MIAMISBURG – The Covington Buccaneers improved to 2-0 on the season with a 14-7 victory over Dayton Christian in a game where a valuable learning experience was on display.
“It was good to get a win, but there was too much complacency on our part,” said Covington coach Austin Morgan. “The complacency started earlier this week in practice and sometimes when that happens it carries over to a game.”
The complacency wasn’t a lack of effort by any means. The Buccaneers gave the effort needed, but the execution wasn’t at the standard of the program – especially on offense where there were way too many dropped passes and missed opportunities when huge potential plays were in the mix.
“That’s on the coaching,” said Morgan. “I should have had us run the ball much more than having us try to be too fancy through the passing game, especially in the first half. That’s on me.”
Covington did eventually implement the running game late in the first half, which led to a well executed drive after Jack Blumenstock recovered a Dayton Christian fumble near midfield. The Buccaneers used the gritty running of sophomore Jordan Miller to drive the ball to the three on a second-and-goal. Miller then closed out the drive with a three-yard run to put the Buccaneers up 7-0 with 38 seconds left in the half.
“Our backs ran hard,” praised Morgan of Jordan Miller and Tanner Palsgrove, a duo who battled hard in the ground game. “We should have stuck to the run game more.”
Covington’s struggle to get things rolling offensively put the defense in tough situations throughout the game and gave Dayton Christian so many more opportunities for offensive plays. Overall, the Warriors had 56 offensive plays to 44 for the Buccs.
Fortunately, it was the Buccaneer defense that saved the day by playing lights out.
“Our defense played extremely well tonight,” said Morgan. “We had some big stops in critical situations and Trenton Havenar made a huge play that pretty much sealed the game.”
The play by Havenar came in a critical situation when Dayton Christian had taken advantage of a short punt by the Buccs and moved the ball inside the Covington 20 late in the fourth quarter. Havenar rushed the quarterback and then ripped the ball out of his hands and raced 75 yards for a touchdown to put the Buccs up 14-0 with 2:31 left in the game.
Still, Dayton Christian never relented and batted back to put itself in position to make a comeback. The Warriors scored in 49 seconds on a 40-yard touchdown pass to close the gap to 14-7 with 1:42 left on the clock.
Dayton Christian then attempted a squib kick on the ensuing kickoff, but it rolled out of bounds to put the Buccaneers in a great position to seal the game. Sophomore quarterback Landin Cassel ran the ball for 16 yards for a first down and then took a knee to close out the game with a tough win.
“We didn’t execute to our standard, but with the way these kids kept fighting helped us overcome our mistakes,” Morgan said. “Hopefully we can build on this and continue to focus on our process for progression.”
Offensively, Covington racked up 224 yards of offense on 44 plays with 204 yards on the ground and just 20 yards through the air. Jordan Miller tallied 132 yards on 15 carries for 8.8 yards-per-carry.
The defense held Dayton Christian to 214 yards on 56 plays with 150 yards coming through the air.
The Buccaneer offense committed two turnovers, both on interceptions, while the defense forced three turnovers on fumbles and one more on an interception by Garrett Leistner.
Next up for Covington is another challenging opponent as the Buccs host Fort Loramie next Friday.
SCORING SUMMARY:
2nd – COV: Jordan Miller 3-yd run (Wyatt Parker Kick) – 7-0
4th – COV: Trenton Havenar 75-yd fumble return (Wyatt Parker Kick) – 14-7
4th – DC: Brody Schmidt 40-yd pass from Noah Wickline (PAT Good)
| 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | FINAL | |
| BUCCS | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 14 |
| WARRIORS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
