The Boyd-Buchanan Buccaneer football team came into Friday night’s game with Silverdale with only one loss while the Seahawks started play with just one win.

A lot of folks thought the Bucs might breeze to their fifth win in six games, but it was anything but easy for the visitors.

Taking advantage of five Seahawk turnovers, the Bucs scored three touchdowns in the second half and turned a 19-14 halftime deficit into a 34-25 victory in a game much closer than the final score might indicate.

Boyd-Buchanan coach Jeremy Bosken wasn’t looking for any style points, but he was happy to be headed home with the hard-fought victory.

“That was as ugly as all get-out, but it feels good as ugly counts,” he told his team as they gathered in the far end zone of Silverdale’s field.

“I have to give a lot of credit to our assistant coaches because they made some incredibly important adjustments at the half, but this win is a tribute to them.  We had a great defensive game plan and we got some key turnovers, but I’ll take it as I don’t care what it looked like,” Bosken added.

Silverdale coach Al Rogers couldn’t help but hurt for his players following the game, but he also knows they are getting really close to turning things around.

“I’m sick and tired of being on this end of a losing score as we’re so close to turning this thing around,” he said at midfield after his team fell to 1-5 with its fourth straight loss.

“You take away those five turnovers and we win this football game.  I think they thought they might run up the score on us, but we gave them a pretty good game.  We could have thrown in the towel several times tonight, but we just kept battling.

“It’s always a tough battle when we play Boyd-Buchanan.  I’m sure we didn’t play our best game tonight, but I’m pretty sure we’re the best one-win team in Hamilton County,” Rogers concluded on a positive note.

Eli Evans created the first break for the Bucs when he intercepted a pass from Wade Jewell on the third play of the game.  Evans then hooked up with Preston Edmondson on a 44-yard option pass to put the Bucs in business at the Silverdale 10.

Evans scored from the 2 four plays later and the lead was 7-0 following Tyson Campbell’s point-after kick.

Colton Rice recovered a fumble at the Buccaneer 27 before the Seahawks evened the score when Jewell tossed a 27-yard TD strike to Connor Delashmitt.  Reed Weller’s PAT knotted the score with 1:28 left in the opening stanza.

The Seahawks took the lead at 13-7 midway through the second when Jewell scored on a keeper from the 8 before Boyd regained the lead when Eli Morris found Caden Johnson wide open for a 29-yard scoring strike with 4:04 left before intermission.

With Jewell completing five of six passes for 57 yards before halftime, Silverdale took the lead again when Cameron Mullins hauled in a 10-yard pass with 6.3 seconds to play.  The two-point conversion run failed and the hosts took a 19-14 into the halftime break.

Bosken must have gotten his message across loud and clear during the break as his football team was a totally different unit in the second half.

Johnson returned the second-half kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown and never looked back.  Bullish sophomore David Dixon added scoring runs of 9 and 7 yards for a 34-19 lead before the Seahawks scored on the final play of the game to make the final margin nine points.

Freshman Turner Junkins replaced Jewell on the second play of the fourth quarter when a sack by Edmondson sent the slender senior to the sideline with a possible broken jaw.

Junkins completed six of 10 passes in the final stanza for 111 yards and darted into the end zone from the 4 as time expired.  No extra point was attempted.

Silverdale ended up with a 403-317 advantage in total yards and also had a 20-10 difference in first downs.

Boyd-Buchanan had 165 yards passing and another 152 on the ground while Silverdale had 235 yards through the air and 168 on the ground.

Matthew Stone was Boyd’s leading rusher with 64 yards on 11 carries while Dixon had 47 yards on five carries in the second half.

Evans was the leading receiver for the Bucs with four grabs for 44 yards while Jamichael McGoy, Karson Gay and Edmondson all had two catches apiece.

Sebastian Hanks had 57 yards on 14 carries to lead the Silverdale rushing game while Delashmitt had 50 yards on 16 attempts.  Bryson Lemery finished with 41 yards on six trips.

Delashmitt had five catches for 92 yards to lead the Silverdale receivers while Jordan Sanders had 55 yard on three catches.  Mullins finished with 45 yards on five completions.

Boyd-Buchanan will be at home next week to host Lookout Valley while Silverdale will travel to Grace.

BOYD-BUCHANAN  7  7  6  14 --  34

SILVERDALE  7  12  0  6  --  25

BB – Eli Evans 2 run (Tyson Campbell kick), 8:06 left in first;

SBA – Connor Delashmitt 27 pass from Wade Jewell (Reed Weller kick), 1:28 left in first;

SBA – Jewell 8 run (kick failed), 6:29 left in second;

BB – Caden Johnson 29 pass from Eli Morris (Campbell kick), 4:04 left in second;

SBA – Cameron Mullins 10 pass from Jewell (run failed), 0:06.3 left in second;

BB – Johnson 92 kickoff return (pass failed), 11:44 left in third;

BB – David Dixon 9 run (Campbell kick), 8:40 left in fourth;

BB – Dixon 7 run (Campbell kick), 5:37 left in fourth;

SBA – Turner Junkins 4 run (no extra point attempt), 0:00 left in fourth.

YARDSTICK BOYD-BUCHANAN SILVERDALE

First downs                                                   10                                       20

Rushes-Yards                                          25-152                                 48-168

Passing Yards                                            165                                       235

Total Yards                                                  317                                      403

Passes (Comp-Att-Int)                            11-20-0                                  16-27-1

Fumbles-Lost                                             0-0                                         4-4

Penalties-Yards                                         6-35                                       7-55

Punts-Avg.                                                4-28.7                                    1-46.0

INDIVIDUAL STATS:

BOYD-BUCHANAN RUSHING: Matthew Stone 11 for 64 yards; David Dixon 5 for 47 yards; Eli Morris 6 for 37 yards.

BOYD-BUCHANAN RECEIVING: Eli Evans 4 for 44 yards; Preston Edmondson 2 for 49 yards; Karson Gay 2 for 24 yards; Jamichael McGoy 2 for 12 yards.

BOYD-BUCHANAN PASSING: Eli Evans 1-1 for 44 yards; Eli Morris 10-19 for 121 yards.

SILVERDALE RUSHING: Sebastian Hanks 14 for 57 yards; Connor Delashmitt 16 for 50 yards; Bryson Lemery 6 for 41 yards; Wade Jewell 6 for 13 yards.

SILVERDALE RECEIVING: Connor Delashmitt 5 for 92 yards; Cameron Mullins 5 for 45 yards; Jordan Sanders 3 for 55 yards.

SILVERDALE PASSING: Wade Jewell 10-17 for 124 yards; Turner Junkins 6-10 for 111 yards.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)