NEW WASHINGTON (Crawford County Now) — A smash-mouth gameplan worked to perfection for host Buckeye Central here Friday night.

The Bucks ran the ball 52 times for 240 yards and controlled Crestline for a 35-7 non-league victory over its county rival.

“I really stressed here that week one is about special teams, turnovers and penalties. Special teams recovered a fumble and forced some turnovers and weren’t overly penalized,” said Bucks head coach Jordan Phillips.

“Our run game really controlled the game.”

Indeed it did. Chance Hawley (78 yards), Austin Bogner (71 yards) and Madden Alt (64 yards) set the tone behind a big, physical offensive line.

“You’ve got to just do your job up front, doing your blocks and it’ll lead you there,” said sophomore tackle Hayden Hafner.

“We knew what to prep for and we did our job,” added Dylan Heydinger, a 260-pound veteran on both sides of the line who was D-VII all district honorable mention last season.

“It doesn’t matter about skill. We have heart and we keep fighting.”

Crestline actually struck first on a perfectly thrown pass from Kody Lawhorn to Weston Clark covering 64 yards. The 7-0 lead was all the visitors would get, however, as the Bucks ran 56 plays to their 27.

Bulldogs head coach Hastings Robinette agreed.

“The two most important things in high school football are running the football and stopping the run, and we didn’t do either of them well,” he said.

“They ran it down our throats and we didn’t have an answer. We couldn’t establish the run ourselves, and that’s a recipe for disaster right there.”

The ‘dogs ran the ball 13 times netting just 25 yards.

Buckeye Central got its ground and pound game going with Hawley tying the game on a 14-yard run off tackle on third and nine. Nash Rose’s first of five extra-point kicks tied the game at 7-7.

Two more scores — Collin Perry’s 8-yard run and a Conner Presler 7-yard TD pass from Owen Hatten, along with a Hafner fumble recovery to end the first half — put the Bucks ahead 21-7.

Perry and Alt iced the cake with fourth-quarter touchdown runs to give BC the victory heading into next week’s game at South Central.

Louie Rietschlin made several key defensive plays, as did Jackson Earnest whose interception in the second quarter set up the Presler score.

Colt Rawlins had a pick for the Bulldogs to thwart a third-quarter BC drive. Freshman defensive lineman Kaleb Silverwood had several tackles for loss.

“After that first touchdown we couldn’t get a rhythm going. I think we only had two possessions in the second half,” Robinette said.

“We need to get together and watch film and get better. We have to figure out why we can’t run the ball first off. We try to be as close to 50/50 as we can be. Tonight, we were 80/20, if not worse. We’ve got the weapons, but we need to come together as a team and be a true family unit.”

Entering his third season, Robinette has changed the culture with 5-5 seasons after rather dismal showings prior to his arrival.

“I think the numbers show that. Our numbers are up. But I’m over being .500, that’s a starting point, that’s average. We want to get above that,” he said.

Crestline travels to Ashland Crestview Friday night.

Phillips also knows the road gets tougher when the Northern 10 Athletic Conference season starts at Mohawk Sept. 4.

“They executed the game plan at a high level, they communicated and fought for all 48 minutes,” he said.

“It’s a better schedule this year with Lucas, Willard and Calvert. We added a lot of D-VII’s to our schedule. We don’t play Crawford. We don’t play Carey or Seneca East. We still need to show up and get better.”

Box score

Score by quarters

Crestline                   7          0          0         0 — 7

Buckeye Central      7        14          0       14   —35

Scoring summary

First quarter

C — Weston Clark 64 pass from Kody Lawhorn (Colten Keller kick), 5:13.

BC — Chance Hawley 14 run (Nash Rose kick), :31.

Second quarter

BC — Collin Perry 8 run (Rose kick), 6:30.

BC — Conner Presler 7 pass from Owen Hatten (Rose kick), 1:35.

Fourth quarter

BC — Perry 15 run (Rose kick), 11:18.

BC — Madden Alt 19 run (Rose kick), 3:45.

Individual statistics

Passing

Crestline: Kody Lawhorn 8-14-1 122; Buckeye Central: Owen Hatten 3-4-1 31.

Rushing

Crestline: Quentin Kapp 6-18, Kody Lawhorn 3-10, Colt Rawlins 2-1, Colten Keller 1-1, Ramon Hawk 1-(-5); Buckeye Central: Chance Hawley 12-78, Austin Bogner 15-71, Madden Alt 13-64, Collin Perry 3-19, Hayden Hafner 1-7, Jackson Earnest 2-1, Grant Bogner 2-(-2).

Receiving

Crestline: Weston Clark 2-72, Ramon Hawk 3-21, Colten Keller 2-19, Quentin Kapp 1-10; Buckeye Central: Lane Caudill 1-24, Conner Presler 1-7, Collin Perry 1-0.

Team statistics

C               BC

First downs                    4                11

Rushing                     13-25         52-240

Passes                         8-14-1         3-4-1

Yards passing             122                31

Total yards                  147              271

Fumbles-lost               2-1               1-0

Punts                           4-32.5        2-30.5

Penalties                     3-30            3-14