HOLMES TOWNSHIP — The Copper Kettle’s frequent flyer miles expired years ago.
Nothing changed Friday night, as the Kettle remained in Wynford’s trophy case for another year with the Royals’ 49-22 win over Bucyrus, in the 49th renewal of the backyard rivalry.
“We kept the kettle and that makes the kids happy,” Wynford coach Cyle Skidmore said. “I’m proud of my kids and how they played.”
Wynford (2-6, 1-4) took control early, scoring the first 28 points of the game through the opening 14:20 of the game. Quarterback Brayden Campbell ran for one score and passed for another, before Bryce Locker (46 yards) and Deegan Lutz (30 yards) ran in for scores.
Playing from behind in nothing new for the Redmen.
“We do that to ourselves week in and week out,” Bucyrus coach Jon Butchko said. “I don’t know what else we can do to prepare. We prepared a completely different way than we have before.”
Injuries continue to thin an already shallow Redmen roster. Add dropped passes, missed blocks, and missed tackles and the formula is set. On this night, uneven officiating was also a factor.
Bucyrus (1-7, 0-5) finally got on the board. Freshman quarterback Isaac Makeever connected with Christian Neal on a three-yard pass and Makeever ran in the conversion to make it 28-8 with 2:28 left in the first half.
On the ensuing kickoff, Royals lineman Conner Stiltner bobbled the short kick but secured possession and ran 64 yards down the right sideline for the score and a 35-8 Wynford lead at halftime.
The Royals had rushed for 196 yards on 22 carries by intermission and had thrown the ball just three times, which is Wynford’s bread and butter.
“We try to establish the ground game,” Skidmore said. “If it’s working, why stop? We just continue to grow in that and get our guys in the right spot to make plays.”
Bucyrus turned the ball over on downs twice in Royals territory in the first half — at the 34 and 32.
The Redmen looked to get back in the game when Wyatt Makeever ran for 37 yards to paydirt with 8:33 left in the third to pull within 35-14. After recovering the kickoff that followed, Bucyrus got as close as the Wynford 35 before turning it over on downs at the 40.
“Starting out, spotting everybody a couple of touchdowns, that’s hard to (overcome) when your roster looks the way ours does,” Butchko said. “We probably lost a couple guys for the season tonight. Our kicker’s nicked up, (Dylan) Coppler’s nicked up, (Da’Shawn) Cosey’s nicked up. We’re going to be playing some different people now.”
Three minutes later, Campbell ran in his second touchdown to bump the score to 42-14. The Redmen responded with a 19-play, 67-yard drive, but the Royals denied them the touchdown at the one yard line, taking over on downs.
The Royals then moved quickly down the field, going 99 yards on just five plays capped by a 29-yard Campbell-to-Jake Stover scoring strike for a 49-14 lead.
The Redmen added one final score, going 74 yards, with Wyatt Makeever finishing the scoring march on a two-yard run.
Locker led Wynford with 171 yards rushing on 18 carries and a touchdown. Lutz added 73 yards on eight tries with a score. Campbell threw only six passes, completing four for two touchdowns.
“Bryce is a great player for us,” Skidmore said. “He can do some special things on the football field. — a good leader. He’s an outstanding kid.”
For Bucyrus, Isaac Makeever had 117 yards rushing on 26 carries and was 16 of 46 passing for 196 yards and a score with one interception. Wyatt Makeever finished with 55 yards on the ground on 11 totes and two touchdowns. Neal grabbed eight balls for 114 yards and a touchdown and Paten Deskins had three receptions for 41 yards. The Redmen held a slight 368-358 edge in total offense.
“We’re a volume team. We try to do things by volume,” Butchko said. “A lot of balls go to guys on the outside. We try to throw to the running backs., we like to throw to the tight ends. You’re going to have drops.”
“At the end of the day, I think everyone’s doubted this group when it came to this game,” Skidmore said. “We had our doubters. That just gave our kids fuel and fire. Our kids used that as an advantage in the first half and took control of the game.”
“It’s been tough all year,” Butchko said. “It started on the third play of the year (when Demaris Munn-Page was lost for the season at North Baltimore) and it’s just continued to mount and continued to have us play a different roster.
“I’m not in the way of making excuses,” Butchko added. “I’m going to compete and get whatever our roster looks like ready to go play Seneca East and go play Carey in weeks nine and ten.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Bucyrus 0 8 6 8 — 22
Wynford 14 21 7 7 — 49
Scoring summary
First quarter
W — Brayden Campbell 3 run (Victor Arellano kick), 7:44.
W — Gage Massey 6 pass from Campbell (Arellano kick), :17.
Second quarter
W — Bryce Locker 46 run (Arellano kick), 11:16.
W — Deegan Lutz 30 run (Arellano kick), 9:40.
B — Christian Neal 3 pass from Isaac Makeever (Makeever run), 2:28
W — Conner Stiltner 64 kickoff return (Arellano kick), 2;19.
Third quarter
B — Wyatt Makeever 37 run (pass failed), 8:33.
W — Campbell 23 run (Arellano kick), 5:10.
Fourth quarter
W — Jake Stover 29 pass from Campbell (Arellano kick), 8:03.
B — Wyatt Makeever 2 run (Paten Deskins pass from Isaac Makeever), :31.
Individual statistics
Passing
Bucyrus: Isaac Makeever 16-46-1 196; Dylan Coppler 0-1-0 0; Brayden Campbell 4-6-0 81.
Rushing
Bucyrus: Isaac Makeever 26-117, Wyatt Makeever 11-55; Wynford: Bryce Locker 18-171, Deegan Lutz 8-73, Brayden Campbell 5-33.
Receiving
Bucyrus: Christian Neal 8-114, Paten Deskins 3-41, Da’Shawn Cosey 3-26, Charlie Randall 1-10, Wyatt Makeever 1-5.
Team statistics
B W
First downs 21 12
Rushing 37-172 31-277
Passes 16-47-1 4-6-0
Yards passing 196 81
Total yards 368 358
Fumbles-lost 3-0 2-2
Punts-Avg 3-27.0 1-30.0
Penalties 17-130 8-65