DANVILLE — Kaiden Colopy doesn’t want to put the cart before the horse.
But he thinks his Danville Blue Devils have something special brewing here. The boys in blue and white are 2-0 for the first time since 2017 – the year Danville made its second state semifinal in three seasons – and neither contest has been close.
They discarded Worthington Christian on the road last week, 33-17, before returning home and shutting out Bucyrus, 42-0, on Friday night.
Danville is now the only undefeated team left in Knox County, and one of two remaining in the Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference (alongside Northmor).
Colopy, one of four returning all-Ohioans on this year’s roster, is quick to acknowledge that it’s early. Eight weeks of regular-season football remain, including seven in the rough-and-tumble KMAC.
But he also believes Danville’s start – its best during his high school career – could offer a glimpse into the team’s long-term potential.
“We can do great things this year, I think,” the senior said with a smile. “I don’t want to say anything too soon, but I think we can do great things this year.”
THE GAME: Danville dominated Friday’s home opener from start to finish.
After Bucyrus’ opening drive stalled at the Blue Devils’ 27-yard-line, Danville made the visitors pay.
Senior tailback Max Payne rattled off a 56-yard carry two plays later, moving the ball deep into Bucyrus territory. Then, three Payne runs later, the 5-foot-10, 200-pound tank bulldozed his way into the end zone from 7 yards out, making it 7-0 Blue Devils with 7:04 left in the opening period (Payne kicked all extra points Friday night as well).
Danville’s defense allowed just two first downs the rest of the half. The Blue Devils swarmed Bucyrus quarterback Malachi Bayless, keeping him uncomfortable in the pocket, and they bottled up lead rusher Blayne Barto.
In the meantime, Danville’s offense never stopped humming.
Junior quarterback Walker Weckesser led the Blue Devils on a seven-play, 61-yard touchdown drive that took four minutes and included only run plays. Payne capped it off with a 4-yard touchdown dive up the gut, making it 14-0 heading into the second quarter.
Then it was Colopy’s turn. The wideout and defensive back also returns punts – as standout athletes at small schools often do – and when he caught one with just over 10 minutes left until halftime Friday, standing at his own 23-yard-line, he knew exactly what to do with it.
The senior cut up through the middle, then bounced outside, evading tacklers with ease. He bolted up the Danville sideline, tight-roping the chalk before juking back inside and outrunning multiple Redmen to the house.
As he glided into the end zone, Colopy pointed at the fans watching from truck beds behind the fence. The fans stood up, cheered and pointed back.
“It felt good,” Colopy said of the return. “I turned around, saw my teammate get that great block, and it was awesome. It was nice.”
Danville ended the first half on another long drive.
Weckesser led the Blue Devils on a 12-play, 80-yard march that lasted nearly five minutes. It included big plays from seniors Ryan Lucas (a 24-yard run up the gut) and Aaron Mezie (a 18-yard reception over the middle).
Weckesser eventually scampered into the end zone from 18 yards out, giving Danville a 28-0 lead going into the locker room.
Colopy said the team’s mentality Friday night was simple.
“Don’t let up, and just go,” Colopy said. “Just play hard, play like how we know how to play.”
The Blue Devils did more of that in the second half. They began the third quarter with a 11-play, 51-yard drive that lasted four minutes and concluded with a 7-yard touchdown burst from Weckesser, giving Danville a 35-0 advantage.
The clock ran from there. Danville scored once more on a 4-yard, direct-snap keeper from Lucas, following a botched punt deep in Bucyrus territory, setting the final margin with 9:58 to play.
Bucyrus nearly cracked the scoreboard late, but Danville’s second- and third-stringers wouldn’t allow it. Junior Nathaniel Stephens batted down a third-down end-zone heave, and a hoard of Blue Devils brought down Bucyrus wideout Kam Lewis with room to spare on fourth down, sealing the shutout for the home team.
The crowd roared with approval as the Blue Devils’ defense ran off the field, and the offense emerged to run out the clock.
KEY FACTORS: Danville is one of the most experienced teams in north central Ohio, and it showed Friday night.
The Blue Devils appeared bigger, faster and stronger at every position. And they also looked like they’d been there before – putting their foot down early and never letting up.
First-year head coach Matthew Blum said his upperclassmen have led by example so far this season.
“It’s everything. Their experience is everything,” he said. “My first year here (as an assistant coach), it was the COVID year, and I started two freshmen and two sophomores on the offensive line. Now, they’re all grown up.
“It’s an honor being able to coach those guys, because they take everything I give ’em. They’re very coachable. They work their butts off. They want to be coached hard. And obviously, we can see that we’re successful on Friday nights if we keep it up.”
Danville dominated at the point of attack Friday. The team’s veteran offensive line paved the way for breakout performances from Payne and Lucas, who traded carries and wore the Redmen down over time. It also kept Weckesser stress-free in the pocket, giving him ample time to make reads and throw.
Meanwhile, that same line wreaked havoc on the Redmen defensively, pressuring Bayless into uncomfortable situations and swallowing up ball carriers in the backfield.
“I think we’re doing the fundamental stuff right,” Blum said. “We’re able to run the ball, we’re able to stop the run on defense, and that’s gonna win us some football games.”
Pitching shutouts isn’t easy. Blum said it took a team effort to keep Bayless & Co. at bay.
“(Bayless is) a great player. We wanted to keep him in the pocket, and we wanted to send a lot of pressure at him. They have a hell of a receiver, (senior Randy Banks) is a really good receiver, so our secondary played lights-out and our defense played really lights-out tonight.
“They had a great game plan and we practiced hard all week.”
Danville appeared to be in attack mode from the opening kickoff. Blum said this was the case last week, and it’s been the case since training camp as well.
“All of our guys are playing with great energy, great passion,” Blum said. “They’re enthusiastic at all times. They’re being coachable. They’re doing a really nice job.
“Our players are doing a really good job right now, along with our staff. Our staff’s doing a great job preparing them for Friday nights.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Bucyrus will stay on the road next week and face another KMAC foe, Northmor (2-0). Danville, meanwhile, will head to North Union (2-0) for its third and final non-conference showdown.
Blum spoke highly of the Wildcats after Friday night’s victory, and said Danville would need to play its best football to stay unbeaten.
“We have a heck of a challenge next week,” Blum said. “North Union’s very similar to us, they bring back a lot of their talent from last year. (They’re) a very talented team, well-coached, so we’ve just gotta go into the game and compete like we did tonight. And if we do that, we’re gonna be just fine.
“We’re gonna compete as much as we possibly can, and that’s what we’re gonna do every single Friday night. We’ll see what the scoreboard says afterwards.”
But for the time being, Danville is 2-0 – something folks around here haven’t been able to say since the current senior class was in seventh grade.
Colopy is one of those seniors. He said Friday this season has felt like a new chapter – a fresh start – following years of turbulence.
“It feels great. We’re playing as a team, unlike the last couple years,” Colopy said. “We’ve been playing really well, and we’re just playing as a team.”
Nights like Friday show what Danville is capable of, Blum said. And the first-year coach believes his team is capable of quite a bit.
“I think the ceiling’s high for this team, I really do,” Blum said. “But I think it goes back to how hard these guys worked in the offseason. I mean, that’s the culmination of 6 a.m. workouts three days a week. That’s the culmination of summer workouts four to five days a week.
“I mean, they put a lot of hard work and effort into this, and our seniors and our captains are gonna take us as far as they possibly can. But we’re gonna take it week-by-week still. … The KMAC is a really good conference, top to bottom, so we’ve gotta respect our opponents every single week. We’re never gonna look ahead.”
