COVINGTON – The Covington Buccaneers had several opportunities to put so many more points on the board and eliminate opportunities for Fort Loramie, but miscues led to a 35-15 defeat.
Yes, the Buccaneers are relatively young and play really hard, but mistakes against a good opponent usually becomes the downfall in the final result. That’s what happened for Covington against Fort Loramie.
The Buccaneers started off really strong by moving the ball to the one yard line for a third-and-goal situation. Trenton Havener then powered his way into the end zone, but a penalty negated the touchdown and pushed the Buccaneers back to the six. Covington then was stopped at the one on fourth down.
The Buccaneers also had another scoring opportunity on a passing situation, but the play wasn’t executed as needed. This eliminated another scoring opportunity in the first quarter.
Fortunately, the score was 0-0 after the first quarter as the Buccaneer defense prevented Fort Loramie from gaining any momentum.
The Buccaneer offense was able to execute better in the second quarter, which led to a huge touchdown on a 20-yard pass from Landin Cassel to Day’Lynn Garrett to put the Buccs up 7-0 with 8:12 left in the half.
“Landin Cassell really shined as a player and a leader,” said Covington coach Austin Morgan. “He made great decisions, played hard and had great energy.”
Unfortunately Cassel’s passing stats of 4 completions on 18 attempts for 38 yards was hindered due to several dropped balls.
Fort Loramie was finally able to make a big play for itself late in the second quarter as Gabe Hart connected with Maxwell Maurer on a 32-yard touchdown pass to tie the score at 7-7 with 1:29 left in the half.
Covington responded by moving the ball near midfield and had a golden opportunity to eat up the clock on a very short fourth-and-one situation. Unfortunately a false start penalty forced the Buccaneers to punt, which gave Fort Loramie the ball with around 50 seconds left in the half.
The Buccaneer defense held up Fort Loramie until Covington was called for roughing the passer on fourth down to keep the Redskins’ possession alive with 6 seconds left in the half. On the next play Fort Loramie scored on a 28-yard touchdown pass to close out the half with 14-7 lead.
“We played really well in first quarter and the half,” Morgan said. “We ran the ball really well and made good decisions.”
The running game was Covington’s most impactful part of the offense as the Buccaneers tallied 210 yards on the ground. Jordan Miller rushed for 110 yards on 22 carries, while Landin Cassel had 70 yards on 10 carries.
Unfortunately, things went downhill fast for the Buccaneers in the third quarter as Fort Loramie scored on the opening possession to take a 21-7 lead.
The Redskins then scored again late in the third to take a 28-7 lead and followed with another touchdown early in the fourth quarter to go up 35-7.
Covington has a standard of giving maximum effort regardless of the circumstances and that mentality paid off on the ensuing possession as Landin Cassel broke free up the middle for a 48-yard touchdown run. He then ran in a two-point conversion to close the gap to 35-15 with 4:18 left in the game.
The Buccaneers tried to reclaim the ball on the ensuing kickoff, but Fort Loramie was ready for the intention. The Redskins scoop up the ball and returned it close to midfield and the ran out the clock as Covington didn’t have any more timeouts.
“The second half was a mix of injuries and lack of discipline,” Morgan explained. “Some small mistakes really hurt us. If we want to compete with great teams, these issues have to be fixed.”
Covington started the game with two key starters out of the lineup. Eli Brooks, a key offensive and defensive lineman, suffered a major cut on his face on Thursday and Filip McMaken, a key defensive back and receiver was out due to the flu.
Still, there were no excuses for what led to the first defeat of the season. It was self inflicted miscues that hurt the Buccs the most.
The Buccaneers, who are now 2-1, will look to rebound next Friday on the road at Troy Christian.
SCORING SUMMARY:
2nd – COV: Day’Lynn Garrett 20-yard pass from Landin Cassel. (Wyatt Parker Kick)
2nd – FL: Maxwell Maurer 32-yard pass from Gabe Hart. (PAT Good)
2nd – FL: Thomas Hoying 28-yard pass from Gabe Hart. (PAT Good)
3rd – FL: Gabe Hart 4-yd run. (PAT Good)
3rd – FL: Thomas Hoying 44-yard pass from Gabe Hart. (PAT Good)
4th – FL: Ty Kemper 14-yard pass from Gabe Hart. (PAT Good)
4th – COV: Landin Cassel 48-yard run. (Cassel 2pt run)
| 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | FINAL | |
| BUCCS | 0 | 7 | 0 | 8 | 15 |
| REDSKINS | 0 | 14 | 14 | 7 | 35 |
