H.S. Football: Buckeye gets past Valley Forge

YORK TWP. — The Cardiac Bucks pulled another rabbit out of their hats Friday in a Great Lakes Conference East Division showdown with Valley Forge. Troy McCann scored on a bulldozing 3-yard run with 44 seconds left in the game and Gage Nagy hauled in the two-point conversion pass from Casey Murray to give Buckeye a big 29-23 win. How the Bucks (4-1, 1-0) found themselves in position to win against the Patriots (3-2, 0-1) involved a little bit of luck, a little bit of defense and tons of clutch. Buckeye led 21-20 midway through the fourth quarter behind a monster all-around night from Zach Onorati. The 5-foot-11, 167-pound WR/DB/kick returner played a huge role in the Bucks' first three touchdowns. Onorati (6 receptions, 129 yards) returned the opening kickoff 50 yards, then hauled in a 41-yard play-action pass from Murray (11-of-16, 181 yards) on the first play from scrimmage to give Buckeye a 7-0 lead. After Shane Warden (24 carries, 166 yards, 2 TDs) evened the game at 7, Onorati returned the ensuing kickoff 86 yards to the Patriots 2-yard line to set up McCann's (23 carries, 105 yards, 3 TDs) first score. For good measure, Onorati returned a punt 43 yards to the Valley Forge 25 to set up an 18-yard scoring run from McCann, giving Buckeye a 21-7 lead with 8:32 left in the first half. "I have to say that last year I had great role models going into the season," Onorati said. "I had Michael McGivern and Kaymen Marshall. It was so good for me to have them as teammates because it humbled me and made me want to study them and be more like them. They had some big return touchdowns late in games. I wanted to be like them, and I came out here and did my best." Following his third big return of the night, the Patriots made sure Onorati didn't have a chance in the return game the rest of the night, squibbing the ball and attempting a pair of onside kicks. Onorati finished with 327 all-purpose yards and more importantly made two monster catches on the Bucks' game-winning drive. Murray connected with Onorati for 12 yards on fourth-and-11 at midfield and again for 25 yards on fourth-and-4, taking the ball to the Valley Forge 7-yard line. "I think we played phenomenal," Onorati said. "Our defense is still a little rusty, but we are working on that. We're getting better with that. On offense we're fantastic. The way we respond to bad plays is we keep coming. We never seem to fold. If a bad play happens, we pick each other up and we go make another play." McCann pounded out the last 7 yards on a pair of bruising runs. It was the second game the Bucks won with a final possession score. The first was a 29-28 victory Cloverleaf in the season opener. It also was the third time the offense came up huge, including a wild 67-54 win against Copley. "Obviously having done it before it takes a little bit of the pressure off," Murray said. "The pressure is still huge. It was our homecoming game, and to convert two big fourth downs on the final drive, that takes big guts." Nagy sealed the win for Buckeye when he picked off Dan Kiewel (2-of-7 passing, 30 yards, INT) with 19 seconds left. "We call it 'Green'," Nagy said. "It's one of our coverages. I saw the QB cock back and look right, so I ran a little bit to the left side, like a little cut, and I just jumped and grabbed it. I said, 'We have the game in my hands.'" After building the early 21-7 lead the Bucks had to fend off the Patriots' wing-T offensive attack and overcome four sacks of Murray and four big holding calls that put them behind the chains. With Warden and Ben Farson (15 carries, 113, TD) leading the way, the Patriots had 331 yards on the ground on 52 attempts. While the Patriots had things rolling on the ground, the Bucks had a hard time running most of the night, with 60 of their yards coming on three McCann runs. "I think when you keep running the same plays, they are bringing everyone in the box," McCann said. "But that opens up the passing game really well." Valley Forge seemed to have the Bucks on their heels on a 16-play, 72-yard drive that ate 7:45 off the clock spanning the third and fourth quarters. The Patriots converted two fourth downs on the drive but settled for a 35-yard field goal on fourth-and-4 from the Buckeye 18. It was then that things went from wild to insane. Buckeye came up inches short on a fourth-and-9 pass from Murray to Nick Smith on its next possession and gave the ball back to Valley Forge at the Patriots 49. That possession had the Patriots lining up to go for it on fourth-and-2 at the Buckeye 43, but a false start forced a punt. Riley Hein missed an uncovered Patriots player who easily would have picked up a first down, then shanked the ball off his foot for a 9-yard punt to the Bucks 39 to set up Buckeye's game-winning drive. Contact Chad Grant at sports@medina-gazette.com.