NEW LONDON — After a rough 0-7 start to the season, the New London Wildcats seem to have finally hit their stride.
The timing was unfortunate for Bucyrus.
The Redmen took on New London Saturday morning — the time necessitated by a lightning postponement from Friday night — and stayed with the rejuvenated Wildcats for most of three quarters.
But New London pounded Bucyrus with a solid running game and eventually pulled away to a 41-13 victory.
“That was our game plan going in,” New London coach Kemmes Keys said. “We wanted to be able to run the ball and run it efficiently and use multiple kids while doing it.”
The coach’s plan couldn’t have played out much better. Three backs had over 100 yards rushing for the Wildcats — Mason Bess ran 20 times for 152 yards, Jamil Arnold had 125 yards on18 carries and Kenyon Cathey rushed for 102 yards on 19 tries.
New London (2-7) ran for 389 yards and all six touchdowns. The Wildcats threw only five passes on the day.
“We came out and played a little bit different defensive philosophy because we struggled (with the run) last week (at Upper Sandusky),” Bucyrus coach Tim Plumley said. “We tried to put the kids in a spot where they’d be successful, and we were for the first part of it. I do think, to their credit, they wore us down.”
Bucyrus (1-8) got on the board first. After Mason Gebhardt recovered a Wildcat fumble, the Redmen drove 56 yards on 10 plays, capped by Eddie Dagher’s 2-yard run, to grab a 7-0 lead. The score was set up on a 28-yard pass from Malachi Bayless to Nick Middleton.
It was the only Bucyrus score of the half. In the second quarter, New London dented the scoreboard on a 25-yard run by Bess and added a 1-yard run from Arnold to go to halftime with a 13-7 advantage.
“Up front, they did well moving guys around and getting some holes and some seems,” Keys said of his offensive line.
The lead expanded to 21-7 on a 13-yard Arnold run midway through the third period but the Redmen answered three minutes later, on a 15-yard run by Bayless to cut the Bucyrus deficit to 21-13.
“Malachi was more aggressive running the ball and that was nice to see,” Plumley said. “We’ve protected him in the run game. But it was nice to see that he ran the ball well. We’ll stress the defense a little more.”
But from there, it was all New London. The Wildcats closed out the third quarter with a 28-13 advantage thanks to a 65-yard scoring run by Arnold. They tacked on two more scores in the fourth period, a 12-yard run from Arnold — his fourth touchdown of the day — and a 4-yarder from Cathey.
“The footing wasn’t the best out there, but you could see the kid made some plays a few times,” Keys said of Arnold, his junior quarterback. “That’s just him, he’s a great athlete. We try to use him as much as we can without putting him in harm’s way.”
A 6-foot-2, 180-pound quarterback with speed is a nice luxury at a Division VI school. And with his running back teammates, the offense seems to be rolling. The Wildcats have scored more points in their two wins (79) than they did in the seven losses (76).
“We’ve still got a lot of growing up to do,” Plumley said. “There’s growing pains. But I do think the kids played harder today on defense. You wouldn’t know it by the score, but it was a better defensive effort.”
Offensively, the Redmen were led by Bayless, who completed 16 of 29 passes for 195 yards. Middleton caught five balls for 120 yards, Spencer Huff grabbed six for 24 yards and Lane Carter caught two passes for 36 yards. Dagher finished with 48 yards on the ground on 20 carries.
“We’ve been young and inexperienced all year and they’re growing up,” Keys said. “I challenged them a couple weeks ago. I told our freshmen you’re no longer freshmen and sophomores you’re no longer sophomores. You’ve got some games under you belt and you’ve just got to grow up and play some big boy football now.”
“We were short-handed. There were three or four kids that didn’t play from last week,” Plumley said. “We’ve got to step up. That’s not meant to be an excuse, but you get worn down that way.”
“All I’d asked them to do was execute and give effort and that’s what they’ve done the last two weeks,” Keys said. “Hopefully, it’s a sign of good things going forward.”
“We’ve got a week left and we’ve got to get better in all phases, on and off the field” Plumley said. “It’s a work-in-progress right now.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Bucyrus 7 0 6 0 — 13
New London 0 13 15 13 — 41
Scoring summary
First quarter
B — Eddie Dagher 2 run (Ethan Huff kick), 3:00.
Second quarter
NL — Mason Bess 25 run (Mike Dalton kick), 11:48.
NL — Jamil Arnold 1 run (kick failed), :51.
Third quarter
NL — Arnold 13 run (Arnold run), 6:49.
B — Malachi Bayless 15 run (kick blocked), 3:51.
NL — Arnold 65 run (Dalton kick), 3:36.
Fourth quarter
NL — Arnold 12 run (Dalton kick), 8:15.
NL — Kenyon Cathey 4 run (kick blocked), 3:42.
Individual statistics
Passing
Bucyrus: Malachi Bayless 16-29-2 195. New London: Jamil Arnold 2-5-0 15.
Rushing
Bucyrus: Eddie Dagher 20-48, Bayless 10-20, Lane Carter 1-9, Spencer Huff 1-(-5). New London: Mason Bess 20-152, Arnold 18-125, Kenyon Cathey 19-102, Cody Bentley 1-1, Mike Dalton 2-(-1).
Receiving
Bucyrus: Nick Middleton 5-120, Lane Carter 2-36, Spencer Huff 6-24, Dagher 2-10, Javon Gallardo 1-5. New London: Cathey 1-11, Bess 1-4.
Team statistics
B NL
First downs 12 17
Rushing 32-72 60-389
Passes 16-29-2 2-5-0
Yards passing 195 15
Total yards 267 404
Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-2
Punts-Avg 4-29.0 1-19.0
Penalties 6-45 5-45