BRANDT – The Covington Buccaneers captured a 40-15 victory over Bethel with great effort and intensity, but there is still room for improvement as the team progresses.

The key for the Buccaneers that led to the victory on the scoreboard was several huge plays made by key players and the intensity given by the entire team. Still, there is room for improvement as there were mistakes on execution in all phases of the game – offense, defense, and primarily special teams.

The first mistake came on the opening kickoff as Bethel scored a touchdown on a 78-yard return. The mistake by Covington was the position by players and missed tackles. In just 13 seconds into the game, Bethel led 7-0.

After that opening mistake, it was obvious that the Buccaneers were ticked off by their performance. This led to an impressive opening drive by the offense as they powered their way 85 yards down the field in both rushing and passing. The drive was finalized by a six-yard touchdown pass from Landin Casell to Day’Lynn Garrett. Filip McMaken connected on the extra point to tie the score at 7-7 with 8:12 left in the opening period.

The Buccaneer Defense then held Bethel in three-and-out to force a punt and the offense put together another well executed drive that was capped by a 32-yard touchdown pass from Landin Cassel to Trenton Havenar. McMaken’s extra point put the Buccaneers up 14-7 with 5:31 left in the first period.

Filip McMaken put forth a great performance throughout the entire game and one of the key plays he made was an interception on the second play in the ensuing possession by Bethel. It took Covington just two plays to capitalize on the situation as Day’Lynn Garrett caught a short pass in the flat and raced 79 yards down the Bethel sideline for a touchdown.

Unfortunately, the second miscue by the special teams was a poor snap that forced a missed extra points to keep the score at 20-7 with 4:21 left in first.

To start the second quarter Bethel moved the ball into scoring position and attempted a 30-yard field goal that went wide right. This gave the Buccs the ball at their own 20.

The Buccs drove down the field on a huge catch made by Filip McMaken for 55 yards that set Covington up inside the red zone. Day’Lynn Garrett then hauled in a pass from Landin Cassel for a six-yard touchdown and a 27-7 lead with 9:48 left in the half.

Covington attempted an onside kick that failed, but held Bethel on a fourth down play to take the ball over near midfield. Unfortunately the Buccs came up just short on getting a first down that forced a punt for the first time in the game.

Fortunately, Jonny Miller picked off a Bethel pass to set the Buccs up for another potential scoring opportunity, but the Buccs went three-and-out and a poor snap on the punt resulted into a safety. This made the score 27-9 with 2;09 left in the half and all nine points were due to special teams miscues.

The Buccaneer defense continued playing well and forced Bethel to punt and take over the ball at their own 35 with 40.6 left and three timeouts. Unfortunately, time ran out and the score remained 27-9 at the half.

Covington’s offense struggled early in the second half as the opening possession ended on a punt and then the next offensive possession was hindered by two penalties.

Fortunately, the Buccaneers were able to scored a touchdown late in the third quarter on a 17-yard run by Landon Cassel. Unfortunately, the extra point was blocked that kept the score 33-9 heading into the final quarter.

After stopping Bethel on a fourth down play near midfield on the ensuing possession, the Buccs scored a few plays later on an 18-yard touchdown run by Landin Cassel. The extra point went through to push the lead to 40-9 with 9:36 left on a running clock.

The only critical miscue made by the Buccaneer Defense happened on the next possession by Bethel. The Bees eliminated the running clock by scoring on a 76-yard touchdown pass on the first play to make the score 40-15 with 8:19 left in the game.

The Buccs closed out the game in great execution by running the ball to eat up the rest of the clock.

Overall, the Buccs accumulated 494 yards of offense with 290 yards in the passing game and 204 yards on the ground.

Junior quarterback Landin Cassel put together the best performance at this point of his career as he made 16 successful passes out of 25 attempts for 290 yards and four touchdown passes. He also ran the ball 15 times for 106 yards and two touchdowns.

Senior Day’Lynn Garrett also had a huge game as he caught 10 passes for 160 yards and three touchdowns. The ten receptions is a new school record for the most receptions in a game.

Defensively, the Buccaneers only gave up one touchdown against Bethel (the other one being from special teams) and limited the Bees to just 181 yards – 27 yards rushing and 154 yards in passing.

Junior standout Trenton Havenatr had three tackles-for-loss against Bethel, which pushed his career total to 59.5 – a new school record.

Covington is now 3-4 overall and 3-1 in the TRC with the next game being a home contest against Northridge.

	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	FINAL
BUCCS	20	7	6	7	40
BEES	7	2	0	7	15