COVINGTON – The Covington Buccaneers fall to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the TRC after a gut wrenching 23-17 loss to a very athletic Bethel team.

On the clock in the weight room are two Buccaneer logos that communicates the philosophy that the Buccaneers are competing against themselves each and every week. Wins are determined by hard work, high energy, maximum effort, team unity, proper preparation and execution.

On Friday against Bethel, the Buccaneers accomplished everything that determines a win except execution. Execution was the downfall in the loss in a game that could have and should have went Covington’s way.

Here are the critical instances of the lack of execution, which is the reason the Buccaneers beat themselves.

First, Covington surrendered a touchdown on the opening kickoff due to the special teams unit failing to stay in the proper position to prevent the kick returner from finding an open lane. Credit does go to Bethel for taking advantage of the opportunity as Landen Cornwell used his blazing speed to burst his way to the end zone.

Second, the Buccaneers moved the ball inside the red zone twice in the first half, but failed to keep the potential scoring drives alive by being stopped on fourth-and-short on plays where the Buccs should have been able to execute due to the physicality of the offensive line. Again, credit does go out to Bethel because its defense was able to make the stops needed.

Third, the Buccaneers had two more drives moving into potential scoring situations, but turned the ball over via fumbles. Yes, Bethel was able to force the fumbles by punching the ball out of the hands of the Buccaneers, but there is always a huge amount of emphasis by the coaching staff on the importance of protecting the football.

Fourth, the Buccaneers gave themselves a golden opportunity to put themselves in position to possibly win the game by forcing Bethel to punt during the fourth quarter. Bethel punted the ball very high and the ball bounced off the back of a Buccaneer player and into the hands of the Bees.

Lastly, the penalties the Buccaneers committed happened in inopportune times.

“If we eliminated half of our mistakes, this game would have went better for us,” said Covington coach Austin Morgan. “We knew coming in Bethel is pretty talented, but we felt we had a good chance to win this game because of the amount of work our kids put in.”

Even with these major miscues, the Buccaneers had a chance to win against a talented team due to their overall toughness and gritty effort.

Bethel led 10-3 in the first half and then increased its advantage to 16-3 at the end of the third period. The Bees scored again early in the fourth on a 34-yard run by Landen Cornwell to go up 23-3 after the Buccaneer miscue on the punt.

Covington responded quickly as Landin Cassel threw a perfect ball to Day’Lynn Garrett down the home sideline for an 80-yard touchdown to close the gap to 23-10 with 6:05 left in the game.

The Buccaneer defense then forced Bethel to punt on the ensuing possession and capitalized once again with a well executed drive to close the gap to 23-17 on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Cassel to Parker Hoying with 2:19 left in the game.

Covington attempted an onside kick, which Bethel recovered, and the Buccaneer defense was able to keep the clock in contention as two timeouts were still available. The defense held the Bees in check again and forced a punt, which gave the Buccaneers one final opportunity with the possession starting at the 15.

Unfortunately, after gaining a first down, three straight passing plays didn’t materialize and the Buccs were forced to go for broke on a fourth-and-ten situation. The final offense play ended with an interception in a situation where the Buccs had to put the ball up for grab in a hope to put themselves in a distance for a potential score with 30 seconds left.

Bethel then took a knee to end the game.

“I like the effort we gave, but we have to keep finding ways to improve with our execution,” Morgan said. “This loss is a hard one to swallow because we had so many things we should have executed much better than we did.”

Coach Morgan’s perception of the game is completely accurate as Covington tallied 266 yards of offense on 47 plays, while Bethel had 259 yards on 58 plays.

Where Bethel was able to have its most success was in the ground game as the Bees tallied 211 yards on 47 carries and ate up a huge amount of the time on the clock. The key performer for the Bees was junior Landen Cornwell, who rushed for 106 yards on 18 carries, caught three passes for 35 yards and also ran 80 yards for a touchdown on the opening kickoff.

For Covington, sophomore quarterback Landin Cassel had a solid game as he threw two touchdowns in his 165 yards through the air and rushed for 75 yards on just eight carries. Day’Lynn Garrett made some big plays on the receiving end as he caught three passes for 120 yards and one touchdown.

From here on out the Buccaneer schedule is still a stiff challenge over the next five games, which starts next Friday at Northridge.

SCORING SUMMARY:
1st – BET: Landen Cornwell 80-yd kick return (Logan Newell Kick) – 0-7
2nd – BET: Logan Newell 39-yd field goal – 0-10
2nd – COV: Wyatt Parker 31-yd filed goal – 3-10
3rd – BET: Remi Brannon 4-yd run (Kick Blocked) – 3-16
4th – BET: Landen Cornwell 34-yd run (Logan Newell Kick) – 3-23
4th – COV: Day’Lynn Garrett 80-yd pass from Landin Cassel (Wyatt Parker Kick) – 10-23
4th – COV: Parker Hoying 10-yd pass from Landin Cassel (Wyatt Parker Kick) – 17-23

	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	FINAL
BUCCS	0	3	0	14	17
BEES	7	3	6	7	23