BUCYRUS — With the loss of key players to graduation last year, Bucyrus coach Tim Plumley had some questions marks coming into this season.
Plumley had some of those questions answered Friday night.
Malachi Bayless passed for 333 yards and five touchdowns and ran for another to lead the Redmen to a 48-20 win over Mississinawa Valley.
But it wasn’t as easy as the final score might seem to indicate.
“They came out and kind of punched us in the mouth,” Plumley said. “They have some good players. They don’t have a lot of depth, but they’re a good team.”
The Blackhawks forced a 3-and-out on the Redmen to start the game, then promptly drove 76 yards in just five plays for a touchdown. The score came on a 59-yard run by quarterback Chastan Daniels.
Bucyrus responded with a 47-yard drive capped by a 14-yard pass from Bayless to Joe Rager to make it 7-6, Redmen.
Mississinawa Valley took its last lead at 13-7 on an 8-yard run by Pierce Daniels. Bucyrus took the lead for good — 20-13 — on a Bayless-to-Blayne Barto 9-yard scoring pass early in the second quarter.
Bayless threw for 219 of his yards in the first half, thanks in part to good protection from his offensive line, which was one of the questions coming into the game.
“The offensive line did a nice job,” Plumley said. “We kind of challenged them. (The Blackhawks) stacked the box and challenged us to throw it. But we ran the ball well later.”
Bayless tacked on scoring passes of 27-yards to Randy Banks and 24 to Barto to expand the Redmen lead to 27-13 at halftime.
Mississinawa Valley went 61 yards on the opening drive of the second half, capped by a one-yard run by Dylan Wehrkamp to cut the deficit to 27-20. But that was the only score of the second half for the Blackhawks.
The Bucyrus running game took over in the second half. Barto finished the game with 145 yards on 20 carries. The Redmen piled up 475 yards of total offense.
“We were hopeful we’d have him back for Week 1 because he had an injury,” Plumley said. “I’ve been waiting to see Blayne. I have tremendous confidence in his ability.”
Barto rushed for a score — a two-yard run in the fourth quarter — to go with his two receiving touchdowns.
Banks was the recipient for a second score on a 15-yard pass in the third quarter and Bayless ran in from five yards in the fourth period.
Penalties, especially false starts, plagued the Redmen, in the first half.
“We’ve got to clean those up,” Plumley said. “We overcame that tonight but, in our league, we won’t.”
Bayless was good on 22 of his 32 pass attempts for his 333 yards. Banks had seven catches for 96 yards and two scores. Kam Lewis had five catches for 83 yards.
Chastan Daniels completed 14 of 25 passes for 221 yards with an interception and rushed for 73 more on 13 carries.
“We are really happy with how hard the kids played,” Plumley said. “We made a lot of mistakes. We played better as the game went on.”
The coach is looking for improvement from the whole team moving forward.
“The challenge now is for all of us to keep progressing each day,” Plumley said. “Practice matters. Monday matters as much as Friday. No one keeps track of Monday, but it matters in the result.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Miss. Valley 13 0 7 0 — 20
Bucyrus 7 20 6 15 — 48
Scoring summary
First quarter
MV — Chastan Daniels 59 run (pass failed), 8:21
B — Joe Rager 14 pass from Malachi Bayless (Ethan Huff kick), 5:42.
MV — Pierce Daniels 3 run (Drew Anguiano kick), 3:21.
Second quarter
B — Blayne Barto 9 pass from Bayless (Huff kick), 11:26.
B — Randy Banks 27 pass from Bayless (pass failed), 3:10.
B — Barto 24 pass from Bayless (Huff kick), :57.
Third quarter
MV — Dylan Wehrkamp 1 run (Anguiano kick), 4:32.
B — Banks 15 pass from Bayless (kick blocked), 1:33.
Fourth quarter
B — Bayless 5 run (Bayless run), 9:39.
B — Barto 2 run (Huff kick), 7:06.
Individual statistics
Passing
Mississinawa Valley: Chastan Daniels 14-25-1 221, Dylan Wehrkamp 1-1-0 4; Bucyrus: Malachi Bayless 22-32-0 308.
Rushing
Mississinawa Valley Chastan Daniels 13-73, Pierce Daniels 5-16, Dylan Wehrkamp 2-7, Kaden Mote 4-1, Trenton Holden 1-(-7); Bucyrus: Blayne Barto 20-145, Malachi Bayless 6-12, Randy Banks 1-(-4), Mason Gebhardt 1-0, Chris Neal 3-(-13).
Receiving
Mississinawa Valley: Matt Pisano 4-107, Dylan Wehrkamp 6-67, Drew Anguiano 2-39, Jake Loy 3-12; Bucyrus Randy Banks 7-96, Kam Lewis 5-83, Blayne Barto 3-48, Joe Rager 3-39, Dalton Barker 1-28, Mason Gebhardt 3-39.
Team statistics
MV B
First downs 9 20
Rushing 25-90 31-142
Passes 15-26-1 22-32-0
Yards passing 225 333
Total yards 315 475
Fumbles-lost 5-1 1-1
Punts-Avg 4-33.5 3-35.7
Penalties 6-40 9-55