BUCYRUS — Colonel Crawford and Bucyrus have been at the opposite ends of the football spectrum for the past few years.
But for a brief time Friday night, the Redmen seemed ready to go toe-to-toe with the Eagles.
Bucyrus scored first on its opening drive which included a 33-yard pass, and a 33-yard touchdown run.
The Redmen could not sustain the early momentum, however, to the dismay of Homecoming Queen Grace Jackson and King Jake Green.
Conner McMichael scored six touchdowns — four on the ground and two through the air — as Colonel Crawford ended up running away with a 58-6 Northern 10 Athletic Conference win.
“We’re behind in numbers, we’re behind in the way our roster looks, and the way things have gone on around here lately,” Bucyrus coach Jon Butchko said. “We just challenged them to play hard. I thought for the first 2 to 2-and-a-half quarters we did that.”
Bucyrus (0-6, 0-3) struck first on Demaris Munn-Page’s 33-yard scoring run. It was set up by a 33-yard strike from Dylan Coppler to Christian Neal.
Colonel Crawford (5-1, 2-1 N10) was poised to take the lead, but the Redmen held on downs at their own 13-yard line. However, an interception set the Eagles right back up the Bucyrus 17 and McMichael wasted no time, scoring his first TD on a 17-yard run for an 8-6 CC advantage.
McMichael added a seven-yard run later in the first period for a 15-6 lead and a 35-yard scamper early in the second quarter to make it 22-6.
“First of all, give Bucyrus credit,” Colonel Crawford coach Jake Bruner said. “I told their kids afterwards that Coach Butchko is doing a great job there. Their kids played awful hard.
“We knew the Munn-Page kid was really good. I told Dylan Coppler he’s a much more physical runner and defensive player now. He threw the ball well tonight. They have a lot of kids coming.”
After forcing another turnover on downs, the Redmen looked like they could head to halftime trailing by only two scores. But McMichael struck again grabbing an 11-yard scoring pass from Peyton Baker with just 31 seconds left to intermission to give the Eagles a 30-6 bulge.
“Their depth wears you down and they’re able to put together depth for four quarters and we’re not,” Butchko said. “We tried to take some snaps out of the game and make it a (16-point) game going into halftime. We were really close to having a nice stop going into the half.”
Even though the Eagles fumbled on the first play from scrimmage in the second half, the defense turned Bucyrus over on downs. From there, McMichael pulled in a 39-yard pass from Brayden Holt to give Colonel Crawford a 37-6 lead and a running clock.
“Conner is a gifted player,” Bruner said of his junior running back. “He does some great things, and we forget sometimes all the little things he does.”
“He’s a heck of a football player,” Butchko said of McMichael. “He came in averaging 13 yards per carry. He’s a good back. They’ve got some good pieces.”
McMichael added a 40-yard scoring run, Dom Dean ran in from 24 yards and Roen Thew added a 17-yard score late to set the final score.
McMichael ended rushing for 165 yards on 14 carries and caught three passes for 57 yards to account for 222 yards of the Eagles’ 427 total.
Dean had 85 yards on seven totes. Baker and Holt combined to throw for 105 yards on six of 11 passing attempts.
Coppler was six of 13 for 99 yards passing. Munn-Page rushed for 66 yards and caught two passes for 59 yards. Neal had two receptions for 37 yards.
“Anytime you’re playing a cross-town rival, and the rain makes it different for both teams,” Bruner said of the early closeness of the game. “It was good for us to be in a little bit of a battle.”
“We have got to put four quarters together,” Butchko said. “We’ve got to knock off the silliness after the play and the outside of football stuff. You can only improve so much when that stuff goes on.”
“Talking to Coach Butchko in the offseason, I thought this was a tough year for Bucyrus to get through,” Bruner said. “It says a lot about the (Jake) Green kid, being the only senior. I thought he played really hard tonight. The future’s bright for the Redmen. They just have to be patient.
“I put in a lot of time here,” he added, having coached at Bucyrus before he went to Colonel Crawford. “I want them to go 9-1 and just lose to us.”
“We made some plays early on and we chunked some yardage off of them,” Butchko said. “That’s what we hope we can become. We show flashes of brilliance. It shows what is possible.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Colonel Crawford 15 15 14 14 — 58
Bucyrus 6 0 0 0 — 6
Scoring summary
First quarter
B — Demaris Munn-Page 33 run (pass failed), 9:57.
CC — Conner McMichael 17 run (Lucas Foy run), 4:54.
CC — McMichael 7 run, (Joseph Zizzo kick), 2:15.
Second quarter
CC — McMichael 35 run (Zizzo kick), 9:55.
CC — McMichael 11 pass from Peyton Baker (Dom Dean run), :31.
Third quarter
CC — McMichael 39 pass from Brayden Holt (Zizzo kick), 7:45.
CC — McMichael 40 run (Zizzo kick), 3:15.
Fourth quarter
CC — Dean 24 run (Zizzo kick), 6:15.
CC — Roen Thew 17 run (Zizzo kick), 1:18.
Individual statistics
Passing
Colonel Crawford: Peyton Baker 5-6-0 66, Brayden Holt 1-4-0 39, Dom Dean 1-1-0 0; Bucyrus: Dylan Coppler 6-13-1 99.
Rushing
Colonel Crawford: Conner McMichael 11-165, Dom Dean 7-85, Roen Thew 6-45, Brayden Holt 3-16, Peyton Baker 2-10, Avery Powers 1-1; Bucyrus: Demaris Munn-Page 16-66, Wyatt Makeever 1-(-1), Dylan Coppler 10-(-5).
Receiving
Colonel Crawford: Conner McMichael 3-57, Dom Dean 1-23, Lucas Foy 1-14, Kaden Bruner 1-11; Bucyrus: Demaris Munn-Page 2-59, Christian Neal 2-37, Jake Green 1-2, DeShawn Cosey 1-1.
Team statistics
CC B
First downs 12 5
Rushing 31-322 27-60
Passes 6-11-0 6-13-1
Yards passing 105 99
Total yards 427 159
Fumbles-lost 1-1 5-2
Punts-Avg 0-00.0 3-26.3
Penalties 7-55 6-55