Friday, Oct. 19, 2001 – COVINGTON
The Covington Buccaneers continue to roll as they notched up their second straight shutout with a convincing 51-0 win over Tri-County North. The Buccs appear to be hitting their stride at the perfect time.
In their last two games, they have outscore their opponents 130-0. The wins were against two teams with a combined one win this season but the domination for the Buccs is still impressive considering they could have fallen victim to looking past their last two opponents.
The Buccs did start out slow, however. Tri-County North played hard and didn’t reflect the 1-7 record they brought to the table. After one quarter of play, all the Buccs could manage was a touchdown run by Boomer Schmidt to give them a 6-0 lead. Two more touchdowns, one each by Jordan Shafer and Mike Molesky, gave the Buccs a 19-0 lead at the half.
The second half was more of what the Buccs had in mind.
Mike Molesky picked off a North pass that set up a 42-yard Josh Burelison run that broke the game open. The Buccaneer passing attack also looked impressive as Dusty Blythe connected with Alex Hague for 2 touchdown passes.
The reserves took over and never missed a beat. Led by the hard-nosed running of Jesse Hitt and freshman Mike Varno the Buccs continued to roll over the North defense. Varno rushed for a touchdown and Brady Reck connected with Dusty Rhoades on a 44-yard scoring strike.
The win gave the Buccs at least a share of the CCC title because Anna lost to Bethel 28-14. A win next week against Anna will give the Buccs sole possession of the CCC championship and a second straight 10-0 regular season.
A Bright Future…
Next year the Buccs will have to make due without Josh Burelison. Boomer Schmidt will be back and hopefully Mutt Reck will return from the knee injury, but there are two more players who may see plenty of playing time in the backfield next season. Those two players are Jesse Hitt and Mike Varno.
Hitt and Varno have been raising some eyebrows with the way they run the ball. Tonight both players had the opportunity to run behind the starting offensive line on a few plays. Each took advantage of their opportunities as Hitt racked up 77 yards on 9 carries while Varno went for 48 yards on 7 carries and a touchdown.