NORTH ROBINSON (Crawford County Now) — After a lackluster start against Mohawk last week, Bucyrus came out much stronger against undefeated Colonel Crawford in Northern 10 Athletic Conference play Friday night.
The Redmen controlled the ball for much of the first quarter and trailed 6-0 and only 20-0 at halftime, despite good drives. However, the Eagles depth and experience proved significant in the second half in a 48-0 win.
“We’re just young and we don’t have a lot of numbers. I don’t know if we understand the importance of finishing drives,” Redmen head coach Jon Butchko said.
“We had a 17-play drive and a 14-play drive and to come up empty both of those times, you’re not going to be able to overcome that.”
The first drive was stopped by a Dom Dean interception and the second on downs at the Colonel Crawford 17-yard line.
“Then they are able lean on you in the run game in the second half. Our defense played well in the first half, but eventually gave way.”
Connor McMichael’s 10-yard run got the Eagles on the board. It was the first of his three touchdowns as he rushed for 181 yards.
Colonel Crawford (6-0, 3-0) outgained Bucyrus (1-5, 0-3) in total yards 460-116 in staying perfect, with a big game looming next week.
Roen Thew’s 20-yard run and a Parker Weithman 17-yard strike from Peyton Baker gave the hosts a three-score halftime lead.
Eagles head coach Jake Bruner said he wasn’t surprised with how the Redmen came out against his team.
“They play hard. It’s a rivalry game. The Makeevers are going to be really, really good. They’ve got a couple of nice receivers, and their line is all back (next season),” he said.
“They didn’t play well last week, and you could tell from the film, so we knew we’d get good effort from them.”
Bucyrus committed just 2 penalties for 10 yards and Colonel Crawford was flagged 10 times for 55 yards.
Bruner acknowledged the Eagles sluggish start.
“We were probably a little slow to warm. I’ve been doing this a long time, but a win’s a win and we’ve got to get better,” he said.
Dean had the interception, and Luke Christman recorded several tackles for loss for the Crawford defense.
McMichael tacked on touchdown runs of 66 yards to open the third quarter and 26 yards later in that period.
Thew scrambled in from 20 yards in between those and Avery Powers broke off a nifty 48-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter.
The Eagles rushed for 392 yards as 9 players toted the pigskin.
Bruner liked what he saw from some of his unheralded players.
“Our younger kids are playing a role and don’t always get seen. Even Roen Thew tonight. He is doing a lot of the blocking and people forget about him sometimes.
“Connor is a big focus for everybody, just like Payne DeGray is, but we’ve got some young talent like Avery Powers and Gabe Stratton. Their time will have to come in the next few weeks,” Bruner said.
For Bucyrus, a better start reflected a change in mindset and approach.
“We came out ready to play and had very few blown assignments. We shuffled the offensive line this week with Kayden (Baxter) going down. Hayden Ginn and Carson Witten have played a zillion snaps now into their junior year,” Butchko said.
“Mark Sheets was a starter tonight and he didn’t do anything glaringly bad. That’s a good sign for the future and the immediate future. Mark was prepared, but he’s a sophomore playing for us.”
Colonel Crawford hosts Seneca East (4-2, 2-1) Friday night.
“We’ve got goals in front of us and a big one next week,” Bruner said. “We’ll work really hard and be ready to go. Seneca East is a great program, great coaches, great players.”
Freshman quarterback Isaac Makeever completed 16-of-34 passing attempts for 96 yards, with brother Wyatt Makeever grabbing 10 balls for 46 yards.
“Isaac’s making second and third reads to keep plays alive. He’s an excellent athlete and has become a good distributor of the ball,” Butchko said.
“Our system works best when we’re throwing it to a lot of guys and spreading it out. We weren’t very even with the touches tonight. But we were moving the ball quickly and against a better opponent that’s what you’ve got to do.”
Bucyrus will host Upper Sandusky (2-4, 1-2).
“We played two really good opponents. But we played with excellent effort tonight and that’s a welcome sight,” Butchko said.
He described a meeting that was held a couple of weeks ago with the team captains and coaches.
“We came together and said, ‘How can we reach one another better?’ There’s been a whole lot less blindly yelling like you’d expect out of a football coach, and a lot more explaining. I pledged to frame everything in the positive and with that the kids have embraced the truth,” he said.
“Maybe that’s New Age or maybe that’s Gen Alpha stuff, but we’re adjusting and still searching for a solution. We’re not worried about the problem. We’re worried about solving the problem.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Bucyrus 0 0 0 0 — 0
Colonel Crawford 6 14 21 7 — 48
Scoring summary
First quarter
CC — Connor McMichael 10 run (kick failed), 2:05.
Second quarter
CC — Roen Thew 20 un (Joseph Zizzo kick), 11:38.
CC — Parker Weithman 17 pass from Peyton Baker (Zizzo kick), 1:59.
Third quarter
CC — McMichael 66 run (Zizzo kick), 11:43.
CC — Thew 11 run (Zizzo kick), 7:59.
CC — McMichael 26 run (Zizzo kick), 3:36.
Fourth quarter
CC — Avery Powers 48 run (Jacob Palenshus kick), 8:50.
Individual statistics
Passing
Bucyrus: Isaac Makeever 16-34-1 96; Colonel Crawford: Peyton Baker 5-11-1 68.
Rushing
Bucyrus: Wyatt Makeever 7-23, Isaac Makeever 15-(-3); Connor McMichael 14-181, Peyton Baker 5-63, Avery Powers 1-48, Roen Thew 6-39, Jentsen Landon 2-34, Madden Tesso 2-17, Brock Lisle 1-9, Lucca Troiano 1-1, Patrick Troiano 1-0.
Receiving
Bucyrus: Wyatt Makeever 10-46, Dylan Coppler 3-21, Da’Shawn Cosey 2-21, Christian Neal 1-8; Colonel Crawford: Roen Thew 2-30, John DeGray 2-2 Parker Weithman 1-17.
Team statistics
B CC
First downs 11 14
Rushing 22-20 33-392
Passes 16-34-1 5-11-1
Yards passing 96 68
Total yards 116 460
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-0
Punts-Avg 3-34.7 0-0.00
Penalties 2-12 9-50