ENON – When coach Larrie Tisdale carted his Covington Buccaneer gridiron crew off to Greenon Friday night for a Mad River Valley League encounter with the Knights, the Buccs must have felt that a victory over the winless Knights was in the bag.
Greenon had different ideas as to whose victory was in whose bag, and Covington almost came away with a black mark in their previosly unblemished MRVL loss column. After trailing by one touchdown at halftime, the Buccs finally bounced back to salvage a 22-6 league win, their third in as many MRVL outings, and their fourth seasonal victory in five attempts.
An early Covington mistake put the Knights on the doorstep with only three minutes gone in the stanza. After the Buccs had recovered a Greenon fumble on the opening kickoff, they were held on three downs, forcing a punting situation.
A bad snap from center caused the Covington punter to fumble and the Knights had possession on the visitors’ 20. Three plays later, Greg Cecil scored Greenon’s first, and only touchdown on an eight-yard run, and with 8:05 showing in the first period, it was 6-0, Greenon. The pass for the conversion failed.
Covington’s only touchdown of the first half was nullified by an illegal proceedure penalty as the first 24 minutes of ball ended with Covington on the short end of a 6-0 score.
The Buccs came out in the second half evidently ready to play ball. Nick Steel returned the opening kickoff 43 yards, and coupled with a personal foul on Greenon, moved the ball another 15 yards closer to the goal line. Three plays later, Bud Clark cracked over from the one, and Rex Huffman’s conversion pass to Dave Stacy put Covington in the lead to stay, 8-6.
The Bucc defense stiffened, and Covington took over the ball on downs on their own 31. Via some clutch pass receiving by Stacy, and some effective ground gaining by Clark and halfback Denny Cain, the Buccs moved the ball to the four where Clark found his way into the endzone for his second touchdown of the night. The conversion pass again went to Stacy, and the score stood at 16-6, with less than one minute remaining in the third quarter.
Cain tallied Covington’s final touchdown midway through the final stanza after the Buccs had stopped Greenon on their own 41. On the next play, Cain raced to paydirt, and the scoring closed at 22-6.
The Buccs are back in action next Friday when they play host to a rugged Springfield Shawnee bunch in a battle of the MRVL unbeaten.
Scoring By Quarters:
Covington …..0…..0…..16……6 – 22
Greenon …….0…..6……0…….0 – 6
Scoring Summary:
Greenon – Cecil, 8-yard run; PAT: pass failed
Covington – Clark, 1-yard run; PAT: Stacy pass from Huffman
Covington – CDlark, 4-yard run; PAT: Stacy pass from Huffman
Covington – Cain, 41-yard run; PAT: pass failed