By Dan Messerschmidt
CCN Sports Director
BUCYRUS — For the second straight week, Bucyrus played a Northern 10 Athletic Conference opponent close — for a half.
For the second straight week, the Redmen were unable to dent the scoreboard in the second half.
Carey led just 21-14 at intermission but piled up 207 second-half yards which resulted in 21 unanswered points as the Blue Devils ran past Bucyrus, 42-21.
“It’s happened to us two weeks in a row and a couple of other times this year,” Bucyrus coach Aaron Eckert said of his team’s scoring struggles in the final two quarters. “We have to take a look at what we do at halftime. We’ve got to get better coming out in the third quarter.”
Carey (3-2, 1-1 N10) limited the Redmen to 86 yards of total offense in the first half, but turnovers plagued the Blue Devils and kept Bucyrus (1-4, 0-2) in the game.
“You can’t turn the football over and expect good things to happen,” Carey coach Jonathon Mershman said. “You can’ be late on the flat throws and you’ve got to hold onto the ball when you run it.”
After Adam Hackworth scored on a 9-yard pass from Ethan Berringer and ran for a three-yard touchdown to give Carey a 14-0 lead, the miscues began.
Harley Robinson intercepted a tipped pass from Berringer and returned it 55 yards for a score for the Redmen. On the first play of the next series, Bucyrus recovered a fumble at the Blue Devils’ 40.
It took just four plays for the Redmen to score, with quarterback Ben Seibert sneaking into the end zone from three yards out to knot the score at 14-14. Hackworth scored for the third time on a 32-yard run to give Carey the seven-point margin at the half.
Berringer then engineered an eight-play, 55-yard drive for a score to start the second half, hitting Jordan Dasher with a seven-yard scoring pass to cap the march and the defense took over from there, holding the Redmen to 149 yards of total offense on the night, 63 in the second half.
“We just came out in the second half with a better attitude,” Mershman said. “We played disciplined.”
Griffin Summit made it 35-14 with a 64-yard scoring run and Willie Schafer tacked on a seven-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter to set the final score.
Summit finished with 105 yards on six carries to lead the Blue Devils. Berringer connected on eight of 15 passes for 101 yards and two scores, with one interception. Carey finished with 396 yards of total offense.
Seibert was just four of 20 for 70 yards passing for Bucyrus. Keaton Naufzinger ran for 33 yards on nine carries and caught two passes for 40 yards.
“I thought the kids played pretty hard,” Eckert said. “We just haven’t found that extra gear yet that we need to find and persevere.”
“We were trying to get to 3-2,” Mershman said. “Any way you can get to 3-2, you’ll take it. Now it’s going for 4-2.”
Score by quarters
Carey 7 14 14 7 — 42
Bucyrus 0 14 0 0 — 14
Scoring summary
First quarter
C — Adam Hackworth 9 pass from Ethan Berringer (Ian Yeater kick), 1:20.
Second quarter
C — Hackworth 3 run (Yeater kick), 9:49.
B — Harley Robinson 55 interception return (kick failed), 7:00.
B — Ben Seibert 3 run (Robinson pass from Seibert), 5:19.
C — Hackworth 32 run (Yeater kick), 3:01.
Third quarter
C — Jordan Dasher 7 pass from Berringer (Yeater kick), 8:26.
C — Griffin Summit 64 run (Yeater kick) 2:47.
Fourth quarter
C — Willie Schafer 7 run (Yeater kick), 3:40.
Individual statistics
Passing
Carey: Ethan Berringer 8-15-1 101.
Bucyrus: Ben Seibert 4-20-0 70.
Rushing
Carey: Griffin Summit 6-105, Willie Schafer 15-62, Adam Hackworth 8-62, Austin Hertel 7-50, Jordan Dasher 4-13, Bryce Conti 2-3.
Bucyrus: Keaton Naufzinger 9-33, Devon Newland 12-21, Harley Robinson 2-21, Zane Seybert 4-7, Ben Seibert 6-(-3).
Receiving
Carey: Dasher 6-77, Hackworth 2-24.
Bucyrus: Naufzinger 2-40, Robinson 3-30.
Team statistics
C B
First downs 13 11
Rushing 42-295 33-79
Passes 8-15-1 4-20-0
Yards passing 101 70
Total yards 396 149
Fumbles-lost 1-1 4-1
Punts-Avg 0-0 3-31.3
Penalties 5-50 4-20