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Scores and Photos of Friday night high school football - Oct. 9
One thing certainly was determined Friday night at Boyd-Buchanan, and that is that the top-ranked Buccaneers have a bunch of "mudders" on their high school football team.
Despite the last two and a half quarters being played in a steady rain, the Bucs' offense was equally adept throwing the ball all night and rushing it particularly well late in a 28-7 Region 3-2A victory over Meigs County.
The Tigers actually scored first, on Tyler Lawson's 1-yard run at the end of a possession set up by a Boyd-Buchanan fumble by muffing a punt.
The Bucs answered on their next possession with a 14-play march that covered 83 yards. Quarterback Cooper Hodge was 6-for-6 on that drive for 58 passing yards, and he ran for the touchdown from the 6.
But even when the weather turned rainy, including a lengthy delay in the second quarter because of lightning, Hodge continued to throw it well. His 13 completions covered 189 yards and included a 45-yard scoring pass to Kohl Henke. Henke had seven receptions for 129 yards.
"We threw the ball really well," Boyd-Buchanan coach Grant Reynolds said. "Cooper, and Kohl Henke, I'm proud of those guys. And we took care of the ball. We didn't have any turnovers after the delay."
Then with the 21-point lead going to the fourth quarter, Boyd-Buchanan (7-0, 5-0) got its running game going. To seal it, the Bucs drove from their 16 at the 9:37 mark to the Tigers' 10 where they took a knee on fourth-and-1 with 34.5 seconds to play.
"Those five offensive linemen have been working hard for us all year," Reynolds said. "They all work together. They're solid. That last drive was on them."
Hodge led Boyd-Buchanan in rushing with 16 carries for 72 yards. E.J. Matthews added 12 for 69 and a touchdown.
Meigs (3-4, 1-3), meanwhile, had trouble passing with 20 yards through the air. The Tigers ran for 119 yards as a team, led by Logan Fowler's 48 on 12 carries, but except for a fake punt had no run longer than Fowler's 13-yarder on the last play of the game.
"We were moving the ball in the first half," Meigs coach Jason Fitzgerald said. "When we came back out, it was just nasty. We couldn't get any traction. We couldn't get anything going.
"They did some things well in the second half. They're a good football team. We'll get better from this."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.