August 25, 2023 Nelsonville-York 21 - 9 Newark Catholic

[Buck Nut]

NY doesn’t have much time to dwell on the tough loss as NC travels to Buchtel next week. Will be a tall task for NY.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

After Getting a report from my brother who was at the Newark Catholic game I can see NVY easing to the win.

[The Voice aka LR]

I’m pulling for Rusty in this one. I know I have Falcon pride now and he’s got Buckeye pride but we’re both still have some Tomcat in us. So go Buckets. Buckeye Pride from the big fella.

[RupertHowdy]

NY has a lot of things to fix.. on both sides of the ball… I think the boys will settle in eventually, but IMO it will be mid season before it starts to show. I wish there would have been adjustments made after the Logan and New lex scrimmage’s but sometimes it takes what happened last night to wake everyone up. Watching NC’s film I don’t think they are the team they were last year but they still impress. If The Bucks make the needed changes.. this one could go either way.. if they stick with what they have.. gonna be a rough one..

GO BUCKS!

[Run baby run]

I can see some changes being made this week for the Buckeyes. Will it be enough to win? Maybe, maybe not.

[Glousterite]

Good luck to NY from over the hill.

[Buck Nut]

Game time has been moved to 7:30

[noreply66]

Hard to beat NC.

[NoCouchCoach]

Good luck to the Coach Richards and the Buckeyes

[noreply66]

03/00 NC

[Buck Nut]

NY 7
NC 3

3:09 2nd

[Buck Nut]

NY 14
NC 3

7:15 3rd

[Buck Nut]

NY 21
NC 9

6:11 4th Bucks came to play tonight

[Buck Nut]

Nelsonville-York 21
Newark Catholic 9
Final

Defense played lights out! Go bucks!!

[mattash]

Huge win

August 25, 2023 Nelsonville-York 21 - 9 Newark Catholic

[noreply66]

Nice win for the Buckeyes

[GRFan]

Congrats to the Buckeyes! Great win.

[Attack]

Great win for coach Richards and the Buckeyes. R23 has the potential to be a war.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

I had NY your in the pickem contest.

[Buck Nut]

Athens Messenger
Article by: Eric Decker

NELSONVILLE — Don Coryell might’ve been pleased with the efforts from Newark Catholic on Friday night. I don’t think the innovator of the “Air Coryell” offense would’ve been nearly as happy with the results.

The Nelsonville-York Buckeyes grabbed three interceptions, including a 47-yard touchdown return from Landen Inman, as a dominant defensive performance guided the a 21-9 win over the Green Wave. The win moves the Buckeyes to 1-1 on the year and grab retribution for the 45-0 defeat to Newark Catholic last season.

“We had our two best practices of the year, so I’m very proud of our seniors and our upperclassmen,” head coach Rusty Richards said after the win when asked about the preparation this week. “We don’t quit. It sucks losing to Trimble, we hate it. But you know what? You’ve got to move on. I’m very proud of these guys coming out and they didn’t dwell on it”

Committing early and often to an air-raid offense, the Green Wave would consistently see inconsistent results. 12 of the first 16 plays from scrimmage were pass plays. By the end of the first half, Newark Catholic’s Miller Hutchinson finished 12/31 passing.

Even with struggling to consistently throw, Newark Catholic would move the ball down field and get into a dangerous scoring position early in the night.

Towards the end of the first quarter, the Green Wave would move into the red zone and get all the way down to the one yard line. Nelsonville-York’s defense, as it seemed to do so often on the night, stepped up massively with a goal line stand. On third down, A pass attempt from Hutchinson would go through the hands of Gavin Richards who made a fantastic effort to get over to defend. Had Richards caught it though, he probably would’ve been off 100 yards the other direction.

In the end, the Buckeyes were able to hold Newark Catholic to a field goal, making it a 3-0 game at the time.

For as well as the defensive unit was performing, the offense was struggling to put together consistent yards for Nelsonville-York. It wouldn’t be until coach Richards turned to some creative tinkering that the Buckeyes started to move the ball.

Having found some success with it before, Richards decided to move Inman to the quarterback spot for a wildcat-style offense. On his first rushing attempt, Inman went 38 yards to put Nelsonville-York in opposing field position. Inman started to make noise offensively, but he would set the place in an uproar a little later on the defensive side of the ball.

Late in the first half, Inman would pick Hutchinson off on a wild throw attempt and then drag the QB into the endzone following a 47 yard return, giving Nelsonville-York a 7-3 lead. Jacob Jones would then snag an interception of his own in the final moments of the half.

“These guys have a really nice quarterback and nice running back. We had to mix coverages up, they’re smart enough where we couldn’t run the same so we ran about 3-4 coverages,” Richards noted. “Landon, we were trying something new with him and he finally went in there and got that pick-6, it was a momentum changer for us.”

Momentum would seem to halt completely for the Buckeyes early in the second with the offense turning the ball on each of their first two plays of the second half. It’s a good thing then that the defense was playing as dominantly as it was.

Continuing to pressure the Green Wave, the Buckeyes would sack Hutchinson on fourth down on Newark Catholic’s 30 yard line to help set up the offensive in favorable field position. A few plays later, Gavin Richards would scamper 21 yards into the end zone on a fourth down to make it a 14-3 game.

It took a while, but the Green Wave would soon have a marching drive that would end favorably for them. Towards the start of the final quarter, Hutchinson was able to sneak in at the goal line to culminate a 70-yard drive with a touchdown to make it a 14-9 game. Trying to make it a field goal game, Newark Catholic were stuffed by the Buckeyes on the two-point conversion attempt.

With it becoming a one-score game once again, Nelsonville-York’s next drive would become crucial. They would respond with an 11-play, 58-yard drive that would end with Richards spinning in for his second touchdown of the half to give the Buckeyes a 21-9 lead with just a few ticks over six minutes remaining.

“We just decided that hey, we have to come out and impose our will in the second half and we fired those lineman up at halftime. That last drive, when we needed to get that to go up 12 and feel a little safe, we never threw a pass and we never came out of our jumbo package.”

Newark Catholic would seemingly get into the red zone within two plays on the next possession to tense up the crowd one last time. The only issue is that the Green Wave receiver would drop the ball within the 10-yard line as Tommy Mitchell hopped on the loose ball.

Richards would eventually make up for the missed pick in the first half with a game-sealing interception with three minutes remaining.

Coming into this season with the highest of expectations, Nelsonville-York’s response after a brutal loss a week ago should tell you everything you need to know about this iteration of the Buckeyes. They’re still Nelsonville-York.