B-U fullback Shawn Grubb crawls over a Lewis County tackler for some extra yardage on a third-quarter run during Friday’s game against Lewis County. Grubb ran for 99 yards on 11 carries in the Bucs’ 24-17 win. Photo by BRIAN BERGSTROM/The Record Delta

TENNERTON – The Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers produced the four complete quarters of football that had eluded them, as they defeated the Lewis County Minutemen 24-17 Friday night for their first win of the season.

Matt Floyd ran for 220 yards, including touchdown runs of 80 and 68 yards, and Shawn Grubb added 99 yards on 11 carries for the Bucs. Star running back C.J. Rahming led the Minutemen with 174 yards on 16 carries, but the B-U defense forced four Lewis County turnovers – inlcuding one bizarre fumble on Lewis County’s final offensive play – to preserve their lead.

“This was a great effort tonight on the part of our players,” remarked B-U head coach Bill Struble, who won his first game at the helm of the Bucs on Friday. “Our kids went five weeks without a win against one of the toughest schedules in the state, and tonight they played hard.”

“Matt Floyd had a great night, Shawn Grubb had a couple of plays where he just flattened people, and our O-line made a lot of plays. You’ve got to love being around guys like that who are warriors.”

The B-U defense forced a turnover on the very first possession of the game, stopping a Lewis County drive into B-U territory. On the game’s fourth play from scrimmage, B-U linebacker Dakota Tenney forced a fumble on a Derek Merritt run and recovered the loose ball at his own 43-yard line, setting up a drive which the B-U junior would end himself.

Grubb converted a pair of third-and-9 opportunities with runs of 20 and 11 yards, and with the Bucs facing third-and-12 at the Lewis County 26, Seth Jack completed a slant pass to Brandon Bennett for 10 yards. That set up a 33-yard field-goal attempt for Tenney, who split the uprights with 5:50 left in the first quarter and gave B-U a three-point lead.

The Bucs forced Lewis County to punt on their next two possessions, but following the second Lewis County punt, Floyd fumbled on the Bucs’ first offensive play and Tanner Carder recovered the ball for the Minutemen at the B-U 21-yard line. Lewis County drove as far as the B-U 8, where they had a first-and-goal, but Kade Johnston and Tenney made tackles in the Lewis County backfield to move the Minutemen back to the 21-yard line. Rahming’s third-and-goal run was stopped at the 10-yard line and the Bucs’ dodged a bullet when Tyler Williams’ 27-yard field-goal attempt went wide left.

On the very next play, Floyd atoned for his fumble, running 80 yards for a touchdown. The senior running back found a big hole up the middle, made a tackler miss, then broke down the left sideline and ran untouched to the end zone. Tenney added the extra point kick, giving B-U a 10-0 lead with 8:16 left in the second quarter.

Lewis County answered with a 12-play, 65-yard touchdown drive on the ensuing possession, cutting the B-U lead to 10-7. The Minutemen did all the damage on the ground, and Ethan Wilson’s 6-yard run on second-and-goal left the visitors just a yard shy of the end zone. Johnston tackled Kevin Darlington for no gain on third-and-goal, but quarterback Britt Tucker ran into the end zone on fourth-and-goal, spinning to his right after being initially stuffed at the line of scrimmage by the B-U defense. Williams added the extra-point kick with 1:38 left in the first half.

After a B-U punt and a Floyd interception on the ensuing Lewis County drive, the Bucs were stopped 10 yards short of the end zone on the final play of the first half. After back-to-back incompletions to start the B-U drive, which began at the Lewis County 38, Jack hit Floyd across the middle on a slant, but Lewis County made a timely stop to hold the B-U lead to three points at halftime.

Floyd would not be denied much longer though, scoring his second touchdown on the second play from scrimmage in the second half. After picking up 4 yards on first down, Floyd broke through a pair of tacklers at the line of scrimmage and sprinted 68 yards to the end zone. Tenney’s kick gave the Bucs a 17-7 lead just 57 seconds into the third quarter.

Rahming upped the ante on the very next Lewis County drive, taking the ensuing kickoff 27 yards and scoring on the first play of the possession. Rahming took a sweep to his left and ran 64 yards for a touchdown just 19 seconds after the Floyd score and Williams’ extra-point kick cut the B-U lead back to three, at 17-14.

The Bucs drove to the Lewis County 33-yard line on their next possession before turning the ball over on downs, but Johnston recovered a Lewis County fumble on the Minutemen’s first play of the drive. From there, the Bucs drove 42 yards on seven plays for the eventual game-winning score.

Grubb ran 23 yards to the Lewis County 7-yard line on the fourth play of the drive, and three plays later, Jack rolled to his right on a play-action pass and hit a sliding Chase Long for a 5-yard touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone. Tenney added the extra point with 1:21 left in the third quarter.

“Seth only had one option on the play because the other receiver fell down,” Struble said. “He had the best game of his career tonight, and I was happy to see him make plays at critical times.”

A 40-yard run by Rahming and a 12-yard tote by Darlington helped Lewis County drive inside the 10-yard line again on the ensuing possession, but again tackles for loss by the B-U defense made the Minutemen settle for a field-goal attempt. Dillon Poling stopped Rahming for a 4-yard loss on first down and Wingler stopped Darlington 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage on second down. Tucker threw to Merritt for 7 yards on third down, setting up a 30-yard field-goal try for Williams. This time, the Lewis County senior was on target, cutting the B-U lead to 24-17.

Taking over possession with 8:57 remaining, the Bucs ran 4:36 off the clock on nine plays, before turning the ball over on downs at the Lewis County 27-yard line. The Minutemen drove into B-U territory on their final possession, but they elected to keep the ball on the ground as time ticked off the clock. Tucker ran for 3 yards on a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-inches and a pass interference call against the Bucs on the next play advanced Lewis County to the 30-yard line. However, Jason Rock sacked Tucker for a 10-yard loss on the next play, setting up a bizarre turn of events in an already wild game.

After taking a timeout with 35 seconds remaining, Tucker threw a pass under pressure from Tenney, which fell into the hands of lineman Bubby Moss, an ineligible receiver, at the 30-yard line. While the officials threw a flag for an illegal touching, the play had not been whistled dead and the B-U defense forced a fumble which they recovered at the 36-yard line.

Taking over possession with 26 seconds left to play, Jack knelt down on one last play to secure the B-U win.

Josh Young led the B-U defense with 9 1/2 tackles in the win, including a tackle for loss and a sack. Floyd and Johnston added six tackles apiece, as the B-U defense allowed just 259 yards.

“I thought they did fairly well,” Struble said of his defense after the game. “We let [Rahming] get away from us one time, but I give credit to our outside linebackers for bringing a lot of heat.”

“We just want to enjoy this win and build off it.”

The Bucs will face another heavy favorite this Friday, traveling to East-West Stadium to face the undefeated Fairmont Senior Polar Bears. Fairmont Senior improved to 5-0 Friday and secured sole possession of first place in the North Central Athletic Conference with a 10-7 double-overtime win over University.



The statistics:



Lewis County 0 7 7 3 — 17

Buckhannon-Upshur 3 7 14 0 — 24



B-U – Dakota Tenney 33-yard field goal

B-U – Matt Floyd 80-yard run (Tenney kick)

LC – Britt Tucker 1-yard run (Tyler Williams kick)

B-U – Floyd 68-yard run (Tenney kick)

LC – C.J. Rahming 64-yard run (Williams kick)

B-U – Chase Long 5-yard pass from Seth Jack (Tenney kick)

LC – Williams 30-yard field goal



TEAM STATISTICS

First downs – LC 13 (12 rushing, 0 passing, 1 penalty); B-U 13 (10 rushing, 3 passing, 0 penalty).

Rushing yards – LC 242; B-U 312.

Passing yards – LC 17; B-U 74.

Total yards – LC 259; B-U 386.

Fumbles – LC 3; B-U 1.

Fumbles lost – LC 3; B-U 1.

Penalties – LC 1-5; B-U 5-53.

Punts – LC 2-42.5; B-U 2-25.5.

All-return yards – LC 83; B-U 90.



INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

LC – Rahming 16-174 (1 touchdown); Derek Merritt 6-32; Kevin Darlington 8-29; Ethan Wilson 7-26; Tucker 5-(-19) (1 touchdown). Totals 42-242 (1 touchdown).

B-U – Floyd 22-220 (2 touchdowns); Shawn Grubb 11-99; Casey Dean 2-6; Jack 3-(-13). Totals 38-312 (2 touchdowns).



Passing

LC – Tucker 2-for-6 for 17 yards, 0 touchdowns, 1 interception.

B-U – Jack 7-for-14 for 74 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions; Floyd 0-for-1 for 0 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions. Totals 7-for-15 for 74 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions.



Receiving

LC – Bubby Moss 1-10; Merritt 1-7. Totals 2-17.

B-U – Floyd 3-37; Grubb 2-22; Brandon Bennett 1-10; Long 1-5 (1 touchdown). Totals 7-74 (1 touchdown).

For the complete article see the 10-05-2009 issue.

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