NEW WASHINGTON — Upper Sandusky¹s Northern 10 Athletic Conference-leading passing offense has been a major highlight at the midpoint of the high
school football season, but it was one huge play by the Rams’ defense that
helped propel them to a 27-16 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory over Buckeye Central on Friday at Buckeye Central.

With Buckeye Central leading 16-14 and just over five minutes remaining in
the game, the Bucks chose to go for it on fourth-and-1 on their own 25 yard
line. The Upper Sandusky defense rose to the occasion and stuffed Buckeye
Central quarterback Derex Dean at the line of scrimmage for a turnover on
downs.

“It was a team stop,” Upper Sandusky coach Russell Hall said. “To get to
that point, all three levels, the linebackers, the secondary, the D-line on
that fourth down to get that penetration to stop the quarterback there. That
was just fantastic.”

Three plays later, Upper Sandusky (3-3, 2-1 N10) took back the lead on a
7-yard rushing touchdown by Carson Barrows.

“We were ahead, and the loss is on me,” Buckeye Central coach Chad Jensen
said. “I should have punted it on fourth-and-1 and made them drive the
length of the field. It’s on me, not on (my players). They did everything we
asked them to do. We played terrible last week against Wynford. They came
back and had their best week of practice. They played their hearts out and
this one¹s on me.”

Leading 20-16, the Rams forced Buckeye Central (2-4, 0-3 N10) to punt on its
next possession. With about three minutes remaining in the game, Upper
Sandusky looked like it was going to go three-and-out, giving Buckeye
Central the ball back with one last chance to win the game.

Instead, on third-and-8, Upper Sandusky quarterback Kaden Holman floated a
pass over the Buckeye Central secondary into the arms of Brayden Chester,
who waltzed into the end zone for a 41-yard passing score.

“Coach (Seth) Fitzgerald is always watching film and seeing stuff, keeping
track when we¹re running plays that set up plays like that down the road,”
Hall said. “That was there because of some of the routes that we had ran
earlier and they didn¹t go to Brayden there. Then on this one, we did. It
was a great job by coach Fitz to make that call. We were hoping for at least
a first down and it turned into a touchdown. That was a big play.”

The Rams intercepted Dean two plays later to seal the victory.
In the first half, it looked like Upper Sandusky was going to run away with
the game. The Rams drove nearly the length of the field in 20 plays,
finishing the drive with a 1-yard run by Holman to take a 7-0
lead.
Two drives later, the Rams extended their lead to 14-0 on an eight-play,
77-yard drive that was capped off by another rushing score by Holman, this
time for six yards.

Upper Sandusky forced a quick three-and-out by Buckeye Central and got the
ball back near midfield with about 90 seconds remaining in the half, but the
Rams fumbled the ball on the first play of the possession and the Bucks took
over at the Upper Sandusky 43-yard line.

Four plays later, Buckeye Central closed the gap to 14-8 when Dean found
Manny Mullins for a 23-yard passing touchdown and also completed the 2-point conversion.

“It’s a great learning opportunity,” Hall said. “No one ever plays a perfect
game. I played football from junior high, high school and four years of
college, and I never had a perfect game. We look and learn as coaches, as
players, what we do there and what we should do next time. That was a huge
momentum switch for (Buckeye Central).”

In the second half, both Upper Sandusky and Buckeye Central drove into the
opposing team’s red zones in the third quarter, but both teams came up empty
by throwing interceptions. Dean was picked off by Evan Hill for a touchback,
and on Upper Sandusky’s next drive, Holman was picked off by Mullins at the
goal line and Mullins returned it 32 yards.

The Bucks then marched 68 yards down the field and took their first lead
on a 4-yard run by Mullins. Dean called his own number to rush
in the 2-point conversion and give the Bucks a 16-14 lead.

Hall said he was proud of the way his players responded to the adversity,
scoring the game’s final 13 points.

“To come back and say, ‘Oh no, we’re not done. We’re gonna keep going,’ that
was huge,” Hall said. “We kept attacking and attacking. We were calm, cool
and collected. We focused on our job, execution on offense, defense, special
teams. We just did a great job there to finish. It feels good to win.”

Upper Sandusky entered the game with Holman leading all N10 quarterbacks at over 1,200 yards passing on the season, but Buckeye Central forced three
Rams turnovers, including two interceptions of Holman.

“Our defensive coaches had a great game plan this week and our kids
implemented it,” Jensen said. “Last week was a complete disaster and our
kids came back this week and came to work. They implemented changes. If you make mistakes, fix it in practice and they did. The defensive game plan was magnificent. The kids did a great job. Holman had 1,200 yards coming into this game throwing the football and they’re Division IV athletes and our
kids played their guts out.”

Hall credited Buckeye Central¹s defensive game plan as well, but said he was
most proud of the effort from his players, especially after some of them had
been challenged by the coaching staff to step up after giving up over 500
rushing yards the previous week in a loss to Colonel Crawford.

“Our effort was fantastic,” Hall said. “All week, there was a couple guys
where the week before, they didn¹t perform as well as we know they can and
they know they can. Several of them were kinda challenged. You’ve got to
prove it, show it, nothing¹s free, and they had a great week of practices
and they all had great performances tonight. It was good to see us step up
and good to see us back in the win column and back at .500.”

Next up, Upper Sandusky hosts N10 rival Carey at 7 p.m. Friday for its
homecoming game.

Box score

Score by quarters

Upper Sandusky    0    14    0    13  — 27
Buckeye Central    0       8    0      8  — 16
Second quarter
US — Holman 1-yard run (Navichoque kick) 11:53.
US — Holman 6-yard run (Navichoque kick) 2:19.
BC — De. Dean 23-yard pass to Mullins (De. Dean pass to Da. Dean) 0:15.
Fourth quarter
BC — Mullins 4-yard run (De. Dean run) 8:59.
US — Barrows 7-yard run (pass failed) 4:27.
US — Holman 41-yard pass to Chester (Navichoque kick) 2:56.
Individual statistics
Passing
Upper Sandusky: Holman 24-30-2 311.
Buckeye Central: De. Dean 11-27-2 123.
Rushing
Upper Sandusky: Barrows 13-47, Holman 7-18, Hale 4-4, Gallant
2-1, Lamb 1-0, Gav. Frey 1-(minus 11).
Buckeye Central: Rowlinson 17-81, Mullins 8-38, De. Dean 7-(minus 9).
Receiving
Upper Sandusky: Chester 6-116, Gav. Frey 7-97, Hill 5-53, Sheaffer
5-42, Lamb 1-2.
Buckeye Central: Mullins 5-61, Da. Dean 5-46, Sostakowski 1-14.
Team statistics
US               BC
First downs                         20               17
Yards rushing                  28-59       32-110
Yards passing                    311             123
Passes                                24-30-2       11-27-2
Fumbles-lost                       1-1                1-0
Punts                                   2-37.5          5-29.0
Penalties                              9-85              6-55