High school football: Bucks up and down in scrimmage finale

YORK TWP. — The preseason is designed so that football teams can iron out the wrinkles before Friday night lights shine brightly. Despite some good moments, Buckeye has work to do before the season opener against Cloverleaf after a 14-6 loss to Woodridge in a live-action half Thursday night. The Bucks committed three penalties for 35 yards, including two personal fouls, had inconsistencies in the passing game and were gashed for a few big runs defensively. "We've got a lot of young guys, and we just have to pick it up a little bit," junior lineman Preston Ware said. "D-line, O-line, we've got a lot of guys going both ways. We don't have the depth we used to. We just have to learn to play faster, suck it up and make it happen." Ware had a sack on the Woodridge 29-yard to force the Bulldogs into their only punt on the final play of the first quarter. That punt was sandwiched around touchdowns by Woodridge junior running back Johnathan Tyree, the first for 9 yards and the second for 42. Tyree finished with 121 yards on nine carries but left the game in the second half after drawing a personal foul on a 19-yard run. Buckeye found momentum after Tyree's second score. On the following possession, senior Brayden Sopko intercepted backup quarterback Andrew Deering with 4:47 left in the scrimmage to give the Bucks the ball on the Woodridge 35. Buckeye took advantage of the short field when senior quarterback Shane Metter hit senior tight end Colton Homchik for a 14-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 14-6. The touchdown followed three punts and a turnover on downs just outside the red zone. "It felt good that I was able to bring the team morale up after that," Homchik said. "Before that catch I could tell that we were pretty down, but I feel like that catch brought a lot of people up. "Everything started to go up from there. If we would have had another two quarters to play, I think we could have brought it back and won that scrimmage." Metter made his greatest impact on the ground, rushing for 57 yards on eight carries. The 5-foot-11, 163-pound signal caller didn't shy away from contact and lowered his shoulder for more yards on multiple occasions, but on the scrimmage's final play he took a hard hit on a sack after bobbling a shotgun snap and was slow to get off the field. Throwing the ball, Metter was 6-for-11 for 47 yards, but he completed five of his last six attempts for 37 yards. The last possession was set up by a 58-second stand by the defense in which the Bucks stuffed a 4th-and-1 run. "The biggest thing for us is we noticed that we started to fall off because everyone was tired," Homchik said. "We don't have a lot of depth, so a lot of guys are playing both ways. "Everybody noticed we needed to pick things up, for sure, and everyone just kicked it into high gear and gave it everything they had." In addition to his interception, Sopko was the leading runner outside of Metter with 13 yards on four carries and the leading receiver with two catches for 17 yards. Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.