Cereshko fumble on the Bucks 1-yard line which was forced by and recovered by defensive tackle Brandon Viock, gave the Willard offense a short field once again and Strance scored from a yard out.
It was 28-7 with 7:47 left in the first half. A team with less pride could have folded, but Buckeye stayed in the face of the Flashes.
"The one thing I'm disappointed about is that we couldn't put them away," Willard coach Chris Hawkins said. "That's part us and part Buckeye. That is a very tough, hard-nosed team. We have faced teams who have given up in that situation, but Buckeye kept coming at us."
After a Willard fumble, the Bucks went 55 yards on 11 plays to pull within 28-14 before halftime as Dan (6-of-13 for 96 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT) scored from a yard out.
Willard scored on its second possession of the third quarter to open up a three-touchdown lead with just over 18 minutes left in the game. Buckeye managed one more score — a 14-yard Dan-to-Darren connection — but never truly threatened again.
"We made a lot of mistakes, but I'm not going to leave the field teary-eyed," Medaglia said. "Our kids have a lot to be proud of and I'm proud of the way they played. This was a special night.
"We walked on to this field and we felt special. That is a feeling these kids will never forget."
Senior defensive tackle Travs Travers, who finished with a team-high eight tackles, said the team left an imprint on Buckeye history.
"Hopefully this football program is on the rise. I know it is," said Travers, wearing his patented Stars and Stripes bandanna. "These seniors can walk away knowing we took the team to a new level."
From The MANSFIELD JOURNAL: By Curt Conrad and Gary Ogle
WILLARD -- When the Crimson Flashes scored, they scored in bunches.
After spotting Medina Buckeye a 7-0 lead, Willard scored three touchdowns in a three-minute first quarter span and cruised to a 42-21 win in a Division III, Region 10 quarterfinal Saturday.
Just 10 seconds after Nick Strance's 64-yard touchdown pass to Nick Dials knotted the score, defensive end Gabe Sanders scooped up the first of three Buckeye fumbles at the Medina 13-yard line and rumbled into the end zone untouched.
Strance and Dials hooked up three minutes later on a 36-yard scoring strike and the Flashes were never seriously challenged again.
"That is a very good football team. They have a lot of great athletes," rookie Buckeye coach Chris Medaglia said. "You watch them on film and they look very good and then when you see them in person, they're even better."
The Bucks, who were making their first postseason appearance, had no answer to Strance and Willard's high-octane passing game. Strance completed 13-of-24 passes for 198 and three touchdowns, all to Dials. J.J. Ditz had five receptions for 67 yards while Dials hauled in four passes for 115 yards.
"Everybody stepped up tonight," said Dials, who also picked off a pass and forced a fumble in the first half. "If I got behind the (Buckeye) defense, I thought I could break open. That set some other things up. I just did what I could to help the team."
Willard's defense helped out, too. The Flashes recovered three Buckeye fumbles and picked off four passes.
"It was nice to get a defensive score," Sanders said. "Even if we didn't score directly off the turnovers, we set the offense up with a short field. I think we scored four touchdowns after turnovers."
Leading 20-7 after the first quarter, Willard pushed its lead to 28-7 on Strance's 1-yard plunge midway through the second quarter. That score came two plays after defensive tackle Brandon Viock pounced on a loose ball at the Buckeye 1-yard line.
The Bucks cut the Willard advantage to 28-14 at the half and stuffed the Flashes on their first offensive possession of the second half, but again were their own worst enemy on the ensuing drive. This time, cornerback Branden Luna stepped in front of a Dan Cereshko pass and, six plays later, Brian Montoney bulled his way in from 1 yard out for a 35-14 Willard lead.
Despite the rash of turnovers, the Bucks refused to go quietly. Cereshko hooked up with twin brother Darren on a 14-yard pass to pull Buckeye within two touchdowns with 1:38 to play in the third quarter.
The Flashes were not safely out of the woods until Strance found Dials for a 4-yard score with 3:20 to play in the fourth quarter.
"We had a chance to bury them, but we let them hang around," Willard coach Chris Hawkins said.
"We can't afford to do that. We've got to have that killer instinct to put teams away when we've got them on the ropes."
The loss couldn't dampen Medaglia's spirits. In addition to advancing to the playoffs for the first time in school history, the Bucks won a share of the Mohican Area Conference championship this fall.
"We made a lot of mistakes, but I'm not going to leave the field teary-eyed," Medaglia said. "Our kids have a lot to be proud of and I'm proud of the way they played."
