BUCYRUS — The Bucyrus defense has been solid all year. The offense was looking for a spark.
The Redmen offense found that spark Friday night and it ignited an explosion.
Bucyrus racked up 429 yards of total offense and scored eight touchdowns to roll past Buckeye Central, 53-6, in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game, to the delight of Queen Jordie Whitmore and a homecoming crowd at the Bucyrus Athletic Complex.
“We felt coming in that we could move the ball,” Redmen coach Matt Makeever said. “The kids came out and took care of business.”
On their first possession, the Redmen used a 10-play, 63-yard march capped by a 1-yard plunge from quarterback Ben Seibert to make it 7-0. It set the tone for the night.
On the other side, the defense — a Bucyrus staple so far this season — completely stymied the Bucks’ offense, allowing only 21 yards of net offense in the first half.
“We knew they were really good on defense and my credit’s off to those guys,” Buckeye Central coach Chad Jensen said. “They really played hard on defense and they gave us a lot of problems.”
In the meantime, the Redmen offense did not take its foot off the accelerator. Andrew Pifer intercepted a pass to set up the second score. Despite two penalties, Seibert connected with Jaylen Zehner on a 10-yard slant to make it 14-0 after one.
“The officials called it tight. They were real calls, they were,” Makeever said. “But there are things that are sometimes not called, so our kids adjusted and played the way the officials officiated.”
A bad snap on a punt by Buckeye Central (0-6, 0-3 N10) gave Bucyrus (3-3, 2-1) the ball at the BC 11. Devon Newland took it to the house on the first play — the first of two scores for Newland — and the rout was on at 20-0.
The Redmen tacked on a 3-yard run by Seibert and a Seibert-to-Zehner 11-yard strike to take the score to 33-0 at halftime.
So suffocating was the Bucyrus defense in the first half, Buckeye Central did not pass midfield.
“They knew we wanted to run the ball and we tried to do it out of different formations,” Jensen said. “But it didn’t matter. They just out-physicalled us.”
The Redmen particularly zeroed in on running back Jacob Maxhimer, who had 100-yard rushing efforts each of the past two weeks.
“That running back, No. 48, we respected him a lot,” Makeever said. “I’m really proud of what we did against him and that offense. (Maxhimer) ran well last week against Upper Sandusky.”
Bucyrus’ 3-5 defensive set seemed to befuddle the Bucks’ offense, controlling the running game while not allowing time for quarterback Aiden McDougal to look downfield.
“That’s a perfect defense for their personnel,” Jensen said. “Sometimes people run that defense and they don’t have the personnel to do it. Bucyrus has great personnel to do it. They’ve got five linebackers that flow to the ball well and are very aggressive and attack and can cover too.
“I thought we were prepared for it,” Jensen continued. “But they took it to us by being really aggressive, more aggressive than we were.”
Newland scored his second TD for the Redmen on the first play of the second half on a 73-yard ramble. Backup quarterback Trevor Ley hit Hastin Zier with a 33-yard pass at 10:12 of the fourth quarter to make it 47-0.
Buckeye Central got on the board with an 11-play, 65-yard drive, completed on a 1-yard run by Brady Kerschner. The Redmen got a final score on a 28-yard run from Eddie Dagher to set the final score.
Seibert was an efficient nine of 13 passing for 149 yards and two scores to lead Bucyrus. Zier caught four passes for 117 yards and a score. Zehner grabbed four balls for 56 yards and two touchdowns and Newland ran six times for 96 yards and two scores.
Maxhimer finished with 61 yards on 19 carries for the Bucks and Gage Herring had 38 yards on six tries. McDougal was limited to one net yard passing, completing just three of nine throws and was intercepted twice.
“Aiden didn’t have time to throw the ball,” Jensen said. “We had a couple of drops in there as well and that didn’t help. He’s young and we have some things fundamentally we will fix with him. But he’s a fighter and he gave 100 percent effort.”
“I saw Buckeye Central on film and I saw a team that did not quit,” Makeever said. “I think their coach is doing a good job.”
“We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot,” Jensen said. “We kind of went back to some bad habits. We’ve got to come out next week with better intensity.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Bucyrus 14 19 7 13 — 53
Buckeye Central 0 0 0 6 — 6
Scoring summary
First quarter
B — Lincoln Mollenkopf 1 run (Tyler Bishop kick), 6:49.
B — Jaylen Zehner 10 pass from Ben Seibert (Bishop kick), :02.
Second quarter
B — Devon Newland 11 run (Bishop kick), 5:50.
B — Seibert 3 run (kick failed), 3:46.
B — Zehner 11 pass from Seibert (kick failed), 2:01
Third quarter
B — Newland 73 run (Bishop kick), 10:59.
Fourth quarter
B — Hastin Zier 33 pass from Trevor Ley (Ethan Huff kick), 10:12.
BC — Brady Kerschner 1 run (run failed), 4:23.
B — Eddie Dagher 28 run (kick failed), :17.
Individual statistics
Passing
Buckeye Central: Aiden McDougal 3-9-2 1.
Bucyrus: Ben Seibert 9-13-0 149; Trevor Ley 2-2 0 52.
Rushing
Buckeye Central: Jacob Maxhimer 19-61, Gage Herring 6-38, Eli Smith 4-25, Brady Kerschner 1-1, Aiden McDougal 8-(-4).
Bucyrus: Devon Newland 6-96, Eddie Dagher 4-52, Seibert 10-30, Lincoln Mollenkopf 3-22, Dillon Downing 1-15, Braxton Lewis 2-24.
Receiving
Buckeye Central: Kerschner 2-9, Jake Heefner 1-(-8).
Bucyrus: Hastin Zier 4-117, Jaylen Zehner 5-56, Matt Anderson 1-17, Mollenkopf 1-11.
Team statistics
BC B
First downs 9 16
Rushing 39-114 27-228
Passes 3-9-2 11-15-0
Yards passing 1 201
Total yards 115 429
Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-1
Punts-Avg 1-44.0 4-31.0
Penalties 0-0 6-45