BUCYRUS — During its win streak against Bucyrus, Wynford has used a variety of methods to keep the skein alive along with possessing the Copper Kettle for which they play.
The Royals added a wrinkle Friday night, and it was effective enough to retain the kettle and bragging rights for another year.
Wynford rushed for 236 yards while passing for only 32. Even though the offense threw two interceptions, the defense was stout enough to keep the Redmen offense at bay, as the Royals held on to the Copper Kettle for the 25th straight year with a 20-14 Northern 10 Athletic Conference win.
“That definitely was our goal this week — don’t let that Copper Kettle go back,” Wynford coach Cyle Skidmore said. “We’ve had it 25 years now. The goal is to always keep that thing.”
Skidmore — in his first year as head coach at Wynford — was also celebrating his first win in six outings as the head man.
Bucyrus (1-5, 0-3 N10) knew exactly what the Royals were going to do, but had little success stopping it, especially between the 20s.
“We made some adjustments and slowed them down,” Bucyrus coach Tim Plumley said. “But they were running buck sweep all night. We really couldn’t stop it consistently.”
The main culprit for the Redmen was sophomore running back Anthony Evans, who ran 27 times for 160 yards and a touchdown. Kohan Keith added 46 yards on 13 attempts and a score.
“The running backs ran hard,” Skidmore said. “Those kids should be proud, especially Anthony as a sophomore coming in. That’s awesome.”
Bucyrus struck first, taking the opening kickoff, and driving 61 yards for a touchdown. The march was capped by an 11-yard scoring strike from quarterback Malachi Bayless to Randy Banks.
Wynford (1-5, 1-2) answered with a 10-play, 70-yard drive aided by three Redmen penalties. Quarterback Ashton Warren took it in from three yards to give the Royals a 7-6 lead.
What might have been the pivotal play of the game came on the next possession. Bucyrus had a first-and-goal at the Wynford one-yard line. The ball was fumbled through the end zone for a touchback and the Royals took over on the 20.
“That was huge,” Skidmore said of the turnover. “That put us in a great position to be successful tonight. Obviously, we were — we were successful tonight.”
While disappointing, Plumley did not think that it was necessarily the difference in the outcome.
“That’s a play that everyone’s going to look at — the fumble through the end zone,” Plumley said. “This (the difference) is a one-play game. So, we can put it all on one play, but there were missed blocks, missed tackles. All these one plays were the difference in the game.”
The Royals later tacked on a seven-yard touchdown run by Evans to take a 14-6 lead to the locker room at halftime.
The Redmen tied the game at 14-14 in the third quarter on a 48-yard Bayless-to-Joe Rager bomb and a two-point conversion pass from Bayless to Kam Lewis.
But Wynford engineered a 13-play, 62-yard drive, with Keith finishing the job on a 3-yard run with 1:25 left in the frame to make it 20-14. Neither team was able to score in the final 13-plus minutes.
“Our goal is always to control the clock and take the time down and hopefully punch one in too,” Skidmore said.
“It was a very winnable game,” Plumley said. I don’t want to take anything away from Coach Skidmore and Wynford. They controlled the possessions, controlled the game.
“They turned it over a few times,” Plumley continued. “We had our opportunities, but they controlled the pace of the game a little bit.”
Bucyrus had two excellent chances to at least tie the score in the waning moments of the fourth quarter. The Redmen drove to the Wynford 28-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.
After forcing a three-and-out, Bucyrus again moved to the Royals’ 38, but the drive ended on an interception at the goal line by Warren with less than a minute left.
“I knew coming in that they’ve got a good quarterback, they’ve got good receivers and they get the ball to their athletes,” Skidmore said of the Redmen. “(Bayless) does a good job reading pressure and throwing the ball when it needs to be thrown.”
However, the Royals limited Bucyrus trips to the end zone and possessions overall.
“I felt our kids battled hard — both teams did,” Plumley said. “Our kids up front played really hard, our coaches made some adjustments. It helped. We didn’t stop them (enough), but it helped.”
Bayless ended with 134 yards passing for two touchdowns to lead Bucyrus. Rager had three catches for 81 yards and a score. Blayne Barto rushed for 47 yards on 13 carries. Kavan Combs had two interceptions for the defense.
“I’m super happy for those seniors,” Skidmore said. “They deserve this win. We needed a win.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Wynford 7 7 6 0 — 20
Bucyrus 6 0 8 0 — 14
Scoring summary
First quarter
B — Randy Banks 11 pass from Malachi Bayless (kick failed), 10:27.
W — Ashton Warren 3 run (Kaiden Blair kick), 5:17.
Second quarter
W — Anthony Evans 7 run (Blair kick), 6:23.
Third quarter
B — Joe Rager 48 pass from Bayless (Kam Lewis pass from Bayless). 8:03.
W — Kohan Keith 3 run (kick failed), 1:25.
Individual statistics
Passing
Wynford: Ashton Warren 2-6-2 32; Bucyrus: Malachi Bayless 10-23-1 134.
Rushing
Wynford: Anthony Evans 27-160, Kohan Keith 13-46, Ashton Warren 17-26, Corey Moone 1-7, Kaiden Blair 1-(-7); Bucyrus: Blayne Barto 14-47, Malachi Bayless 5-18, Randy Banks 1-(-1).
Receiving
Wynford: Sam Collene 1-25, Kaiden Blair 1-7; Bucyrus: Joe Rager 3-81, Mason Gebhardt 3-21, Randy Banks 2-17, Kam Lewis 2-15.
Team statistics
W B
First downs 21 11
Rushing 59-236 20-64
Passes 2-6-2 10-23-1
Yards passing 32 134
Total yards 268 198
Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-1
Punts-Avg 2-28.0 2-41.0
Penalties 9-91 10-95