BUCYRUS — For the second week in a row, Bucyrus faced an undefeated opponent. For the second week in a row, the Redmen offense struggled.

The defense held the potent Northmor offense to 10 points at halftime. But field position and mistakes on offense wore Bucyrus down, allowing the Golden Knights to go home with a 25-0 victory.

“We could see on film that they’re big and strong up front,” Northmor coach Scott Armrose said. “They’ve got two linebackers, No. 8 (Eddie Dagher) and No. 50 (Bryant Pfeifer) that read well and fill well. They gave us headaches all night. We take our hats off to Bucyrus. They did a great job of game planning and preparing for us.”

The Knights started at the Bucyrus 40, 44, and 46 their first three possessions and at their own 40 on the fourth. Despite the field position they gave up, the Redmen limited the damage.

“The defense played great,” Bucyrus coach Tim Plumley said. “The kids really bought into the game plan. They executed it. We just didn’t do enough on offense. We played more than good enough on defense to win.”

The first Northmor drive ended on an interception and on the second one, the Knights had to settle for a 27-yard field goal by Caleb Schnuerer. They finally found the end zone on a one-yard run by Max Lower for a 10-0 lead, with 10:08 left in the second quarter.

Bucyrus (1-2) held the Knights the rest of the half and had an opportunity to go to the locker room in a one-score game.

Dagher intercepted a Northmor pass and returned it to the Knights’ 15. The Redmen got the ball to the three yard line but eventually turned it over on downs at the five, disdaining the chip-shot field goal for a possible touchdown.

“I felt like we had some matchups there,” Plumley said of the decision. “I felt like we needed to score (a touchdown). I didn’t think three would be enough. The way Northmor plays, they grind it out. I didn’t think we were going to hold them to 10 points the whole game.”

Northmor (3-0) essentially sealed the game on the first possession of the second half. Trenton Ramos returned the kickoff 51 yards to the Bucyrus 29. It took four plays for the Knights to convert, capped by a five-yard scoring run from Niko Christo, to make it 16-0.

From there, Northmor went to ground control. The Knights tacked on late points with a safety, tackling quarterback Malachi Bayless in the end zone.

On the ensuing free kick, the Redmen tried an on-side kick, but Northmor recovered at the 17. Lower finished the scoring on a six-yard TD run with 2:10 remaining.

“That’s what our offense is right now,” Armrose said. “If we can stay ahead of the chains, we’ve got a good offense. We can keep going down the field. When we get behind the chains because of penalties and things like that, we get ourselves in a little bit of trouble.”

Lower led the Knights’ rushing attack — which totaled 262 yards — with 111 yards on 25 attempts, with two scores. Quarterback Marcus Cortez passed 10 times with six completions for 52 yards with two interceptions but also ran 16 times for 82 yards. Ramos caught four balls for 42 yards.

The Redmen were held to a net negative seven yards rushing. Bayless completed nine of 17 passes for 87 yards with an interception. Mike Wise caught three passes for 30 yards and Braxton Lewis also caught one for 30.

Penalties made for a sloppy game as each team was flagged for 100 yards on 23 total calls.

“Eddie (Dagher) played great tonight on defense,” Plumley said. “He was in a very vital spot in the game plan. I’m going to say that was one of Eddie’s best games ever.”

“That’s what we’ve done the first three weeks,” Armrose said. “We’ve got multiple people who can carry the ball and an offensive line that, to this point, has done a really good job getting our ground game going. That’s what we rely on.”

“We were really happy at halftime,” Plumley said. “We came out, the kids played with fire, they were really emotional tonight. The kids played hard. We just made too many mistakes on offense.”

Box score

Score by quarters

Northmor        3          7         6         9   — 25

Bucyrus           0          0         0         0   —   0

Scoring summary

First quarter

N — Caleb Schnuerer 27 field goal, 4:14.

Second quarter

N — Max Lower 1 run (Schnuerer kick), 10:08.

Third quarter

N — Niko Christo 5 run (kick blocked), 10:49.

Fourth quarter

N — Safety — quarterback tackled in end zone, 4:28.

N — Lower 15 run (Schnuerer kick), 2:10.

Individual statistics

Passing

Northmor: Marcus Cortez 6-10-2 52. Bucyrus: Malachi Bayless 9-17-1 87.

Rushing

Northmor: Max Lower 25-111, Marcus Cortez 16-82, Niko Christo 7-42, Trenton Ramos 1-16, Garrett Corwin 2-10. Bucyrus: Eddie Dagher 9-23, Jacob Green 3-9, Randy Banks 1-(-2), Braxton Lewis 1-(-3), Bayless 8-(-34).

Receiving

Northmor: Trenton Ramos 4-42, Max Lower 2-10. Bucyrus: Mike Wise 3-30, Randy Banks 3-15, Braxton Lewis 1-30, Grady Jackson 1-10, Javon Gallardo 1-2.

Team statistics

N              B

First downs              17              7

Rushing                51-262       22-(-7)

Passes                    6-10-2        9-17-1

Yards passing           52               87

Total yards              314               80

Fumbles-lost            0-0             1-0

Punts-Avg               3-37.7        6-28.2

Penalties                 11-100         12-100