IBERIA — The effort was there. The execution is still lacking in places.
Bucyrus took a step forward from its shutout loss at Danville in Week 2, but Northmor was able to use its depth to wear down the Redmen defense and pull away to a 27-7 non-league win.
“We were much crisper, played with more intensity than we did last week (at Danville),” Bucyrus coach Tim Plumley said. “We came out and the defense played great.”
The defense, in fact, controlled a very potent Northmor offense for the entire first half and well into the third quarter. The Golden Knights generated 168 yards of offense in the first two quarters, but the only thing they had to show for it was a missed 35-yard field goal on the opening drive of the game.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be a running clock situation,” Northmor coach Scott Armrose said. “They are big and strong up front. We saw that on film, and we knew it was going to be a challenge for us.”
After a scoreless first half, Bucyrus (1-2) got on the board first. Randy Banks scooped up a Knights’ fumble and raced 63 yards down the right sideline for the touchdown midway through the third quarter.
Unfortunately, it was the only score of the night for the Redmen as the offense once again struggled to get the ball into the end zone.
“We just never responded offensively,” Plumley said. “It wasn’t for lack of trying. We’ve got to run the ball better, we’re too dependent on the pass. (Northmor) did a nice job. Their corners we physical with Randy and kind of threw him off his routes.”
Northmor (3-0) used depth to wear down the Bucyrus defense as the game progressed. The Knights piled up 210 of their 378 yards in the second half. More importantly, they got to the end zone.
“I think we outlasted them a little bit,” Armrose said. “We wore them out. We didn’t make big changes at halftime. The first half was between their physical line and our mistakes — too many motion penalties, too many holding penalties. Those things are correctable.”
After the Redmen scored on the fumble return, Northmor answered in less than two minutes.
The Knights drove 57 yards in four plays — aided by a 15-yard pass interference call — that was capped by a 32-yard pass from A.J. Bower to Hunter Fulk.
After a Bucyrus three-and-out, Northmor went 78 yards in 11 plays, with 25 yards of penalties. Bower ran in from 11 yards to give the Knights the lead for good at 13-7.
“They’re much deeper than we are, but that’s not going to change much,” Plumley said. “We’re trying to bring some guys along, but we’ve got who we got and they’re going to have to play.”
Northmor tacked on two more scores in the fourth quarter on touchdown runs of 10 and 39 yards by Max Lower, who finished with 137 yards rushing. Up to then, the Bucyrus defense had done a reasonable job on Lower.
“Max Lower played both ways. He never came out of the game tonight,” Armrose said. “He’s in great physical condition. But it’s our O-line too. I thought our O-line wore their D-line out. The holes were starting to open up and Max was able to find them.”
“He probably ended up with a good night, (Lower) did,” Plumley said. “But it took him a lot of carries to do it. He’s a big guy and when we got a little fatigued, he started breaking some tackles.”
Malachi Bayless led the Redmen offense, completing 16 of 35 passes for 174 yards. Joe Rager caught three balls for 47 yards. Blayne Barto caught four passes for 37 yards and Kam Lewis added four catches for 32 yards.
Banks grabbed three passes for 29 yards. Barto also rushed 13 times for 44 yards. The passing game was controlled in the second half when Northmor when to three-deep safeties.
“That’s something we’ve been working on for a couple of weeks,” Armrose said. “We had to get it in place for South Central. We did a nice job of controlling their running game and we can still rush the passer with the other safety.”
Bower connected on 10 of 16 passes for 181 yards. He was 4 of 6 for 109 in the second half. Lower caught three passes for 46 yards. Jaxson Wenger had one catch for 46 yards and Fulk grabbed two for 42 yards.
“I’m really proud of the effort we gave tonight,” Plumley said. “I’m not happy because we lost. They’re a good team and I really think we can be a good team too. We’re not there yet.
“They’re a great program,” Plumley added of Northmor. “They’re really solid in what they do. There are models in the area that you want to be like and Northmor is one of them.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Bucyrus 0 0 7 0 — 7
Northmor 0 0 13 14 — 27
Scoring summary
Third quarter
B — Randy Banks 63 fumble return (Ethan Huff kick), 7:54.
N — Hunter Fulk 32 pass from A.J. Bower (Caleb Schnuerer kick), 6:27.
N — Bower 11 run (kick failed), 4:36.
Fourth quarter
N — Max Lower 10 run (Schnuerer kick), 11:55.
N — Lower 39 run (Schnuerer kick), 5:18.
Individual statistics
Passing
Bucyrus: Malachi Bayless 16-35-0 174, Randy Banks 1-1-0 0; Northmor: A.J. Bower 10-16-0 181.
Rushing
Bucyrus: Blayne Barto 13-44, Malachi Bayless 4-15, Rakim Deaver 1-7, Randy Banks 4-4, Kam Lewis 1-(-1), ; Northmor: Max Lower 31-137, Paul Cramer 4-36, Caleb Schnuerer 3-14, A.J. Bower 11-10.
Receiving
Bucyrus: Joe Rager 3-47, Blayne Barto 4-37, Kam Lewis 4-32, Randy Banks 3-29, Mason Gebhardt 2-29, Rakim Deaver 1-0; Northmor: Max Lower 3-46, Jaxson Wenger 1-46, Hunter Fulk 2-42, Bo Landin 2-29, A.J Benarth 1-9, C.J. Stoney 1-9.
Team statistics
B N
First downs 11 15
Rushing 23-69 52-197
Passes 17-36-0 10-16-0
Yards passing 174 181
Total yards 243 378
Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-1
Punts-Avg 4-41.5 2-24.0
Penalties 12-98 6-50