High school football: Buckeye beats Lakewood in the trenches to go 10-0

YORK TWP. — Ryan Lino, Preston Ware, Kyle Landes, Cam Landes and Ben Lazar, take a bow.Behind a dominating performance from its offensive line, the Buckeye football team ran right over Lakewood en route to a 42-14 Cleveland West Conference victory Friday night that capped an undefeated regular season.Next up for the CWC champion and top-seeded Bucks (10-0, 7-0) is a Division III, Region 10 quarterfinal playoff game at home on Nov. 7. Buckeye will play the winner of the game between eighth-seeded St. Marys Memorial (7-3) and ninth-seeded Copley (7-3). Lakewood, which trailed Buckeye just 21-14 with 3½ minutes to play in the third quarter, finished 4-6, 2-5."We didn't prove anything," center Kyle Landes said. "We're used to this. We're out to get a state chip."The Bucks did prove something to the Rangers.Behind the Landes twins and the rest of the O-line, Buckeye finished with 433 yards on 46 carries for a 9.4-yard average. Powerful fullback Ryan Wilhelm (15 carries, 203 yards, 2 TDs) and tailback Roman Krettler (18, 178, 3) were sensational while accounting for 381 of those yards on a night when Buckeye quarterback Turner Dolata (4-for-7, 44 yards) rarely needed to throw."We lead up front," Kyle Landes said. "If we're doing good, the whole team is doing good. It's a great feeling when you know you can do whatever you want."Wilhelm and Krettler's rushing totals would have been even higher, but several long runs were negated by penalties in a game where the Bucks were whistled 14 times for 150 yards by an extremely flag-happy officiating crew, which made a number of calls that had nothing to do with the result of the play."They were frustrating a little bit, but we used them as motivation on the next play," Krettler said of the penalties. "We weren't going to let that stop us from doing what we needed to do."It was a breakout game for Krettler, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the first game of the season and was used sparingly at running back for most of the season. The senior had 137 of his yards and two of his three touchdowns as Buckeye took a 21-7 lead at intermission."This has been my dream since my freshman year," Krettler said. "I've been waiting for this moment, and tonight proved I can do it."For all their dominance up front, the Bucks led just 21-14 when Lakewood got a 3-yard TD run from Braedon Greenfield (8 carries, 38 yards; 5 catches, 49 yards) with 3:36 to play in the third quarter.Buckeye promptly scored touchdowns on its next two plays from scrimmage.Wilhelm got the first when he ran behind the right side of the line, cut outside and rumbled down the sideline for a 69-yard score. On Lakewood's second play from scrimmage, Logan Letner got an interception at the Rangers 12-yard line and Krettler scored on the next play to make it 35-14 with 2:18 to go in the third.Brayden Sopko (6 carries, 22 yards) capped the scoring for Buckeye with a 1-yard plunge midway through the fourth quarter.The key to everything was left tackle Lino (6-0, 286 pounds), left guard Ware (5-10, 207), center Kyle Landes (6-0, 193), right guard Cam Landes (6-0, 196) and right tackle Lazar (6-1, 246), plus tight end Derek Snyderburn (6-4, 207)."That's the people I thank the most," Krettler said. "They played astoundingly. I couldn't have asked them to play any better."The Bucks had just two runs go for negative yardage. One came when Krettler fumbled a handoff and the other came with all backups on the field."They were amazing," Wilhelm said of his offensive linemen. "They were opening up whole so big, I don't know what to say. Their D-line couldn't stop us."The Bucks, who opened the scoring on a 6-yard run by Krettler, made it 14-7 on a 1-yard plunge by Wilhelm and took a 21-7 on Krettler's 13-yard scamper with 29 seconds left in the first half, also played well on defense, though they gave up a 29-yard TD pass on a wounded duck and a 13-play, 85-yard scoring drive.Jacob Snyderburn had a sack among two tackles for loss and Denis Shevchenko added a TFL as Buckeye allowed just 93 yards on 28 rushing attempts (3.3-yard average) and 257 yards total offense to cap an undefeated regular season."It feels amazing," Wilhelm said of going 10-0. "We've been working all year and we've been talking about it all year. We wanted to be 10-0, not an average 5-5."I think we can make a deep (playoff) run. We've got a chance to win our region. We're not done. We're just getting started."Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.Buckeye 42, Lakewood 14LAKEWOOD 0 7 7 0 — 14BUCKEYE 7 14 14 7 — 42 FirstB — Roman Krettler 6 run (Brayden Bonnett kick), 7:17.SecondL — Lukas Stoll 29 pass from Otto Wilehelmy (Rafael Santos kick), 11:47.B — Ryan Wilhelm 1 run (Bonnett kick), 10:09.B — Krettler 13 run (Bonnett kick), 0:29.ThirdL — Braedon Greenfield 3 run (Santos kick), 3:36.B — Wilhelm 69 run (Bonnett kick), 3:16.B — Krettler 12 run (Bonnett kick), 2:18.FourthB — Brayden Sopko 1 run (Bonnett kick), 5:59. L BFirst downs 12 21Rushing 28/93 46/433Rushing average 3.3 9.4Passing 12/21 4/7Passing yards 164 44Total offense 49/257 53/477Punting 4/34.5 2/45.0Penalties 6/37 14/150Fumbles 0/0 2/1Individual statisticsRUSHING: Lakewood — Greenfield 8-38, Simmie Bolden 15-36, Tyrese Gatling 1-10, Wilhelmy 4-9. Buckeye — Wilhelm 15-203, Krettler 18-178, Sopko 6-22, Denis Shevchenko 2-19, Nick Prouza 2-10, Matche Diarrassouba 1-1, Joe Stahl 2-0. PASSING: Lakewood — Wilhelmy 12-21-161-1. Buckeye — Turner Dolata 4-7-44-0.RECEIVING: Lakewood — Greenfield 5-49, Stoll 3-48, Riley Verderber 1-45, Gatling 3-22. Buckeye — Krettler 1-13, Wilhelm 1-11, Bonnett 1-11, Prouza 1-9.