FAIRMONT – The Buckhannon-Upshur Middle School Football Little Bucs ran their record to a perfect 4-0 after a dominating 35-8 victory over the East Fairmont Hornets Wednesday evening at East-West Stadium.
The Little Buc defense held East Fairmont to just two yards rushing and with the exception of one breakdown on East Fairmont’s scoring playing, they stymied the Hornet offense the entire game.
Meanwhile, the Little Buc offense racked up 358 yards rushing the ball.
“We are lucky to have four good running backs,” stated Buckhannon-Upshur Middle School head coach Dave Chipps. “We are very balanced in the backfield. If they key on one back we are going to run someone else. We can just go down the line with our backs that way. Give credit to our line as well, they are opening up the holes for them and we are taking advantage of that.”
The Little Bucs fumbled the ball away on their first possession and on East Fairmont’s first play, Rowan Cramer hit Blake Haller on a slant pattern and Haller went 75 yards for the score.
The same duo hooked up for the two-point conversion as East Fairmont took an 8-0 lead but it was all Buckhannon-Upshur after that.
The Little Bucs tied the game on their next possession going 57 yards in just four plays with the drive ending on a 17-yard touchdown run by Dylan Foster.
Foster ran in the two-point conversion making it an 8-8 game with 3:27 left in the opening quarter.
The B-UMS defense forced East Fairmont to punt the ball away on their next drive and took over the ball at the Hornet 45-yard line.
Brody Jeran took the ball to the East Fairmont eight-yard line with a 37-yard scamper and Foster finished off the drive with runs of seven and one for the score.
The conversion run failed but B-UMS owned a 14-8 lead with 37 seconds left in the first quarter.
The score remained 14-8 at the intermission.
On their first drive of the second half, the Little Bucs went 56 yards in six plays as Foster scored his third touchdown of the game with a five-yard run.
Aiden Snyder was good on his kick as the Little Bucs took a 21-8 advantage.
Following another East Fairmont punt, B-UMS went back to work with an eight-play drive that covered 79 yards and ended on a Jeran 27-yard run up the middle of the field.
Snyder was good on his kick as the Little Bucs upped their advantage to 28-8 with 4:40 remaining in the contest.
The Little Bucs put their final score on the board with 2:23 remaining when Zack Simmons went over the left corner for a 34-yard touchdown run. Snyder was again good with his kick making it 35-8.
Leading the B-UMS rushing attack was Foster with 173 yards on 17 carries and three scores while Jeran gained 137 yards on nine attempts and owned one score.
“We were a little sloppy early on, but we overcame some early mistakes and the team played a good football game, especially in the second half,” concluded Chipps. “I am very proud of how we played after giving up that big play early to East Fairmont. We shut them down after that.”
The Little Bucs will be back in action Thursday hosting Tucker County.
The game will kick-off at 6:30 p.m.
The boxscore:
Buckhannon-Upshur 14 0 7 14 – 35
East Fairmont 8 0 0 0 – 8
Scoring
East Fairmont – Blake Haller 75-yard pass from Rowan Cramer (Haller pass from Cramer).
Buckhannon-Upshur – Dylan Foster, 17-yard run (Foster run).
Buckhannon-Upshur – Foster, 1-yard run (run failed).
Buckhannon-Upshur – Foster, 5-yard run (Aiden Snyder kick).
Buckhannon-Upshur – Brody Jeran, 27-yard run (Snyder kick).
Buckhannon-Upshur – Zack Simmons, 34-yard run (Snyder kick).
First downs – Buckhannon-Upshur: 16 (16 rushing, 0 passing, 0 penalty); East Fairmont: 6 (1 rushing, 3 passing, 2 penalty).
Rushing yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 32-358; East Fairmont: 17-2.
Passing yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: (-4); East Fairmont: 140.
Total yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 354; East Fairmont: 142.
Passes – Buckhannon-Upshur: 1-3-0; East Fairmont: 6-14-0.
Penalties – Buckhannon-Upshur: 6-50; East Fairmont: 4-38.
Punts – Buckhannon-Upshur: 0-0.0; East Fairmont: 4-31.3.
Fumbles – Buckhannon-Upshur: 1; East Fairmont: 2.
Fumbles lost – Buckhannon-Upshur: 1; East Fairmont: 1.
All-return yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 88; East Fairmont: 56.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Buckhannon-Upshur – Dylan Foster 17-173 (3 touchdowns); Brody Jeran 9-137 (1 touchdown); Zack Simmons 2-51 (1 touchdown); Forest Catlin 3-(-1); Brody McDaniels 1-(-2). Totals 32-358 (5 touchdowns).
East Fairmont – Jackson Heskett 2-19; Lynex Williams 2-3; Tony Preolitti 2-(-1); Trent Culp 1-(-3); Rowan Cramer 10-(-16). Totals 17-2.
Passing
Buckhannon-Upshur – McDaniels 1-for-3 for (-4) yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions.
East Fairmont – Cramer 6-for-14 for 140 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions.
Receiving
Buckhannon-Upshur – Catlin 1-(-4).
East Fairmont – Culp 3-48; Blake Haller 2-93 (1 touchdown); Preolitti 1-(-1). Totals 5-140 (1 touchdown).
