Nelsonville-York?s Derek Arnold (26) runs past an Athens defender during the second half. The Buckeyes won with the help of Arnold in the annual Athens County battle.
JOE HIGGINS
Messenger staff writer
NELSONVILLE - The Doc Kroner Trophy will remain in the hands of the Buckeyes.
Friday night's rivalry match-up between the Nelsonville-York Buckeyes and Athens Bulldogs exhibited a lot of positives, and some things each team will need to work on, during the 22-8 Nelsonville-York victory.
The Buckeyes showed off a talented offense between the arm of Michael Barrick, a strong 1-2 run threat between Derek Arnold and Zach Talbert, and a solid defense. Barrick completed 60 percent of his passes, Arnold and Talbert amassed over 200 yards on the ground and the defensive unit did not give up a point.
Athens is rebuilding with a brand new philosophy behind Ryan Adams with Tanner Cannon emerging as quarterback and Cameron Tope featured at tailback. Cannon completed 10 passes on the evening while Tope tallied 80 rushing yards to lead the team.
Week One football began with Athens putting together a sustained drive for the first half of the first quarter. The Buckeye defense tightened up in the last third of the field, stopping the Bulldogs at the 31-yard line. From there, Nelsonville-York's offense took over and took little time to hand the reins back to the defense.
After two running plays for little yardage, sophomore tailback Derek Arnold took his first toss as a starter 67 yards for the game's opening touchdown. Arnold demonstrated quick feet and used two cutback moves to elude the defense and make his way to paydirt at the 4:30 mark of the opening frame. The Buckeyes lined up for the two-point conversion and came through with a play-action pass from Barrick to Conner Bunting.
The Bucks struck again as time wound down in the half. Nelsonville-York was able to overcome a measure of adversity and put up another score.
After a delay-of-game penalty pushed the team back to the 21-yard line, Barrick hit Bunting from 13 yards out for a key first down. A steady diet of Arnold rushes helped carry the Buckeyes to the other side of the field and set up a first down at the 29-yard line. Arnold and Barrick combined runs to set up a third-and-short at the 20-yard line where an incomplete pass brought up fourth down.
Zach Talbert bullied his way for two yards and the new set of downs. Josh Dickerson kept the drive alive with a leaping catch on the sideline for 12 yards, allowing Barrick and Mark Campbell to hook up from 11 yards out for the touchdown with just under 30 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Arnold polished off the scoring drive by following a big push from his offensive line for the two-point conversion rush, sending the game to halftime with the home team ahead, 16-0.
The third quarter featured four fumbles lost. Three were by Nelsonville-York and the Bulldogs were able to capitalize. The critical mishap for the Buckeyes occurred when their defense forced a punt from the 37-yard line. A muffed catch by Arnold and recovery by Robby Glass gave Athens a new set of downs and a short field to play with.
Through the air, Tanner Cannon connected with Zach Strickmaker for 23 yards to set up first-and-10 at the Buckeye 19-yard line. Another hook-up between the two set up first-and-goal at the eight, but Nelsonville-York held fast. On third down from the six, Cannon dropped back to pass but slipped and Austin McDonald was there for the sack. Passing again on fourth down, Cannon targeted Strickmaker again but the pass was batted up in the air. Shad McCollum nearly made the catch but the ball fell to the ground for the turnover.
Even though the offense stalled, the defense picked up the slack for Athens. On the first play from scrimmage, Barrick was pressured into an ill-advised pass and Steven Eberts was able to pick it off and return the football seven yards for the touchdown. The two-point conversion pass was blocked by Robert Norway to make the score 16-6 after three quarters of play.
The Buckeyes didn't want to give the ball to the Bulldogs in the fourth quarter. Extending from the third period, Nelsonville-York chewed up over seven minutes off the clock before eventually handing the ball off to Talbert to punch it in from one yard out for a 22-6 score after a missed PAT.
The final score of the evening happened in a peculiar way. With just over a minute left on the clock, Nelsonville-York was set to punt the ball away from the 24-yard line. A high snap sailed over Talbert's head and the alert Buckeye booted the ball out of the end zone to allow a safety but not the touchdown.
Arnold carried the rock 21 times to the tune of 180 yards to lead the winning team while Talbert chipped in 57 yards and Barrick threw for 70.
Nelsonville-York totaled 321 yards of offense on the night. Athens grabbed 143 yards with 87 through the air. The Bulldogs made a conscious effort to balance the offense with 26 running plays and 18 passing attempts.
"It was humid and the ball was a little bit slippery and we gotta do a better job of taking care of the football, but I think on the positive side of things Derek Arnold ran the ball extremely well and hard and I'm real proud of Michael Barrick," said NYHS coach Dave Boston. "He threw the ball well and Mark Campbell caught the ball well. I thought our offensive line did a great job protecting the quarterback all night long."
"All in all, it's a win and a win against a much-improved Athens football team," Boston added.
Athens coach Adams saw the good and the bad out of his team.
"I was very proud of our offensive line," he said. "They did a really nice job with our pass protection and they gave Tanner some really good opportunities to see the field and make some plays. All in all, real proud of their effort.
"We've been preaching defense and trying to instill that into our team. We want people fired up, never-say-die attitude and fight till the last play. Emotionally, I think it got to some of the boys there at the very end and we showed some immaturity but defensive-wise, we were all over the place and I was real proud of the boys."
"We definitively have a number of things that the boys are going to look at and have some regrets because they're going to see how close they really were tonight," Adams said.
In the end, Nelsonville-York holds on to the coveted Doc Kroner Trophy for at least another year. With the Bulldogs playing with a renewed vigor and the Buckeyes trying to remain a powerhouse in Athens County, the Nelsonville-York-Athens rivalry is as strong as ever.
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