By Mark Carpenter-
It has been a tough season to this point for Coach Dustin Cook and his Manchester Greyhounds high school football squad and the struggles continued last Friday night as the Hounds hosted the Southern Buckeye Warriors out of the Southern Ohio Independent League. Though they are considered a “club” team, the Warriors came in unbeaten and left Manchester the same way as they took advantage of some early Manchester mistakes to build a big lead and hand the Hounds their seventh consecutive loss by a final score of 48-8.
The tone was set early as the Hounds were far too generous on their first two offensive possessions. A Lucas Smith fumble was recovered by the Warriors, who promptly marched 68 yards in just three plays, getting a 49-yard pass from quarterback Blade Carrington to running back Dylan Lainhart to put them in scoring position and a four-yard touchdown run by John Hurley plus the Lainhart conversion run made it 8-0 less than three minutes into the game.
The second Manchester offensive possessions lasted just two plays before a Rylan Bailey pass was picked off by Southern Buckeye’s Christian Manning. It took the Warriors just two plays to reach the end zone again, this time on a 20-yard Carrington touchdown pass to Tony Brown. The Hounds stopped the two-point conversion but still saw themselves starting up at a quick 14-0 deficit, a sight that has been all too familiar in 2019.
“It’s kind of been our achilles heel all season, putting the ball on the ground and turning it over too often” said Coach Cook. “We’ll keep working on that in practice and we will try to get better for West Union. It’s still so much better to play teams that we’re a little more familiar with.”
The Warriors wasted no time scoring again before the first quarter ended and after their defense forced a Manchester punt. Taking over at their own 38, the visitors drove into the red zone where they got another Carrington scoring pass, this time from 20 yards out on an acrobatic leaping catch by Matthew Page over a Greyhound defender. The two-point try again failed but the first quarter ended with the Warriors on top comfortably 20-0.
After the early stumbles, the Greyhound offense, missing two key players under suspension, was able to move the ball but every drive seemed to stall at a crucial time for one reason or another. Their first possession of the second period took them into Warrior territory where they were stopped on a fourth and two play from the Southern Buckeye 33. The Warrior offense took quick advantage of that defensive stop and drove down the field in just four plays, getting a four-yard scoring run from Gabe Puckett and a Lainhart conversion run to make it 28-0.
It was the same story when the Manchester offense got the ball back- a 13-play drive ended at the Souther Buckeye 19-yard line on an incomplete pass attempt on fourth down and again chunk plays of 13, 13, 12, and 36 yards took the Warriors into the red zone where they got a 13-yard run to the house from Trevor Stamper. The extra point attempt was blocked but the visitors took a 34-0 lead into the intermission.
The gap on the scoreboard meant a running clock in the second half, but that didn’t effect the Warriors when Carrington corralled the third quarter opening kickoff and scampered 77 yards for the touchdown, that with another Lainhart conversion run, put Southern Buckeye up 42-0.
The Warriors added to their lead again late in the third period when a five play, 71 yard drive culminated in a two-yard touchdown jaunt by Nick Manning and with three stanzas in the books, it was Souther Buckeye running away, 48-0.
Though they were hopelessly behind on the scoreboard, the Greyhounds made the fourth quarter interesting as their offense controlled the ball for the entire 12 minutes, running an astounding 25 plays to travel 80 yards and finally put some points on the board.
With just 1.3 seconds remaining on the clock, Bailey found receiver Alex Walters open in the end zone and the Hounds weren’t leaving with a goose egg on the scoreboard. Nick Grooms took in the two-point try as time ran out and the Hounds had salvaged a little pride but still fell to 0-7 with the 48-8 loss.
“That last score was huge for our guys,” said Coach Cook. “Any time we can get in the end zone that’s what we want.”
The Hounds are back on their home field on Friday, October 18 with a match up that has been anticipated for a few years, renewing the rivalry with the West Union Dragons. Kick off is set for 7 p.m. at Greyhound Stadium.
Southern Buckeye
20 14 14 0 –48
Manchester
0 0 0 8 –8
Scoring Summary
First Quarter:
SB- Hurley 4-yd. run (Lainhart run)
SB- Brown 20-yd. pass from Carrington (conversion failed)
SB- Page 20-yd. pass from Carrington (conversion failed)
Second Quarter:
SB- Puckett 4-yd. run (Lainhart run)
SB- Stamper 13-yd. run (kick failed)
Third Quarter:
SB- Carrington 77-yd. kickoff return (Lainhart run)
SB- Manning 2-yd. run (conversion failed)
Fourth Quarter:
MHS- Walters 2-yd. pass from Bailey (Grooms run)
