Buckeye Lower Grey 35,
Jefferson Lower Red 19
Ashtabula Township – Completing an undefeated season at any level of sports is never easy (just ask the New England Patriots; circa 2007), but it can even harder when keeping a group of seven, eight, and nine year olds focused for the season. The Lower Grey Buckeyes did stay focused and completed a perfect 6-0 for their regular season finale victory over visiting Lower Red Jefferson 35-19 Saturday.
Once again, the Buckeye squad employed their four-headed monster of Zach Winchell (232 rushing yards, 2 TD) Will Walker (67 yards, 1 TD), Chris Jones (52 yards, 1 TD), and Jonah Anservitz (36 yards, 1 TD) to overcome early mistakes and run away with the win in the second half. Walker also completed 1 pass to Winchell for 9 yards and completed 2 others for 2-point conversions to Winchell and Anservitz. Once again, the running game would not have been so established were it not for the blocking up front of the offensive line; Brian Bisbey, Zach Furman, Blake Long, Jared Biller, Austin Jury, Donovan Csiseicki, Kyle Baker and Kyle Biller all anchored a running attack that continued all season long for the Warriors.
Defensively, the Buckeyes utilized a group attack with Jones leading the way with 12 tackles, Anservitz, had 8 tackles, Walker added 6 tackles, Austin Jury with 5 tackles, Bisbey with 4 tackles, Winchell, Long and Justin Jury had three tackles each, and Jared and Kyle Biller had two tackles.
The win propels the Lower Grey squad into the playoffs as a number 1 seed where they will host a 5:30 game at Corlew Stadium in Ashtabula Township Saturday.
Perry Lower Red 27,
Buckeye Lower Red 0
Perry Township – Trying to find the positives in a winless season can be difficult for any coach, but the Lower Red Buckeyes had many positives even without garnering a victory.
Hunter Johnston was able to run for 95 more yards running his season ttal to 786 yards with 8 touchdowns. John
Castrilla ran his total to 226 yards for the season and with contributions all year from Jared McCaleb, David Falke, Ryan Wisnyai, Daniel Robertson, and Jason Norman, the future is much brighter indeed. Invaluable blocking from Connor Tack, Sean Sheldon, Tyrus Marcy, Kody Manhard, Ray Braat, David Burch, Mason Davis, Matt Germovsek, Bryce Summers, and Trae Randolph also adds to the belief that the Lower Red Buckeyes can plan on getting into the win column in the next season to come. The loss concludes the season for the Lower Red Buckeyes.
Perry Upper White 28,
Buckeye Upper Grey 0
Ashtabula Township – Sometimes, it just goes wrong and stays that way.
For the Buckeye Upper Grey Warriors, it started slow and unfortunately, stayed that way in a loss to visiting Perry Upper White.
The usually dependable duo of Christian Blank (15 yards rushing, 4 yards passing) and Alec Katon (34 yards rushing) couldn’t get on track for a game and their compliment of Josh Tack (14 yards rushing, 4 yards receiving) had much of the same trouble.
Those offensive difficulties left a defense on the field much longer than usual and while they held up for a good part of the game, they seemed to tire out slowly.
Blank did lead the Buckeye (4-3) defense with 10 tackles and 1 forced fumble (recovered by Curtis Warren) to go with an interception. Katon chipped in 7 tackles, TJ Johnston had 5 tackles along with his own interception, Hunter Olivarez had 4 tackles, Evan Rapose had 3 tackles, Alex Brown, Jacob Corbitt and Max Crooks each had 2 tackles and Tony Latak, Garrett Webster, Tack, Nick McAfee and Jason Bisbey all had one tackle apiece.
The turnovers couldn’t be turned into points and the Buckeyes will prepare for their opening play-off game on Saturday at 1 at Madison Redbird.
Geneva Upper White 19,
Buckeye Upper Red 8
Ashtabula Township – The Upper Red footballers started out their final regular season game ready for a dogfight with visiting Upper Geneva
Red and it was exactly that for the first half. Both teams came out hitting hard as halftime came with the Buckeye (3-4) leading 8-6. The Eagles found their step in the second half and were able to pull out the win. Aaron Anderson did more with his arm than legs as he completed 7 0f 11 passes for 92 yards and collected 19 yards rushing.
Aaron Pocatko hauled in 3 receptions for 31 yards, Hayden Kanicki caught 2 passes for 33 yards and Dylan Fitchet caught 2 passes for 24 yards while adding 24 more yards rushing. Nick Monda also ran for 9 yards for the offense.
Defensively, the Buckeyes were led by Adam Talso with 7 tackles, Ryan Bento had 6 tackles, Anderson and Pocatko had 5 tackles apiece, Fitchet and Jacob Tackett (fumble recovery) had 4 tackles each, Monda and Jacob Zappitelli both had 3 tackles, Hugh Flanagan and Jager Englemann had 2 tackles and Kanicki, Nick Dalrymple, Jesse Garcia, and Alex Dufala all had 1 tackle.
The Upper Red Buckeyes have their playoff game Saturday at 3:30 at Perry Alumni Stadium.
Come on out!
The Buckeye Community Midget Football League invites everyone to attend the playoff games for all participants.
Congratulations to the teams from Conneaut, Jefferson, Geneva, Madison, Perry and Ashtabula Township for another fine regular season and good luck to all the teams in the playoffs!
— Sean Sheldon
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