BUCYRUS — Buckeye Central is the smallest school in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference. In recent years, the Bucks have had difficulty competing in football in the league.

Prior to Friday, Buckeye Central hadn’t won an N10 game since the 2020 season and had lost six straight games this year.

But the Bucks broke open a close game with Bucyrus, scoring 34 points in the second half, to rout the Redmen, 55-14, snapping both streaks and spoiling homecoming festivities for Queen Addy Ricker and King Sawyer Cooper.

“We take our lumps week in and week out,” Buckeye Central coach Chad Jensen said. “It’s a very challenging league. Everybody knows that. Our kids had  a lot of adversity all year long and throughout the game and I was really proud how we handled that adversity. They came through and did a great job.”

The start of the game was in stark contrast to the end. The Bucks took the opening and went 60 yards in seven plays for a touchdown.

Dom Dean ran in from three yards, then caught the two-point conversion from brother Derex, which covered 17 yards after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty following the touchdown.

Bucyrus (0-9, 0-6 N10) answered on its first possession. The Redmen went 66 yards on 12 plays. Blayne Barto scored from a yard out and Tyricus Cosey caught the two-point conversion pass from Brayden Campbell to tie it at 8-8.

Ten of the plays on the drive were runs, a reversal from Bucyrus’ typical pass-first approach to offense. Coming into the game, the Redmen had only rushed for 347 yards in eight games.

“We thought we could get that snapped faster, communicated and snapped faster,” Bucyrus coach Jon Butchko said of the decision to go run heavy. “And Brayden has struggled the last couple weeks, and I don’t want to be unfair to him. He’s a guy who’s stepped up into an untenable spot. And he struggled again tonight. So, we thought, you hand it to Blayne, you hand it to Demarius (Munn-Page), and at the end, you hand it to Benny Jones.”

The move caught Buckeye Central somewhat off guard, as the Bucks were geared to slow down the Redmen passing game.

“A little bit, yeah,” Jensen said. “We knew they were going to throw the ball. The defensive coaches did a great job of making adjustments. We tried to take away the pass, so they ran it. Our coaches made some adjustments and it worked.”

The emphasis on the run was successful for most of the first half, though the only score for Bucyrus came on the first drive. Barto rushed for 93 yards in the first two quarters on 18 carries and the Redmen had 111 on the ground.

Buckeye Central (3-6, 1-5) tacked on two scores in the second quarter. Derex Dean had a one yard run and Dom Dean ran in from 13 yards to give the Bucks a 21-8 lead at halftime.

“We couldn’t speed them up, which we wanted to do,” Butchko said. “When we play and play well, it’s a function of moving fast and defensively, we couldn’t get them off the field. You’d like to get score, stop, score, stop and we couldn’t get that stop that eluded us and they just kind of wore us down.”

The Redmen were still in it early in the third quarter. They mounted another impressive drive to open the second half, moving 87 yards in 15 plays — capped by a 13-yard Campbell-to-Kam Lewis pass — to cut the deficit to 21-14 with 6:45 left in the third period.

But from there, it was all Buckeye Central. The Bucks answered that score, going 52 yards in just three plays to go back up two scores at 28-14 and the flood gates opened.

“I was most proud of them in the second half,” Jensen said. “We were really calm at halftime. There were a lot of things happening and we really came out and focused in the second half.

“We made a couple adjustments, but man, the way we came out in the second half — I was really proud of our kids.”

Heath Jensen caught a 39-yard pass from Derex Dean and Isaac Hiler ran in from a yard out to expand the Bucks’ lead to 34-14 after three.

Dom Dean continued his monster night in the fourth quarter, returning an interception for 45 yards and a score and finishing the scoring with a three-yard run. In between, Heath Jensen caught another pass from Derex Dean for a 20-yard TD.

Dean finished the night with 126 yards rushing, good for three touchdowns and added a fourth score on the interception.

“Dom had a great game,” Jensen said. “He ran the ball hard. He does a little bit of everything for us — catches the ball, runs the ball, kicks, and does a lot of good stuff for us, and doesn’t come off the field. He had a great pick six.”

Barto had 120 yards rushing to lead Bucyrus. Munn-Page added 39 yards on seven carries. Campbell completed 11 of 29 passes for 76 yards with two interceptions.

Lewis was the leading receiver with 36 yards on three catches. Christian Neal grabbed three for 24 yards.

“They play a lot of guys both ways,” Butchko said. “We thought we could speed them up and add a bunch of snaps and we if have the ball, we could really do some damage to them.”

Bucyrus, indeed, ran 67 plays to 44 for the Bucks, but the Redmen did not use that to their advantage.

“We couldn’t sustain those drives,” Butchko said. “And we never hit a big play tonight either and that’s how we have to be successful, is by getting the big play, a chunk play, and move the sticks kind of in sequence.”

Derex Dean was an efficient 11 of 18 passing for 172 yards and two scores to lead the balanced attack. Heath Jensen had four receptions for 111 yards and both passing touchdowns. Hiler had eight carries for 48 yards and a score.

“We always want to be balanced,” Jensen said. “We try to take what the defense gives you. Last week, Upper (Sandusky) took away the run and we threw it 38 times. Today, I know we didn’t throw it 38 times.”

“We’re not very resilient, not very football savvy at times,” Butchko said. “A two-score margin feels like a four-score margin to us at times, because we don’t have the resolve you need to dig out of hole like that.”

“Our kids could feel it. They could feel the victory,” Jensen said. “And then, once we got up two touchdowns, I felt like that they could taste it and we just kept playing hard.

“We had this game circled and we knew Bucyrus was going to play hard and my hat’s off to them,” Jensen added. “They played their guts out just like we did. At the end of the day, our kids played really hard.”

Box score

Score by quarters

Buckeye Central         8         13       13        21 — 55

Bucyrus                          8          0         6          0 — 14

Scoring summary

First quarter

BC — Dom Dean 3 run (Dom Dean pass from Derex Dean), 8:45.

B — Blayne Barto 1 run (Tyricus Cosey pass from Brayden Campbell), 4:26.

Second quarter

BC — Derex Dean 1 run (Dom Dean kick), 6:08.

BC — Dom Dean 13 run (run failed), 2:43.

Third quarter

B — Kam Lewis 13 pass from Campbell (pass failed), 6:45.

BC — Heath Jensen 39 pass from Derex Dean (Dom Dean kick), 4:54.

BC — Isaac Hiler 1 run (kick failed), :32.

Fourth quarter

BC — Dom Dean 45 interception return (Dom Dean kick), 11:40.

BC — Jensen 20 pass from Derex Dean (Dom Dean kick), 10:52.

BC — Dom Dean 3 run (Dom Dean kick), 2:28.

Individual statistics

Passing

Buckeye Central: Derex Dean 11-18-0 172; Bucyrus: Brayden Campbell 11-29-2 76.

Rushing

Buckeye Central: Dom Dean 15-126, Isaac Hiler 8-48, Derex Dean 3-21; Bucyrus: Blayne Barto 27-120, Demarius Munn-Page 7-39, Ben Jones 3-17, Brayden Campbell 1-(-1).

Receiving

Buckeye Central: Heath Jensin 4-111, Jack Phillips 4-20, Gabe Bellamy 1-20, Isaac Hiler 1-11, Dom Dean 1-10; Bucyrus: Kam Lewis 3-36,Christian Neal 3-24, Trevor Kirgis 1-9, Tyricus Cosey 1-6, Blayne Barto 3-1. Blayne Barto 3-19.

Team statistics

BC                B

First downs                   18                 15

Rushing                      26-195        38-175

Passes                         11-18-0        11-29-2

Yards passing              172               76

Total yards                   367             251

Fumbles-lost                2-1             1-0

Punts-Avg                1-39.0         2-28.5

Penalties                    9-95             4-40