CRESTLINE — Buckeye Central sophomore quarterback Derex Dean had a debut that most players only dream of.
Dean completed eight of 14 passes for 180 yards and four touchdowns and running back Manny Mullins caught three of those scoring passes in the first half and ran for another as the Bucks dropped Crestline, 45-12, Friday night.
The Bulldogs did a nice job of stopping BC’s impressive run game early on, forcing Dean to go to the air.
“We knew Crestline would come out ready to play and they did,” Buckeye Central coach Chad Jensen said. “Early on, they stopped our run and, luckily, we were able to throw it a little bit and had success there, and then they made some adjustments to stop the pass and we were able to run it a little bit.”
Dean said that throwing the football was part of the game plan coming in.
“We worked on that all week, and we came out and performed,” Dean said.
“That’s usually how we work, we use our pass to set up the run and vice versa,” he added.
Dean said that, when Crestline went into cover three, he had an opportunity to hit Mullins in the seam.
“When they dropped back into that two-back cover safety, when they were in cover three, that did open up the seam, we were able to take the long ball and take those seams,” Dean said.
Dean hit Mullins for 34 yards in the first quarter before hitting him again from 15 yards for the first score of the game.
Early in the second quarter, Dean hit Mullins from 48 yards out, then found him again from 24 yards out as the Bucks grabbed a 22-0 lead.
Crestline quarterback Tyler Shade, who completed 19 of 29 passes for 169 yards and two scores, found running back Josh Hall for 29 yards and cut the lead to 22-6 at the half.
Crestline coach Jonny King said that his young team will get better.
“We are going to learn at an exponential rate,” King said. “For some of those kids, that’s not their first time on Friday night but their first time in an actual football game, and we’re asking them to come out on a Friday night.
“We have no excuses,” he added. “There are no other options. We can’t accept great effort, the kids are working hard, and they busted their butts every play out there. I didn’t come here to try hard. I came here to win, and we have to hit the weights hard tomorrow and watch the film and try and get better.”
Mullins, who caught four passes for 133 yards and added five carries for 65 yards, added a 16-yard run in the fourth quarter for BC.
Kolin Rowlinson scored on a 23-yard run and Dean found Tyler Sanderson on a six-yard pass in the third period as the Bucks put the game away.
“We try to take what the defense gives us, and we can throw it a little bit,” Jensen added. “They knew they had to stop the run, but we want to be balanced and did the best we could with it.”
Jensen was more than pleased with his quarterback’s first game.
“Derex had a great first start,” Jensen said. “Derex loves the game, and he loves football, and he works at it, and he wants to be the best quarterback he can be. He studies and he listens, he’s coachable. He’s only a sophomore and he’s going to continue to get better. That was a nice first game.”
Crestline scored late in the game when Shade hit Connor Lusk from 10 yards out.
“There is a lot of potential on this team,” King said. “We have great leadership out of our upperclassmen. And they have improved on the varsity field, and, for some of them, you can’t ask any more of what they’re giving from an effort standpoint. We just have to execute a little cleaner.
“We have a lot of youth on the line,” he added. “It’s a tall task but when you are learning technique, you’re a little bit behind the eight ball in size and strength. That’s on us as coaches to figure out how to put them in a better situation and have success.”
Brandon Hiles grabbed nine passes for 58 yards for the Bulldogs, but the BC defense shut down the Crestline run attack, holding the Bulldogs to just 43 yards in 27 carries.
Box score
Score by quarters
Buckeye Central 8 14 16 7 — 45
Crestline 0 6 0 6 — 12
Scoring summary
First quarter
BC — Manny Mullins 15 pass from Derex Dean (Mullins pass from Dean), 1:26.
Second quarter
BC — Mullins 48 pass from Dean (Dean run),9:26.
BC — Mullins 26 pass from Dean (pass failed), 6:22.
C — Josh Hall 29 pass from Tyler Shade (pass failed), 2:31.
Third quarter
BC — Tyler Sanderson 6 pass from Dean (Trevor Kirgis pass from Dean), 9:01.
BC — Kolin Rowlinson 27 run (Sanderson pass from Dean), 6:38.
Fourth quarter
BC — Mullins 16 run (Sanderson kick), 11:12.
C — Connor Lusk 10 pass from Shade (pass failed), :30.
Individual statistics
Passing
Buckeye Central: Derex Dean 8-14-1 180; Crestline Tyler Shade 19-29-1 169.
Rushing
Buckeye Central: Manny Mullins 5-65, Kolin Rowlinson 6-51, Dean 3-22; Crestline: Josh Hall 18-13, Shade 6-9, Connor Lusk 1-10, Brandon Hiles 2-8, Jake Bruce 1-3.
Receiving
Buckeye Central: Mullins 4-133, Tyler Sanderson 2-26, Damian Dean 2-21; Crestline: Hiles 9-58, Hall 3-12, Lusk 3-39, Bruce 2-14, Derek McCunn 1-17.
Team statistics
BC C
First downs 11 7
Rushing 14-138 27-43
Passes 8-14-1 19-29-1
Yards passing 180 169
Total yards 214 153
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0
Penalties 2-20 2-10