High school football: Special teams dominate for Buckeye over Westlake

YORK TWP. — The following special teams highlights took place during the Buckeye football team's 52-16 Cleveland West Conference victory over Westlake:A 79-yard kickoff return that set up a two-play, 6-yard touchdown drive.A fumble recovery on the ensuring kickoff.A 38-yard field goal.A 79-kickoff return for a touchdown.All of that happened in the opening 6:22, as the Bucks (7-0, 4-0) led 10-0 before the Demons (2-5, 0-4) ran a play from scrimmage, 24-3 after one quarter and 52-9 at halftime.Going into the night, there appeared to be a chance at a shootout considering the Demons' porous defense overall and a Buckeye secondary that has had its fair share of struggles against pass-happy opponents. That question was squashed quickly, though Westlake backup Collin Sullivan did all he could in replacing Moe Abdelhardy, who averaged 210.3 passing yards through the first six games of the season but was inactive Friday."Like Coach (Greg) Dennison always says, you've got to win at least two of the three phases of the game," said Buckeye's Liam Phillips, who had 188 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns on only eight touches. "We were able to, I think, win all three of them."Those special teams plays right out of the gate set us up. We were able to put them away very early. Even in the first quarter, they were done because of what we were able to do on special teams."The tone-setter was clearly Phillips, who earned the rare distinction of a pair of 79-yard kickoff returns in a game.The first was the opening boot, when he stiff-armed a defender across midfield but was caught diagonally at the 6-yard line. Ryan Wilhelm scored off tackle two plays later.The second return came following a Demons field goal that cut the score to 10-3. Phillips caught a bouncing line drive, split the initial wall with tremendous speed and used a pancake block from Rees Perkins to veer down the right sideline for a touchdown that put Buckeye up 17-3.Sandwiched between was Mason Dolata's fumble recovery on a kickoff. Westlake's Tommy DeFranco tried to push through Buckeye's Denis Shevchenko and Jackson Schmidt for extra yardage, but Logan Letner came in and raked the ball free, putting Buckeye in prime position to gain a double-digit lead when Brayden Bonnett booted a 38-yard field goal."Those are the best scores to have, to be honest, because it's such an exhilarating thing," Phillips said. "Especially on the opening kickoff, if you can go down and set your team up good, it's a great feeling. Being able to use your speed and the blocks in front of you to make your cuts, that's the best thing about it." Bonnett also had a memorable night, breaking the school record for career extra points held by Clay Gunkelman (148, 2017-19) and moving into second place in Medina County history behind Wadsworth's Jack Dinwiddie (182, 2021-24) with 154. Bonnett's field goal was the 16th of his career, putting him two away from that county record held by Highland's Eric Duale (2006-08), Wadsworth's Nate Reed (2003-05) and Brunswick's Tony Minjarik (1985-87).As if that wasn't enough, Bonnett also hammered three touchbacks — the Demons' average starting field position on kickoffs was the 23.4-yard line — saw rotational time at wide receiver and was part of a Buckeye pass defense that gave up some yards through the air but dominated field position."Man, the work we put in through the week just helped with coming out on game day ready," Bonnett said. "We've been struggling the past few weeks defensively passing-wise, so we've been working really hard as a group of DBs to not give up as many passing yards."Up 24-3 after Phillips' kickoff return TD, Buckeye slammed the door on a 20-yard Nick Prouza reception from Turner Dolata, 4- and 7-yard runs from Phillips and a 44-yard interception return by Shevchenko, who capped Buckeye's scoring on a 23-yard run with 3:26 left in the half. Buckeye ran only 29 plays for 198 yards overall, one week after needing just 24 for 264 at Valley Forge. Working the short game all night, Sullivan was gutsy by completing 29-of-43 passes for 279 yards and touchdowns to Wes Urich (7 yards) and Ali Assad (33), with the former coming on the final play of the first half after Buckeye committed pass interference. Stephen Trowbridge had nine catches for 122 yards, but almost all of the statistics for the Demons, who had 0 rushing yards on 16 attempts, were hollow in proper context.Buckeye didn't need gaudy stats because of special teams, a longtime point of emphasis for Dennison. Jim Tressel was a graduate assistant under Dennison's father, Jim, at the University of Akron from 1975-78. That Tressel guy you may have heard of. You probably also heard the multi-time national championship head coach talk about the importance of special teams."Special teams impact a lot of games," Dennison said. "We know the closer the game or the bigger the game, special teams are going to be the difference. We work a lot at them, and you could tell tonight."Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.Buckeye 52, Westlake 16WESTLAKE 3 6 0 7 — 16BUCKEYE 24 28 0 0 — 52FirstB — Ryan Wilhelm 3 run (Brayden Bonnett kick), 11:16.B — Bonnett 38 field goal, 9:43.W — Jacob Lenz 30 field goal, 5:51.B — Liam Phillips 79 kickoff return (Bonnett kick), 5:38.B — Nick Prouza 20 pass from Turner Dolata (Bonnett kick), 2:37.SecondB — Phillips 4 run (Bonnett kick), 10:25.B — Phillips 7 run (Bonnett kick), 9:40.B — Denis Shevchenko 44 interception return (Bonnett kick), 8:44.B — Shevchenko 23 run (Bonnett kick), 3:26.W — Wes Urich 7 pass from Cooper Sullivan (pass failed), 0:00.FourthW — Ali Assad 33 pass from Sullivan (Lenz kick), 2:37. W BFirst downs 15 9Rushing 16/0 24/153Rushing average 0.0 6.4Passing 29/43 4/5Passing yards 279 45Total offense 59/279 29/198Punting 2/30.0 1/30.0Penalties 7/65 8/71Fumbles 2/2 1/0RUSHING: Westlake — Sullivan 2-8, Urich 10-(-3), Hadi Mustafa 4-(-5). Buckeye — Wilhelm 3-44, Phillips 6-30, Brayden Sopko 3-26, Shevchenko 1-23, Shane Metter 2-18, Milo Cox 5-14, Prouza 1-6, Team 2-(-2), Matche Diarrassouba 1-(-6).PASSING: Westlake — Sullivan 29-43-279-2. Buckeye — Turner Dolata 4-5-45-0.RECEIVING: Westlake — Stephen Trowbridge 9-120, Mustafa 6-45, William Bierfeldt 4-31, Urich 3-28, Assad 2-24, Nate Meyer 2-21, Geno Woods 1-6, Tommy DeFranco 1-4, Gavin McMillen 1-0. Buckeye — Prouza 2-30, Eddie Hondroudakis 2-15.