UNION CITY — August 30, 2013. That was the last time a Bucyrus football team started the season 1-0, winning 58-39 at Elgin.
The last time, that is, before Friday night.
The Redmen made the 270-mile round trip to take on the Mississinawa Valley Black Hawks. It was worth the five total hours they spent on the bus, arriving back in Bucyrus with a 49-14 victory.
“It feels really good,” Bucyrus coach Tim Plumley said. “Our kids played hard. We made a lot of mistakes. But Mississinawa Valley — their kids played hard was well.”
It took only five plays for Bucyrus to get on the board. Quarterback Malachi Bayless scrambled for 24 yards and threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wise in the drive to give the Redmen a 7-0 lead.
Bucyrus then used an eight-play, 53-yard drive later in the opening quarter, capped by a one-yard run by Eddie Dagher to go up 14-0. Midway through the second frame, the Redmen tacked on another score on a 15-yard strike from Bayless to Javon Gallardo and it looked like the rout was on.
The Black Hawks had other ideas. In four minutes, MV drove 61 yards on eight plays to get on the scoreboard. Quarterback Malachi Levesque found Dylan Wehrkamp in the back of the end zone from 19 yards out, then ran in the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 21-8. And the Black Hawks were going to receive the second-half kickoff.
“I was worried coming out at halftime,” Plumley said. “If they would have score — if they had the ball — it was kind of why we felt we needed to take control of the game.”
The coach called for a pooch kick that Bucyrus recovered at the 32 yard line, catching the Black Hawks off guard. Dagher ran for all 32 yards to the end goal line, finished off by an eight-yard jaunt to make it 28-8 and it was all Redmen from there.
Bayless added scoring passes of 34 yards to Grady Jackson and 59 yards to Wise — their second hookup of the night — and Blayne Stewart-Barto ran in from 67 yards to make it 49-8.
MV tacked on a late score on a 74-yard pass from Levesque to Davion Trump to set the final score.
“The guys up from — all those offensive linemen — in the second half, they really came to play,” Plumley said. “There weren’t very many (MV) players in the box. We threw into it in the second quarter, into all those guys. So, we said in the second half, ‘We’ve got to run the ball.’”
Dagher finished with 12 carries for 73 yards and Stewart-Barto had 70 yards on six attempts for the Redmen. Bayless passed for 285 yards, going 15 of 23, good for four touchdowns.
“Eddie’s got a huge role,” Plumley said of his senior running back. “He’s got to play both sides, defense and offense. He’s a running back and he blocks a lot in pass protection.”
Wise had two catches for 96 yards, Braxton Lewis caught four for 64 yards, Jackson grabbed two for 57 yards, Mason Gebhardt grabbed three for 42 yards and Gallardo got two targets for 21 yards. Randy Banks had two receptions for seven yards.
Levesque was 10 of 28 for 151 yards passing for the Black Hawks. Pierce Daniels rushed for 67 yards on 20 carries and Trump led receivers with three catches for 73 yards.
“We’ve got to clean some things up,” Plumley said. “Penalties (11 for 91 yards), turnovers (a fumble and an interception). We have to tackle better and make less mistakes if we’re going to have a chance against a good team like Crestview (on Friday).”
Box score
Score by quarters
Bucyrus 14 7 21 7 — 49
Mississinawa Valley 0 8 0 6 — 14
Scoring summary
First quarter
B — Mike Wise 37 pass from Malachi Bayless (Ethan Huff kick), 10:19.
B — Eddie Dagher 1 run (Huff kick), 4:02.
Second quarter
B — Javon Gallardo 7 pass from Bayless (Huff kick), 8:23.
MV — Dylan Wehrkamp 19 pass from Malachi Levesque (Levesque run), 4:23.
Third quarter
B — Dagher 8 run (Huff kick), 11:36.
B — Grady Jackson 35 pass from Bayless (Huff kick), 6:56.
B — Wise 59 pass from Bayless (Huff kick), :25.
Fourth quarter
B — Blayne Stewart-Barto 67 run (Huff kick), 8:28.
MV — Davion Trump 74 pass from Levesque (run failed), 6:23.
Individual statistics
Passing
Bucyrus: Malachi Bayless 15-22-1 285; Mississinawa Valley: Malachi Levesque 11-28-0 151.
Rushing
Bucyrus: Eddie Dagher 12-73, Blayne Stewart-Barto 6-70, Bayless 5-40. Mississinawa Valley: Pierce Daniels 20-67, Davion Trump 6-36, Alex Jenkinson 3-18, Levesque 6-16, Trenton Holden 2-10.
Receiving
Bucyrus: Mike Wise 2-96, Grady Jackson 2-57, Mason Gebhardt 2-42, Braxton Lewis 4-64, Javon Gallardo 2-21, Randy Banks 2-7; Mississinawa Valley: Trump 3-73, Dylan Wehrkamp 2-27, Drew Anguiano 2-26, Jenkinson 2-16, Matt Pisano 2-9.
Team statistics
B MV
First downs 10 14
Rushing 23-183 37-147
Passes 14-22-1 11-28-0
Yards passing 258 151
Total yards 441 298
Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-1
Punts-Avg 3-40.0 4-31.8
Penalties 11-91 7-67