KINGWOOD – Buckhannon-Upshur did what they do best against the Preston Knights in their grid outing Friday night and that is run the football.
The Buckhannon-Upshur offense ran for 285 yards and four touchdowns as they downed the Knights by a 25-12 score for their second straight win.
Savion Farmer led the B-U ground attack with 125 yards and three scores on 28 carries while Elijah Bryant ran for 97 yards on 11 attempts.
“Our offense is like a tank,” remarked Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Zach Davis. “It isn’t really flashy but we just keep coming at you.”
The Bucs came out strong and led 19-0 at the half before cruising their way to the 13-point win.
“We knew if we jumped on them early we would have a good shot at winning the game,” stated Davis. “I think we relaxed a little after going up 19-0 and the urgency wasn’t there. We had a little let up in the second half and that is something we need to work on.”
B-U scored on their first possession of the game marching 55 yards in eight plays with Farmer scoring the first of his three touchdowns with a nine-yard run.
Wyatt Mason’s kick was good as the Bucs took an early 7-0 with 3:36 elapsed in the contest.
The Bucs forced Preston to punt on their first possession and took over at their own 11-yard line.
Aided by a 43-yard run by Bryant, the Bucs found the end zone again in nine plays as Farmer ran it from five yards out to make it a 13-0 contest with 1:03 left in the first quarter.
The third B-U score was set up by Kaden Jordan who blocked a Preston punt and picked it up and returned it to the Preston 24-yard line.
The Bucs made it a 19-0 game with a five-play drive that covered those 24 yards when Farmer scored on an eight-yard run with 2:56 left in the opening half.
Buckhannon-Upshur took that 19-0 lead with them into the locker room at the half.
The game remained at 19-0 until the fourth quarter when Preston finally got on the scoreboard with a 10-yard reception by Ethan Likens from Slaton Manko with 4:54 remaining in the game.
The Bucs put the game away with a 10-play drive that went 61 yards and chewed up almost all of the remaining clock.
Blake Runyon rumbled in over left tackle from four yards out with nine seconds left in the game to make it a 25-6 contest.
The Bucs got sloppy in the final nine seconds allowing Preston a 40-yard kick-off return and then a 30-yard touchdown catch by Riley Land from Manko in the end zone on the final play of the game.
No extra-point conversion try was attempted.
Preston, who dropped to 1-8 on the year, managed 172 yards of total offense getting 34 on the ground and 138 through the air.
Manko completed nine of his 20 passes for 131 yards and two scores.
Riley Land led the Knight rushing game with 25 yards on two runs.
“Our defense played great again,” noted Davis.
The Bucs improved to 4-5 on the year and will close out their season next Friday hosting Elkins at 7 p.m.
The boxscore:
Buckhannon-Upshur 13 6 0 6 – 25
Preston 0 0 0 12 – 12
Scoring
Buckhannon-Upshur – Savion Farmer, 9-yard run (Wyatt Mason kick).
Buckhannon-Upshur – Farmer, 5-yard run (kick failed).
Buckhannon-Upshur – Farmer, 8-yard run (kick failed).
Preston – Ethan Likens, 10-yard pass from Slaton Manko (pass failed).
Buckhannon-Upshur – Blake Runyon, 4-yard run (kick failed).
Preston – Riley Land, 30-yard pass from Manko (no conversion attempt).
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs – Buckhannon-Upshur: 15 (12 rushing, 0 passing, 3 penalty); Preston: 10 (6 rushing, 3 passing, 1 penalty).
Rushing yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 53-285; Preston: 26-34.
Passing yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 0; Preston: 138.
Total yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 285; Preston: 172.
Passes –Buckhannon-Upshur: 0-2-1; Preston: 10-24-1.
Penalties – Buckhannon-Upshur: 3-43; Preston: 7-69.
Punts – Buckhannon-Upshur: 1-41.0; Preston: 3-37.0.
Fumbles – Buckhannon-Upshur: 3; Preston: 3.
Fumbles lost – Buckhannon-Upshur: 2; Preston: 0.
All-return yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 15; Preston: 123.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Buckhannon-Upshur – Savion Farmer 28-125 (3 touchdowns); Elijah Bryant 11-97; Bryson Johnston 8-32; Dawson Tenney 4-21; Wyatt Morris 1-6; Blake Runyon 1-4 (1 touchdown). Totals 53-285 (4 touchdowns).
Preston – Riley Land 2-25; Slaton Manko 7-9; Ethan Harper 3-2; Dillon Taylor 11-(-1); Shelden Miller 3-(-1). Totals 26-34.
Passing
Buckhannon-Upshur – Tenney: 0-for-2 for 0 yards, 0 touchdowns, 1 interception.
Preston – Manko: 9-for-20 for 131 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception; Taylor: 1-for-4 for 7 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions. Totals 10-for-24 for 138 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception.
Receiving
Buckhannon-Upshur – None.
Preston – Harper 2-16; Ethan Likens 2-13 ( 1 touchdown); Miller 2-10; Taylor 1-56; Land 1-20 (1 touchdown); Brier Rugg 1-15; Cole Turner 1-8. Totals 10-138 (2 touchdowns).
