NORTH ROBINSON — Bucyrus turned a few pages of the playbook and Lincoln Mollenkopf was the beneficiary.
The sophomore running back caught four passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another score to lead the Redmen to a 38-20 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory over Colonel Crawford.
“Mollenkopf had a pretty doggone good game,” Colonel Crawford coach Ryan Teglovic said. “I thought he was a very good athlete on the field tonight. He made some huge plays for them.”
Bucyrus (4-4, 3-2 N10) bounced back from a disappointing last-minute loss to Mohawk last week to get its season back on track.
“Last week hurt (playoff chances) but our guys have other goals in mind too,” Bucyrus coach Matt Makeever said. “We’re not hemmed in to where, just because one thing goes wrong, we’re going to fold up. This team’s in it for 10 games.”
The Redmen jumped out to the early lead and that proved to be critical to the outcome. After stopping the Eagles on downs on their first possession at the Bucyrus 38, the Redmen needed just four plays to reach the end zone.
After three runs moved the ball to the Colonel Crawford 47, quarterback Ben Seibert found Jaylen Zehner down the left sideline for touchdown. Tyler Bishop added the first of his five extra points to make it 7-0.
In what was almost a rerun, Bucyrus forced a 3-and-out and received the Eagles’ punt at the 35. Two runs moved to the 45 from where Seibert connected with Mollenkopf over the middle for a 55-yard score.
“We got down two scores, that’s a difficult thing,” Teglovic said. “They hit that big pass down the middle of the seam. That was Mollenkopf who made a heck of a play down the middle of the field. That was a huge play for them.”
Makeever agreed that the fast start was key.
“We had to deal with it last week,” Makeever said. “Being down two scores is hard. You’ve got that little cushion and offenses have to press a little bit.”
Colonel Crawford (4-4, 2-3) answered with a six-play, 50-yard drive, capped by a one-yard run by Tristan Cross. The big play was a 34-yard pass from Brock Ritzhaupt to Dylan Cooke, one of three big connections for the duo in the game. The half ended with Bucyrus up, 14-7.
In the second half, the Redmen answered every Eagles’ score and then some.
Bucyrus drove 82 yards in 10 plays to open the third quarter, with Mollenkopf’s 17-yard halfback pass to Newland finishing the job, a play the Redmen hadn’t shown to date.
“That halfback pass, that’s man coverage,” Teglovic said. “It really shouldn’t affect us too bad. It’s just a mistake on our part.”
Colonel Crawford came back with a 54-yard strike from Ritzhaupt to Cooke to cut the deficit to 21-14. Tit for tat, Mollenkopf caught a screen pass and scampered 37 yards for a score.
“You look at (their) points tonight and I think every one of them was on a deep pass that they won one-on-one plays,” Makeever said. “That’s probably the story of each of them. Their receivers played well, they made plays.”
The final Eagles’ score was another Ritzhaupt-to-Cooke connection, this one for 41 yards with 10:43 left in the game to pull within 28-20. But the Redmen pulled away from there.
Bucyrus mounted a time-consuming 12-play, 65-yard drive with Zehner catching his second touchdown on a 13-yard pass from Seibert, leaving just 4:28 on the clock.
Bishop added a 20-yard field goal with 1:34 left to set the final score.
Cross led the Eagles with 129 yards rushing on 29 attempts. Ritzhaupt completed 11 of 27 passes for 195 yards and two scores. Cooke grabbed three balls for 129 yards and two touchdowns.
“Obviously, we like to run the football. We’ve got some pretty good backs to do that with,” Teglovic said. “Brock, a first-year starter, is coming on. I knew he would. He’s got a great arm, he’s got talent and ability and we’ve got a few receivers out on the edge. We don’t want to throw (27) times a game but we can throw the football.”
Seibert was nine for 17 passing for 200 yards and four touchdowns. Zehner seconded Mollenkopf’s great night with four catches for 74 yards and two scores. Hastin Zier rushed for 88 yards on six carries, 69 of which came on an old Wing-T play, the inside reverse, an added wrinkle to the offense.
“We got our sweep play working and other things off that worked then,” Makeever said. “It just kind of built form there.”
“I love our guys, their effort’s good,” Teglovic said. “We got down 14-0 tonight. With untimely penalties and those kinds of things, we got backed up. But I felt like our guys just continued to fight like they have all year.”
“The kids played well today. I was really, really happy,” Makeever said. “We got our offense going for us and that just opened things up.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Bucyrus 14 0 14 10 — 38
Colonel Crawford 0 7 7 6 — 20
Scoring summary
First quarter
B — Jaylen Zehner 47 pass from Ben Seibert (Tyler Bishop kick), 4:46.
B — Lincoln Mollenkopf 55 pass from Seibert (Bishop kick), 1:59.
Second quarter
CC — Tristan Cross 1 run (Drew Krassow kick), 4:58.
Third quarter
B — Devon Newland 17 pass from Mollenkopf (Bishop kick), 7:30.
CC — Dylan Cooke 54 pass from Brock Ritzhaupt (Krassow kick), 3:42.
B — Mollenkopf 37 pass from Seibert (Bishop kick), :29.
Fourth quarter
CC — Cooke 41 pass from Ritzhaupt (kick failed), 10:43.
B — Zehner 13 pass from Zehner (Bishop kick), 4:28.
B — Bishop 20 field goal, 1:34.
Individual statistics
Passing
Bucyrus: Ben Seibert 9-17-0 200; Lincoln Mollenkopf 1-1 0 17.
Colonel Crawford: Brock Ritzhaupt 11-27-0 195.
Rushing
Bucyrus: Hastin Zier 6-88, Seibert 14-84, Devon Newland 7-35, Mollenkopf 9-23, Team 1-(-10).
Colonel Crawford: Tristan Cross 29-129, Ethan Suter 5-25, Ritzhaupt 3-6.
Receiving
Bucyrus: Mollenkopf 4-114, Zehner 4-74, Newland 1-17, Zier 1-12.
Colonel Crawford:
Team statistics
B CC
First downs 14 13
Rushing 36-220 37-160
Passes 10-18-0 11-27-0
Yards passing 217 195
Total yards 379 231
Fumbles-lost 3-1 0-0
Punts-Avg 3-35.3 4-31.8
Penalties 11-99 12-85