Railroad City News

Jersey Shore- Co-head coach Ryan Graw said prior to his team’s trip to Jersey Shore that his Bucktail junior high team lacked experience and if they played fundamentally sound football, he and fellow head coach Dan Heiser would be more than happy.

The small 1A Bucks exceeded those expectations and nearly stole an opening game road win against District IV’s premier 4A programs. It may have been at the middle school level, but for a squad that had 11 of their 18 players playing in their first ever football game it meant everything.

Quinton Smith racked up 193 yards on 12 carries, including a 67 yard score to help the Bucks fight hard all night long. Jersey Shore eventually wore down the Bucktail defense to escape Thompson Street Stadium with the 20-12 win.

Graw expressed his optimism over his team’s efforts after the game.

“That fact that over half the team has never played organized football before and they were able to compete in a close game has me and Dan (Heiser) so impressed.” Said Graw

Smith broke loose on his 67-yard run down the left sideline on the game’s first series and just like that the Bucks had a surprising 6-0 lead, but the Bulldogs also came to play.

On Jersey Shore’s first series, Ryland Krach took the Bulldog’s very first play to the house from 71 yards out and a Garion Roan extra point had the home squad up 7-6. Shore would not trail again.

The first quarter ended at 7-6, but Krach was far from done. With 4:26 remaining in the half, Bulldog quarterback Cole Jordan found Krach from 11 yards out and another Roan PAT gave Jersey Shore a 14-6 lead and that score remained for the rest of the half.

Krach again raced to the end zone from 71 yards with 7:41 remaining in the game. The PAT went wide left, but the Bulldogs led 20-6.

Bucktail put together a tough final drive that seen Tucker Lebo score on an 18-yard run with 25 seconds remaining in the game to set the 20-12 final.

“We’re happy with what we saw.” added Graw “We can move forward.”

Bucktail racked up 259 yards rushing on the day, led by Smith’s 193 yards. Lebo finished with 25 yards. Lucas Sharp (28 yards) and Beau Phillips (13 yards) also did positive things on offense.

A huge factor to the Bucktail offense was the excellent center play from Jackson Brennan and his exchange with quarterback Max Dorman.

Lebo and Chris Mace made big stops all night. Mace collected a fumble recovery. Tanner Thompson and Cason Redis made huge impacts on the Bucks’ interior defensive front line.

Bucktail 6 0 0 6 12

Shore 7 7 0 6 20

RUSHING

BUCKTAIL- Smith 12-193 TD, Lebo 5-25 TD, Sharp 6-28, Phillips 2-13, Dorman 2-0, TOTALS- 27-259 2TD

PASSING

BUCKTAIL- Dorman 0-1