WESTON – There have been over 110 football contests between some incarnation of Buckhannon-Upshur and Lewis County, but none of them had such a wild finish as the two teams put on Friday night in front of a packed house and homecoming crowd in Weston.
Regulation couldn’t produce a winner between the two teams, and unfortunately for the Bucs, they came up just short in a 35-34 overtime battle.
With the game tied at 28-28 in the fourth quarter, B-U held Lewis County on downs after a Taiwo Thropp sack of Lewis County quarterback Bryant Zielinski at the Buccaneer 28-yard line.
The Bucs moved the ball to the Lewis County 12-yard line, but a 29-yard field goal veered left with 10 seconds remaining moving the game into an overtime period.
The Bucs went on offense first in the overtime period and scored on their first play, a 20-yard run by Savion Foster, who wound up with 236 yards on 33 carries.
The point-after kick was no good but the Bucs led 34-28.
Lewis County, after losing a yard on their first play in the overtime period, scored just two plays later on runs of 19 and two by Braydon Carder.
Owen Accord nailed the extra-point kick to give Lewis County the one-point win.
“I thought our guys played really hard,” said Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Zach Davis. “We were down four starters due to injury and we were 10 seconds from victory. It’s an honor to coach our guys. Hats off to Dustin Cogar and Lewis County; they played a great game.”
The Bucs scored on the first possession of the game on a one-yard sneak by quarterback Dawson Tenney.
Lewis County scored three straight times behind a 39-pass from Zielinkski to John Cullen, a seven-yard run by Drew Cayton and a 19-yard pass to Zach James from Zielinski for a 21-7 lead.
B-U had a 71-yard passing touchdown wiped off the board from Tenney to Bryson Johnston late in the first quarter on a questionable holding call.
Buckhannon-Upshur scored again with 1:14 left in the half when Johnston took a pitch and went 24 yards in front of the B-U sideline for the touchdown making it a 21-14 game, which would be the score at the half.
Famer scored his first touchdown of the game on B-U’s first drive of the second half when he ran it in from five yards out tying the game at 21-21.
Lewis County scored in just 51 seconds later after a 60-yard kick-off return set up them up at the B-U 20-yard line.
Carder scored from eight yards out to give Lewis County at 28-21 lead with 4:01 remaining in the third quarter.
The Bucs tied the game at 28-28 when Tenney ran it in again from a yard out on the first play of the fourth quarter.
The Bucs outgained Lewis County by a 414-383 margin.
Lewis County, who was led by Carder and his two scores and 160 yards on 22 carries, improved to 3-3 on the year.
The loss was damaging for the Bucs playoff hopes as they fell to 2-4 on the season. They will return home to face Oak Hill next Friday for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Oak Hill will enter the game with a 4-3 record after beating Greenbrier East at home on Friday by a 26-13 score.
The boxscore:
Buckhannon-Upshur 7 7 7 7 6 – 34
Lewis County 7 14 7 0 7 – 35
(Scoring)
Buckhannon-Upshur – Dawson Tenney, 1-yard run (Wyatt Mason kick)
Lewis County – John Cullen, 39-yard pass from Bryant Zielinski (Owen Accord kick)
Lewis County – Drew Cayton, 7-yard run (Accord kick)
Lewis County – Zach James, 19-yard pass from Zielinkski (Accord kick)
Buckhannon-Upshur – Bryson Johnston, 24-yard run (Mason kick)
Buckhannon-Upshur – Savion Farmer, 5-yard run (Mason kick
Lewis County – Brayden Carder, 8-yard run (Accord kick)
Buckhannon-Upshur – Tenney, 1-yard run (Mason kick)
Buckhannon-Upshur – Farmer, 20-yard run (kick failed)
Lewis County – Carder, 2-yard run (Accord kick)
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs – Buckhannon-Upshur: 20 (16 rushing, 3 passing, 1 penalty); Lewis County: 18 (13 rushing, 5 passing, 0 penalty).
Rushing yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 59-360; Lewis County: 46-264.
Passing yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 54; Lewis County 119.
Total yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 414; Lewis County: 383.
Passes – Buckhannon-Upshur: 4-5-0; Lewis County: 6-8-0.
Penalties – Buckhannon-Upshur: 4-39; Lewis County: 6-75.
Punts – Buckhannon-Upshur: 2-31.5; Lewis County: 1-41.0.
Fumbles – Buckhannon-Upshur: 2; Lewis County: 1.
Fumbles lost – Buckhannon-Upshur: 1; Lewis County: 1.
All-return yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 13; Lewis County: 86.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Buckhannon-Upshur – Savion Farmer 33-236 (2 touchdowns); Bryson Johnston 15-93 (1 touchdown); Elijah Bryant 7-31; Dawson Tenney 2-2 (2 touchdowns); Liam Garcia 2-(-2). Totals 59-360 (5 touchdowns).
Lewis County – Braydon Carder 22-160 (2 touchdowns); Drew Cayton 6-57 (1 touchdown); Trenton Bush 11-43; Bryant Zielinski 7-4. Totals 46-264 (3 touchdowns).
Passing
Buckhannon-Upshur – Tenney 4-for-5 for 54 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions.
Lewis County –Zielinski 6-for-8 for 119 yards, 2 touchdowns, 0 interceptions.
Receiving
Buckhannon-Upshur – Farmer 2-20; Gavin Brown 1-24; Johnston 1-10. Totals 4-54.
Lewis County – Zach James 2-34 (1 touchdown); John Cullen 1-39 (1 touchdown); Carder 1-32; Bush 1-11; Cayton 1-6. Totals 6-119 (2 touchdowns).
