September 17, 2004 – Covington
The Covington Buccaneers celebrated their annual homecoming festivities with a 42-12 win over National Trail in Cross County Conference play at Covington’s Smith Field.
After crowning the new queen, Ashley Ouellette, the Buccs struggled containing the National Trail offense on the Blazers’ opening drive. National Trail ate up 5:00 off of the clock on the drive, which was concluded with a 3-yard touchdown run by Bryce Conway to put the Blazers up 6-0 before Covington even touched the ball.
Covington responded on its first possession as Gene Studebaker took the second offensive play and raced 64 yards for the score. Matt Fulks broke the 6-6 tie with the extra point to give Covington a 7-6 lead.
After stopping Trail on its next possession, Covington wasted little time reaching the end zone again. This time sophomore quarterback, Seth Mohler, connected with senior wideout, Kevin Wright, on a 25-yard touchdown pass in which Wright made a spectacular catch at the goal line. Fulks’ extra point increased Covington’s lead to 14-6 with 9:29 left in the half.
“That was a nice throw by Seth and Kevin made a great catch,” said Covington coach Kevin Finfrock. “Seth threw the ball to the only place he could and Kevin made a great play on the ball.”
National Trail wouldn’t go away, however, as they put together another time consuming drive. It took them 8:14 seconds to go the length of the field, but Trail managed to cut Covington’s lead to 14-12 on another Conway touchdown run.
The two-point conversion failed, leaving the score 14-12 at the half.
“We didn’t play Buccaneer football in the first half,” commented Finfrock. “They (National Trail) controlled the line of scrimmage because we were not very physical. Trail had the ball for 41 plays in the first half alone. That wasn’t very good defense on our part.”
Covington made the necessary adjustments at halftime and lit the scoreboard up in the third quarter.
After Gene Studebaker took the opening kickoff to the Blazers’ 23, junior fullback Nick Christian pounded his way in from the one to increase Covington’s lead to 21-12 with just 1:59 gone in the quarter.
The Buccs’ defense stepped up and dominated the Trail offense, forcing them to punt away their opening possession of the half.
The Covington offense continued to roll as Seth Mohler hit Nick Christian for a 12-yard touchdown pass on the rollout. Fulks connected on his fourth straight extar point and suddenly Covington broke the game open, 28-12.
The Buccs scored again before the third quarter ended as junior defensive lineman, C.J. Potter scooped up a blocked punt and raced 22 yards for his first high school touchdown. Again, Fulks was good on the point-after, increasing Covington’s lead to 35-12 with 5:26 left in the third.
The Buccs would add one more score for good measure early in the fourth quarter as Nick Christian pounded his way in from 3 yards out. Fulks’ final extra point of the night gave Covington the 42-12 win.
“We were an entirely different team in the second half,” described Finfrock. “The main adjustment we made at halftime was attitude. We took over the line of scrimmage and controlled the second half.”
Covington was led by sophomore running back, Gene Studebaker, who racked up 188 yards on just 14 carries. Covington accumulated 235 yards on the ground and 285 yards of total offense.
National Trail was solid on the ground as well with 170 yards rushing, many coming in the first half. The Blazers held an advantage in first downs with 10 to Covington’s 6 and in the number of plays, 59 to 42.
Covington improves to 3-1 on the season and 2-1 in the CCC, while Trail drops to 1-3 overall and 0-3 in conference play.
Covington travels to Ansonia next Friday.
Scoring by Quarters:
Buccs: …….7……7…..21…..7 – 42
Trail: ………6……6……0…..0 – 12
