COVINGTON – Covington has suffered unfortunate adversity in the first start of the season and now with the majority of the injured players back into the lineup the Buccaneers showed their grit and determination in a convincing 34-6 victory over Riverside.

Yes, it is the Buccs’ first win of the season, but this performance displayed how talented this team actually is.

The tone started on the opening drive of the game as the Buccs started off at their 25-yard line and drove down the field with impressive execution. This was led by two long runs from junior quarterback Landin Cassel, the last one being 27 yards for the opening score. Filip McMaken connected on the extra point attempt to give the Buccs a 7-0 lead.

Riverside started off at its own 30 and the Buccaneer defense stuffed the Pirates on three straight plays to force a punt.

The Buccaneers then put together a time consuming, 70-yard drive that was capped by a 20-yard touchdown run by Jordan Miller. McMaken’s second straight extra point pushed the lead to 14-0 with 3:46 left in first.

Riverside started the next possession at its own 30 again and put themselves inside the red zone. Fortunately, the Buccaneer defense shut down the Pirates and ended the drive on a fourth-and-fifteen play where Tyler Palsgrove made a tackle to set the Buccs up at their 11.

Covington then made a mistake and went three-and-out. The punt started Riverside at the Buccs’ 42 and once again Covington’s defense stopped the Pirates on a fourth down play with a pass breakup by Filip McMaken.

This put the Buccs at their own 21 and Tyler Palsgrove took over the third scoring drive of the game as he ran 65 yards to put Covington at first-and-goal at the five. Palsgrove followed up by running into the end zone on the next play. A bad snap forced the Buccaneers to try to throw for a two-point conversion, but it failed as the score was 20-0 with 8:06 left in the half.

Covington then tried an onside kick that didn’t work, but the defense held the Pirates in check by shutting them down on a fourth-and-eight situation to take the ball at their own 42. The Buccs then moved to the 27, but turned the ball over on a fumble.

The Buccaneers continued to play extremely well defensively by holding the Pirates to a three-and-out, which force them to punt. Covington took over the ball at the Riverside 46 with 29.5 left in half and Landin Cassel threw pass to Day’Lynn Garrett to set the Buccs up into a possible scoring position at the 21 with 19.4 left in the half. Unfortunately, time was limited and the Buccaneers had to attempt a pass into the end zone, which was picked off by Riverside.

The second half started with Riverside at its own 33 and the Pirates put together an impressive drive that was capped by a 15-yard pass on a fourth down play. The extra point failed, which made the score 20-6 in favor of Covington with 5:45 left in third.

Covington failed to put together a well executed drive on the next possession and put the ball back in Riverside’s possession at its own 22. Fortunately, once again Covington’s defense got the ball back at the 42 and Landin Cassel followed up by tossing a pass in the flat to Trenton Havener. Havenar took advantage of the scoring opportunity by powering through two Riverside defenders to get into the end zone from the 17. Filip McMaken made his third straight extra point attempt to push Covington’s lead to 27-6 with 7:16 left in the game.

In Riverside’s next possession the Buccs held the Pirates on fourth down to take over the ball 33 yards from the end zone. Day’Lynn Garrett had three great runs that put the Buccs inside the five and he closed out the drive by scoring on a 4-yard run up the gut. McMaken’s fourth extra point put the Buccs up 35-6 with 4:26 left on the clock.

Riverside’s next possession was ended on a fourth-and-six play on a pass that was knocked down by Filip McMaken. The Buccs got the ball at their own 35 with 3:02 left and the junior varsity players were on the field throughout the rest of the game.

Overall, Covington tallied 371 yards of offense with 311 of the yards put together in the rushing game. Landin Cassel rushed for 158 yards on 14 carries, while Tyler Palsgrove tallied 82 yards on six carries and Jordan Miller had 38 yards on seven carries.

Landin Cassel also executed well in the passing game due to a great performance by the offensive line to protect him from defensive pressure. Cassel connected on six of 10 passes for 60 yards and threw one touchdown. He did throw one interception, but that was at the end of the first half where he had to toss the ball up into the end zone for a possible touchdown in limited time.

Defensively, the Buccaneers played extremely well as they held Riverside to 213 yards throughout the entire game. Covington’s secondary played at a high level by holding the Pirates to just 29 yards on three receptions from 14 passing attempts.

Covington is now 1-4 overall and 1-1 in the TRC and have second straight home game next Friday against Troy Christian.

	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	FINAL
BUCCS	14	6	0	14	34
PIRATES	0	0	6	0	6