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Herbert: We must simply stop beating ourselves with miscues and turnovers in order to get a win

STIFF ARM — Buckeye Local’s Kaden Weaver stiff arms East Liverpool’s Cory Weyand during Friday’s game at World War II Memorial Stadium. (Photo by Andrew Grimm)

YORKVILLE — The Buckeye Local Panthers saw turnovers and miscues cost them a chance to hang with the East Liverpool Potters Friday night at World War II Memorial Stadium as the mistakes piled up and the Potters pulled away for a 35-6 victory.

The Panthers (0-8) threw a combined four interceptions, lost a fumble, and had two fumbled snaps on punts that gave East Liverpool (3-5) the ball inside the Buckeye Local 20. Those seven miscues resulted in four of the five Potter touchdowns.

“We’re killing ourselves with mental mistakes,” Buckeye Local coach Roger Herbert said. “We had some special teams blunders. We shot ourselves in the foot. We made mistakes at the most inopportune times. Our Achillie’s heel has been giving the other teams short drives. We have to fix that and that has to come internally from us.”

Junior quarterback Shayne Christian completed 16-of-28 passes for 192 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions in his second start for Buckeye Local. He set a school record the previous week with 334 passing yards. He was also the Panthers leading rusher with 32 yards on 13 carries.

“Breaking in a new quarterback last week, we had some big plays,” Herbert said. “This week we weren’t able to get them. He got thrown into the fire a little bit. I told the kids that in the offense we are running, interceptions are going to happen because we throw it a lot. He’s going to get better, he’s only two weeks off from a broken hand. We’ll keep him going for this week.”

The Panthers were able to show flashes of success but could not put anything together consistently enough to hang around.

“We’ve done that this year in spurts, and then we have a let down,” Herbert said. “We preach consistency, but we don’t stay very consistent. If we were able to play a solid four quarters we would have won a few of these football games. When you have a young team you ride the roller coaster a little bit, and we rode the roller coaster tonight. We would do well in spurts, then we’d go right back down to the bottom of roller coaster.”

The Potters racked up 270 rushing yards on 47 carries, completing just two passes in the game. Quarterback Peyton Reed rushed for 28 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while running backs Jalen Moman and Derek Carter both rushed for more than 90 yards and a touchdown each.

“They’ve got that big running game, and that made it tough for us,” Herbert said. “They’re a nice football team.”

After winning the toss and electing to receive, the Panthers had a promising opening drive going deep into East Liverpool territory, but the five-play march was cut short by Christian’s first interception at the Potter 20-yard line.

After a scoreless first quarter, East Liverpool got the important first score after the Panthers mishandled a punt got the ball deep in the Buckeye Local end. Moman punched it in from the 1 to make Buckeye Local pay for the mistake, and Carter converted on a two-point conversion run to make it 8-0 just 2:31 into the second quarter.

On its ensuing possession, Buckeye Local went three and out and punted, but the Potters muffed the punt and gave the ball right back to the Panthers at the East Liverpool 35. On the next play the Panthers used a flea flicker to get on the board. Christian took the ball on the pitch back and found Jack Reese wide open for a 35-yard touchdown to pull Buckeye Local within 8-6 after a failed two-point conversion try with 7:35 to go before the half.

That was as close as the game would be as the mistakes started to compound and allow East Liverpool to pull away.

After East Liverpool turned the ball over on downs, Buckeye Local went thee and out. Another bad snap prevented a punt from getting off, giving the Potters the ball at the 3-yard line. East Liverpool needed just one play to find the end zone as Lane Kopras (seven carries, 36 yards) pushed his way through to make it 14-6 with 5:10 to play before the break.

“We came out with a nice play to get ourselves back in the ball game and then we had turnovers,” Herbert said. “We’ve just got to learn to win.”

Two plays into the next possession, Christian threw his second interception, and five plays later Reed put the Potters on top by two scores by converting on a 3-yard run to make it 20-6, which was the score at the half.

“I’m proud of our D-line and our defense,” East Liverpool coach Josh Ludwig said. “Our defense is really starting to step up. We created turnovers. I challenged them this week because Christian is a heck of a qurterback. They responded.”

The Panthers first drive of the second half was extended by a 24-yard fake punt pass connection from Christian to Kadin Weaver, but it eventually stalled out after a couple of costly penalties drove Buckeye Local back from inside the 10 to outside the 25. They turned it over on downs at the 28.

It took East Liverpool just six plays to cover the 72 yards to add to the lead as Carter found some space and scored from 15-yards out with 4:04 remaining in the third quarter. A Moman two-point conversion run made it 28-6.

Buckeye Local had another promising drive end with a turnover on downs at the East Liverpool 10. Later in the fourth quarter, Reed capped the scoring with his second 3-yard touchdown run to make it 35-6.

East Liverpool travels to face Weir next week. The Panthers are also on the road, traveling to face Edison.

“We’ve got to find a way to grind a win out,” Herbert said. “We’re going to their place. We’d much rather have it here, but that’s how it goes. We’ll be well prepared for them.”

East Liverpool 35, Buckeye Local 6

East Liverpool 0-20-8-7 — 35

Buckeye Local 0-6-0-0 — 6

EL: Moman 1 run (Carter run)

BL: Reese 30 pass from Christian (pass failed)

EL: Kopras 3 run (run failed)

EL: Reed 3 run (pass failed)

EL: Carter 15 run (Moman run)

EL: Reed 3 run (Vallera kick)

RUSHING: East Liverpool 47-270-5 (Reed 7-28-2; Kopras 7-36-1; Carter 19-94-1; Moman 15-91-1; Turner 4-23; Weyand 2-4; Davis 2-(-2); Williams 1-(-4)). Buckeye Local 19-52 (Christian 13-32; Marelli 4-9; Weaver 1-6; Dulesky 1-5).

PASSING: East Liverpool 2-5-14-0-0 (all by Reed). Buckeye Local 16-29-192-1-4 (Christian 16-28-192-1-3; Dulesky 0-1-0-0-1).

RECEIVING: East Liverpool 2-14 (Moman 1-3; Wheaton 1-11). Buckeye Local 16-192-1 (Weaver 5-58; Marelli 4-44; Dulesky 3-29; Zanes 3-20; Reese 1-35-1).

FIRST DOWNS: East Liverpool 17. Buckeye Local 8.

FUMBLES-LOST: East Liverpool 4-2. Buckeye Local 3-1.

PENALTIES-YARDS: East Liverpool 1-15. Buckeye Local 8-60.

PUNTS: East Liverpool 2-44. Buckeye Local 2-31.

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