Former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes supported tight power football at all corners. He was known for a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offensive attack, espousing the fact that when you throw the ball, two of the three things that can happen are bad.
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Former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes supported tight power football at all corners. He was known for a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offensive attack, espousing the fact that when you throw the ball, two of the three things that can happen are bad.
On a beautiful fall evening at Great Lakes Cheese Stadium, the Fairview Warriors and host Berkshire Badgers played anything but conservative football from the get-go as the visitors claimed a hard-fought 54-37 victory.
But if Hayes had been witness to the contest, he might have been doing somersaults in anger.
The teams combined for 13 scoring drives, all of them more than 45 yards worth. They also combined for 46 first downs and 942 yards of offense, including 586 yards and seven touchdowns via the passing game.
On the first drive of the game, Berkshire used two pass plays to reach their own 44 yard line and a first down. After a five-yard run on first down, Sam Barcikoski dropped back three straight times and found open receivers, but saw all three plays fall incomplete. A couple drops and great defensive plays did the damage, setting up the Warriors (3-2) in Badger territory.
Two plays later, LaMarcus Clark scored the first of his three touchdowns on the night as he found a huge hole over right tackle and hit the end zone from 26 yards out. College-bound quarterback Burke Lowry ran the conversion run in for a quick lead, and after having given powerhouse Kirtland a tough time for a while last week, it looked like it was going to be a long night for the Badgers.
Barcikoski led an 81-yard, 12-play drive, capped by a five-yard pass to Cameron Beam, to cut the lead to 8-6, and eyes were opened.
Fairview came right back, capped with 56 seconds left in the opening period by another Clark burst, this one from the 33.
As statisticians went crazy trying to keep up with the offenses in the second period, mistakes bit the Badgers twice, leading to a three-touchdown second period for the Warriors, interrupted only by a Sam Bable 10-yard run with 1:17 left before halftime to cut the lead to 26-13.
The Badgers could move the ball, but the miscues were killers.
Berkshire Head Coach Josh DeWeese admitted, “I’ve said before that it came down to a matter of the kids not doing their jobs on certain plays. We didn’t change anything we try to do, and it’s tough when you are facing the quality of some of the quarterbacks we’ve seen so far this season, too.
“This kid tonight (Burke Lowry) is heading to play college football, and is a real dude making plays. A few weeks ago we dealt with Donovan Moorhead at Hawken, and then there was the Alston kid from Harvey on opening night. Those guys can really play the game. They move the ball, and can create things in a hurry in just a seven-to-nine-second period of every play.
“We did very well tonight running our offense, too. A few mistakes hurt, but there’s no way to find fault with how we moved the ball tonight. We just need to keep playing and clean up a few things.”
Fairview opened the second half with a six-play, 60-yard drive to a score, making it 40-13, and many wondered how bad it might get — but not the Berkshire players.
A sweep around right end saw the ball disappear into the hands of Oliver Miller, and he caught everybody off guard by stopping and throwing back to the left to Barcikoski from 15 yards out. On the next possession, after the first punt of the game, Barcikoski found Chase Wardle with a perfect pass on a slant pattern over the middle, and he broke a couple of tackles to complete a 75 play to cut the lead to 40-29.
That’s when Lowry threw his third scoring pass of the night, and Clark tallied his third score from the nine, making the lead too much to handle.
Still, Barcikoski proceeded to hit Luke Stute on an eight-yard score with 6:57 to play for the final points of the night.
Bable gained 62 yards on the ground for the Badgers, who fall to 2-3 on the season. Barcikoski hit on 16 of 39 passes for 256 yards and three touchdowns, but also had the drops and a pair of long bombs picked off.
Beam had five catches for 49 yards and a touchdown, Stute had four grabs for 45 yards and a score, and Wardle’s long score led to a pair of grabs for 101 yards.
None of this was enough to overcome Fairview’s 503 yards of offense; there just weren’t any moments for the Badgers to catch their breath.
