Bucks cruise Running game beats Stearns

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BUCKSPORT – This isn’t really Joel Sankey football. The Bucksport coach has been known for his preference to air the ball out over the years. This year Sankey is asking his quarterback to simply turn and hand the ball off.

Friday night at Carmichael Field, quarterback Dow Cain did just that, handing it to Gunner Siverly who turned three of those handoffs into touchdowns and Phil Harvey another as the Golden Bucks downed Stearns of Millinocket 27-6.

The Golden Bucks ran the ball 44 times in the game, amassing 234 yards. Three running backs carried for more than 50 yards each with Siverly leading the way with 84 yards on 14 carries.

“We can throw,” Sankey said. “But we’ve got three kids that can really run the ball.”

The Golden Bucks put the game away in the second half with back-to-back drives that broke the Minutemen’s collective backs.

The first came in the third quarter and with Bucksport holding a 14-6 lead. The Golden Bucks drove 93 yards, using 15 plays and eating up 6:38 off the clock. The drive resulted in a Siverly 1-yard touchdown run.

Bucksport held Stearns on the Minutemen’s ensuing possession and then went on a 14-play, 70-yard drive that took another 5:20 off the clock in the fourth quarter. Harvey, who carried the ball 10 times for 62 yards, capped off the drive by plunging into the end zone from the 1-yardline.

On both drives, Sankey turned to running Chris Woodman to move the ball. Woodman carried the ball 15 times for 76 yards, 11 of those carries coming on the two second-half touchdown drives.

“We were seeing the holes a lot better [in the second half],” Woodman said. “And we took it to them off tackle and ran our hearts out.

Siverly scored two first-half touchdowns on runs of 1 and 10 yards. And Cain, true to his coach’s words, showed an ability to throw the ball, completing 3 of 11 passes with four drops.

Stearns made good use of its first possession of the game, quickly marching 75 yards to take an early 6-0 lead.

Matt Leino was the Minutemen’s featured back and he showed his stuff on that drive which included a 55-yard run by the senior that was brought back for an illegal block. Leino, who finished with 106 yards on 21 carries, scored the Stearns touchdown on a 10-yard run.

“That touchdown built some confidence for the kids,” Stearns coach Chris Preble said. “But as the game wore on it just wore out a bit. They started stuffing the line and they were stunting and we weren’t picking it up.”

Preble also lauded the Golden Bucks’ power running game.

“It wasn’t nothing fancy. They were coming right at us and pounding it down the field,” Preble said.

GOLDEN BUCKS 27, MINUTEMEN 6

Stearns (0-3) 6 0 0 0 ? 6

Bucksport (2-1) 6 8 6 7 ? 27

S ? Leino 10 run (pass failed)

B ? Siverly 1 run (kick failed)

B ? Siverly 15 run (Carmichael pass to Harvey)

B ? Harvey 1 run (Lalonde kick)

Stearns Bucksport

First downs 10 18

Rushing att.-yards 32-190 44-234

Passing comp.-att. 3-7 3-11

Passing yards 18 42

Total yards 208 276

Punts-avg. 5-29.8 2-33.5

Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-1

Intercepted by 0 0

Penalties-yards 9-50 9-85

Rushing

Stearns: Leino 21-106, DiFrederico 8-71, Wark 3-13; Bucksport: Siverly 14-84, Woodman 15-76, Harvey 10-62, Boober 3-22, Cain 2-(-10)

Passing

Stearns: DiFrederico 3-7-0-18; Bucksport: Cain 3-11-0-42

Receiving

Stearns: McLaughlin 2-17, Leino 1-1; Bucksport: Carmichael 1-24, Harvey 1-11, Johnson 1-7

A?300 (est.)