Buckeye gives Burke his first win

Chad Grant | Special to The Gazette Posted: Saturday, September 15th, 2007

SHEFFIELD LAKE — Buckeye’s football team struggled through its first three games — all blowout losses.

Friday night at Tom Hoch Field, the Bucks finally got “PAC” into the win column.

Buckeye turned in a rout of its own with a 40-7 drubbing of Clearview in a Patriot Athletic Conference cross-division game.

“We made some adjustments last week in our offense,” Buckeye coach Billy Burke said. “Now that we have that in, now we can make some adjustments off that. We opened it up so that our base offensive stuff will now work.”

Just about everything worked for the Bucks (1-3, 1-0), who rolled up 465 yards of offense en route to scoring 19 more points than they had in their first three games combined.

“We were keeping the ball on offense,” Burke said after picking up his first win as Buckeye’s coach. “We put some big drives together and that is a pretty good defense over there.”

A pair of Bucks backs had a field day in the win, totaling 323 of the team’s yards.

Junior tailback Cory Reisner got the ball rolling for the Bucks, scampering 17 yards for the game’s first touchdown. He then turned in a spectacular catch-and-run for a 57-yard score later in the first quarter.

“We’ve got the momentum going our way now,” the 5-foot-9, 160-pounder said. “We’re more confident than in our first three games. We played with a lot of heart tonight.”

Reisner totaled 154 yards on 15 touches (10.3 yards per touch) and added his third touchdown in the fourth quarter to effectively close out the game.

Shawn Cordes (8 carries, 169 yards, 2 TDs) got the momentum back on the Bucks’ side after a long drive by the Clippers (1-3, 0-1) ended at the Buckeye 2-yard line in the third quarter.

The Clippers used the arm of Zach Anderson (11-of-24, 82 yards) and the powerful running of Antwaun Carlton (22 carries, 90 yards, TD) to march 73 yards on 13 plays for a chance to cut the Buckeye lead to less than a touchdown. However, Anderson’s pass to James Washington went wide on fourth-and-goal from the 2.

After a 2-yard run on first down, the 5-foot-9, 155-pound Cordes found a huge hole in the Clearview defense on the next play and raced 96 yards untouched for a game-changing touchdown.

“The hole opened up and I went,” Cordes said. “There was great blocking and a great effort (from the offensive line).”

The score gave the Bucks a 26-7 lead and fully swung the moementum back to their side.

“What I was most impressed with is the offensive line really put it together tonight,” Burke said. “That is what we have been banking on all season and finally  we get it to pay off.”

Buckeye racked up 316 yards on the ground behind an offensive line that was finally healthy.

“We made some big strides tonight,” two-way Buckeye tackle Josh Varney said. “Last week we made some physical strides and this week we made some mental strides.”

Buckeye quarterback Jesse Horton was another beneficiary of the improvement of the Bucks up front, passing for 149 yards and a touchdown.

“You could drive a truck through some of those holes,” Horton said. “The line was blocking well and the receivers were making some great cuts. When they are making plays like that, it’s easy out there.”

Yeah for my nephew Shawn!