PLYMOUTH, Ohio – Cody Roberts and the Buckeye Central offense pulled no punches Friday night at Plymouth High School, trouncing the Big Red 30-6 to open the 2015-16 season.
Roberts, a senior, ripped the Big Red for 169 yards on the ground – all of which came in the second half. He accounted for three of the team’s five touchdowns.
“I was just trying to prove to my teammates that I was sorry for my mistake, and I tried to make it up to them tonight,” Roberts said.
He and teammate Scott Heydinger, also a senior, sat out the first half of the game for violating team rules.
“We had to play the first half without a couple of our players – just a couple of incidents we had – so they had to sit for the first half,” Buckeye Central coach Jeff Niedermier said. “Once we got our team back, things really started firing for us.”
Roberts’ first score was a 1-yard rumble up the gut. The other two were dashes of 52 and 57 yards apiece.
“He’s a game-changer for us,” Niedermier said. “Our linemen were holding up inside and making holes, and he’s got great vision.
“He’ll find the holes, and, sometimes, if there’s not one, he’ll make his own.”
Young Big Red team struggles: In its first game at its new stadium, Plymouth put up 161 yards of total offense, majority of which came from senior Grant Weltlin. The runningback accounted for 104 of the Big Red’s total yardage.
“First off, that’s a great football team that beat us,” Plymouth coach Mark Genders said. “Anytime you make mistakes against a great football team, they make you pay – and they did.”
In the first half, Genders’ squad turned the ball over on downs twice while in the red zone. With 35 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Weltlin muscled his way into the end zone from 1 yard out.
It was Plymouth’s lone score.
“To still be in it at halftime at 12-6, we were still in position to do some good things,” Genders said. “We made just too many mistakes.”
Big Red quarterback Seth Bailey threw for 21 yards, completing four of his eight passes. His top target was Dylan Carroll, who caught two balls for 13 yards.
One bright spot, according to Genders, was his offensive line.
“We were winning the battle in the trenches early on for sure,” he said. “We just lost our composure, and with that comes mental mistakes.”
Veteran Bucks show versatility: In addition to Roberts’ scores, Buckeye Central reached paydirt on a 14-yard run from Owen Ackerman and a 2-yard mash from Nash Ehresman.
Through the air, senior QB Grant Loy completed 11 of 21 passes for 154 yards.
In all, the Bucks racked up 389 yards of offense.
“We want to keep winning, and by the end of the year, our goal is to be in the playoffs,” Roberts said. “Each week we have a step, and we finished our first step with a ‘W’.”
Up Next: Plymouth travels to St. Mary Central Catholic next Friday, while Buckeye Central hosts Seneca East.
“We just take it one week at a time, and we’ve got a very intense Seneca East game coming up next week,” Niedermier said. “We got them last year in a very tight game – it was a thunderstorm week last year, and we had to come back and finish the next day – but it was a very close game.”
“First off, that’s a great football team that beat us,” Plymouth coach Mark Genders said. “Anytime you make mistakes against a great football team, they make you pay – and they did.”
