High school football: Buckeye rises to challenge, wallops Normandy in second half

YORK TWP. — The challenge from coach Greg Dennison was blunt: Wake up and show the world how the Buckeye football team really plays. Sleep-walking through a Thursday night Cleveland West Conference game against last-place Normandy, the undefeated Bucks rose to the challenge in the second half of a 42-0 victory that was more competitive than the final score indicated. At least for a half, that is. "I told them they needed to decide what team they wanted to be," Dennison said. "They put themselves in a good spot to now do whatever they want to do. Basically they had to decide if they wanted to be a championship team or if they wanted to be just a 7-3 team. They had to decide, and they had a good response to it. I'm proud of them." Buckeye (8-0, 5-0) led only 14-0 at halftime, and even then the lead was due largely to a defense that dominated field position. The two scoring drives, which ended on a 1- and 3-yard runs by Ryan Wilhelm and Liam Phillips, covered a combined 60 yards after the the Bucks played uninspired, scoreless ball for the opening 19:02. The normally stout running game was bottled up by a fired-up Invaders front, and the passing game wasn't clicking due to a drop, miscommunication and a sack that lost 15 yards. The good news was Buckeye was set to receive the second-half kickoff, allowing Dennison's speech to remain refresh when play resumed. "Our effort, especially up front, we weren't coming off the ball and being physical," Dennison said. "We've had gotten pretty good at that. That's always kind of been our thing." Buckeye dominated from there, scoring a whopping three touchdowns in its first six plays from scrimmage. Phillips went 63 yards to the house on the first snap of the third quarter, Derek Snyderburn caught a 25-yard pass from Turner Dolata on the next play — it was set up by a punt return and Normandy personal foul — and Snyderburn's second touchdown reception, this time from 12 yards, capped a tidy four-play, 92-yard drive that began after defensive end Jacob Snyderburn leaped to break up an Invaders pass on fourth-and-goal. The running clock began with 3:13 left in the period, and Brayden Sopko added a 30-yard touchdown run to cap the scoring. In the second half, Phillips had four carries for 143 yards — he had a 61-yarder that set up Derek's Snyderburn's second TD — to help the Bucks finish with a somewhat misleading 323 yards 33 plays from scrimmage. The Bucks have needed only 33, 28 and 26 plays from scrimmage in victories over Valley Forge (41-20), Westlake (52-16) and the Invaders (1-7, 0-5). They'll need a lot more of them in what could be considered the de facto CWC championship game against pass-happy Rocky River (7-1, 5-0). The Buckeye defense was locked in virtually from the start and allowed just 133 yards overall. Of Normandy's 62 rushing yards, 68 came on a run by Ray Brown that placed the ball on the 3-yard line, but the Bucks held firm and eventually forced a turnover on downs when Jacob Snyderburn batted the ball away. No other Normandy player besides Brown had more than 22 yards from scrimmage, and quarterbacks Jakob Muniak and Jai Ali completed 8-of-14 passes for 71 yards. The Invaders also converted 0-of-8 third downs, lost a fumble to Wilhelm on their own 12-yard line and endured 11 tackles for loss thanks to guys like Wilhelm, Jacob Snyderburn, Roman Krettler, Kyle Landes, Justin Augustine and Denis Shevchenko. While the offense has had its ups and downs lately, the defense has been making plays, especially near the red zone. "The defense has been playing well," Dennison said. "We've got a lot of seniors playing defense. They take a lot of pride in that. Our defense, they'll always keep us in games no matter what else is going on." Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com. Buckeye 42, Normandy 0 NORMANDY &emsp;&emsp;0 0 0 0 — 0 BUCKEYE &emsp;&emsp;7 7 21 7 — 42 First B — Ryan Wilhelm 1 run (Brayden Bonnett kick), 4:58. Second B — Liam Phillips 3 run (Bonnett kick), 1:06. Third B — Phillips 63 run (Bonnett kick), 11:42. B — Derek Snyderburn 25 pass from Turner Dolata (Bonnett kick), 8:11. B — Snyderburn 12 pass from Dolata (Bonnett kick), 3:13. Fourth B — Brayden Sopko 30 run (Bonnett kick), 8:30. &emsp;&emsp;N &emsp;&emsp;B First downs &emsp;&emsp;8 &emsp;&emsp;15 Rushing &emsp;&emsp;27/62 24/240 Rushing average &emsp;&emsp;2.3 &emsp;&emsp;10.0 Passing &emsp;&emsp;8/14 &emsp;&emsp;6/9 Passing yards &emsp;&emsp;71 &emsp;&emsp;83 Total offense &emsp;&emsp;41/133 33/323 Punting &emsp;&emsp;5/29.8 1/54.0 Penalties &emsp;&emsp;3/34 &emsp;&emsp;3/25 Fumbles &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;3/1 &emsp;&emsp;0/0 RUSHING: Normandy — Ray Brown 3-68, Jai Hebebrand 10-13, Jai Ali 4-11, Riley Tyson 1-(-1), Leo Prosinski 1-(-3), Jakob Muniak 8-(-26). Buckeye — Phillip 14-192, Sopko 3-51, Wilhelm 3-8, Denis Shevchenko 1-3, Nick Prouza 1-2, Team 1-(-1), Dolata 1-(-15). PASSING: Normandy — Muniak 6-10-58, Ali 2-4-13-0. Buckeye — Dolata 6-9-83-0. RECEIVING: Normandy — Brody Tusai 2-22, Mario Stewart 2-22, Nick Williams 1-20, Brown 2-7, Hebebrand 1-0. Buckeye — Snyderburn 3-49, Phillips 1-14, Mason Dolata 1-13, Prouza 1-7. MISSED FIELD GOAL: Buckeye — Bonnett 48 (SH).