Buchtel persevered through a long afternoon of adversity and a seemingly insurmountable deficit and suddenly found itself in position for a most unlikely victory Saturday.
The host Griffins finally ran out of time, though, as Cleveland Benedictine held on for a 35-27 win in a nonleague game with little flow that pushed well past the three-hour mark.
A sea of yellow flags, courtesy of the officials, led to frequent delays and frustrations often boiled over on both sides of the field. Meanwhile, Buchtel battled back from 20 points down in the third quarter to within six halfway through the fourth.
Benedictine (1-1) seemingly settled matters on DeCavilon Reese’s 35-yard scoring run — his third of the day — and he added a 2-point conversion run that made it 35-21 with 2:25 left, but the Griffins still didn’t fold.
Junior Brandon McGinnis hauled in a 48-yard bomb from senior quarterback Pyrce Taylor with 1:54 remaining, cutting the margin to eight. But the visiting Bengals recovered an onside kick attempt and converted two first downs to run out the clock.
“It’s kind of a reflection of how our kids live,” Buchtel coach Ricky Powers said. “They fight and then, bam, you get hit with two things. Things go well again, you get hit with three things.
“You’ve got to crawl your way out, and they did. We kept fighting, we kept fighting. We just ran out of time.”
Buchtel (0-2) is battling through its usual rugged early season schedule before tackling City Series foes in the latter part. The Griffins held a late 7-0 lead at Columbus Beechcroft last week before falling 13-7. Next week, they travel to GlenOak. Two weeks after that, they challenge powerful Lakewood St. Edward.
“It doesn’t get any easier,” said Powers. “It’s not like we’re going to play a team we know we can beat. We’ve just got to keep fighting, keep fighting and find ourselves and we’ll be fine.”
Taylor passed for two touchdowns and ran for another, completing 8-of-18 for 171 yards, as the Griffins fought back after trailing 27-7 with 3:55 left in the third quarter. And both teams had to endure a run of penalties virtually on every play during the second and early third quarters.
Buchtel was socked with 16 penalties for 130 yards and Benedictine was flagged 10 times for 115 yards, all but 15 of those in the first half.
“I like the way our guys played,” Powers said. “There were a lot of penalties. I’m not going to point the finger at the referees or anything. We’ve got to overcome it.”
Senior Brandon Tuck-Hayden ran 14 times for 68 carries and was a stalwart at linebacker.
A disastrous play for the Griffins provided Benedictine’s first score. A bad snap on a punt attempt resulted in a scramble for the loose ball. A Buchtel player recovered and began to run, then tried to lateral to a teammate.
Instead, the errant toss wound up in the hands of the Bengals, who converted it into a 26-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
Reese, who gained 149 yards on 22 rushes, ran 1 yard for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter. On Buchtel’s ensuing possession, Taylor found a wide-open Zyier Keen for a 40-yard scoring play. Devin West’s second of three successful extra-point kicks made it 14-7.
A 2-yard scoring run by Reese made it 21-7 at the half. And Bengal quarterback Levi Pokersnik’s 6-yard scamper increased it to 27-7 in the third.
Taylor’s 1-yard touchdown sneak early in the fourth capped a 65-yard drive. Buchtel senior Jamie Rogers raced 38 yards on a punt return to the 15, and five plays later McGinnis ran in from 1 yard out and it was 27-21 with 6:24 left.
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