Photo credit: Kim North
BURNSVILLE – When a football team is averaging 50.5 points per game over a two-week period, their defense can be ignored, and that is certainly the case for Burnsville.
The Shamrocks held an explosive Bellaire team to minus-1 rushing yard last Friday in a crushing 50-6 win. This week, Buckeye Trail (2-0) will take on Shamrock Stadium with an explosive offense, kicking off at 7 p.m.
“I was really proud of the way our defense played last week,” Burnsville coach Blake Allen said. “Belleaire has some explosive players, but we did a good job of containing them. Even when our offense was slowing down early in the game, our defense held on until the offense got on our tails.”
The ball-winning, swarming defense is made up of ends Marshall Mead and Luke Taylor, tackles Blake Kirk and Gavin Morris, linebackers Camden Carpenter, Hines Ford, Logan Kracker and Eli Messenger, cornerbacks Brady McIntyre and Cole Francis and strong safety Casey Carpenter.
Messenger intercepted a Big Reds pass in the third quarter and ran 25 yards to the house. The scoring play capped a 50-second period in which the Shamrocks led by 22 points. Casey Carpenter scored on a quarterback sneak from one yard out, then found McIntyre for a 50-yard scoring strike following three incomplete passes and a punt by Bellaire. Evan Ruff kicked both PATs. Following a Messenger interception six, Allen elected to go for two, and a pass from Carpenter to McIntyre was completed again, widening the lead to 36-6, with the OHSAA’s mercy rule coming into effect as the clock wound down.
“We may have gotten a little too excited at the start last week,” Allen said of a slow start that included a 30-minute weather delay and Senior Night celebrations. “We need to get our emotions under control a little bit.”
The Warriors were coming off a 44-41 late win over Harrison Central on Friday at Wagner Stadium in Cadiz when quarterback Drew McGlumphy connected with Mason Todd 23 yards for the game-winning touchdown with 6:31 left in the fourth quarter.
“It’s going to be the same kind of thing this week,” Allen said of the powerful Warriors. “They have a really good quarterback with a lot of arm strength, but they can also run, as they showed last week.”
“We need to monitor him and contain him on every snap.”
McGlumphy rushed for 226 yards and finished 9-of-20 with 109 yards and three scores. Blake Weible scored two touchdowns on a 40-yard run and McGlumphy connected with Sammy Brown for two scores to highlight Buckeye Trail’s efforts.
“This is going to be a different kind of battle than we’ve had before and we knew that going into the season,” Buckeye Trail head coach Donnie Kearns said, “I told the kids we need to keep the momentum going from 2-0. We’re playing with house money right now and we’re happy with where we are right now.”
Karns said his team fought until the end against Harrison Central.
“We had to beat them,” he said. “We knew we couldn’t give up and our defense came in big at the end.”
Buckeye Trail allowed about 550 yards of offense to the Huskies but still found a way to win.
“We’re going to have to get lucky and have Burnsville make a couple of mistakes,” Kearns added. “We’re going to have to play our best game in the nine years I’ve been here.”
Burnsville showed last week that it’s not a one-dimensional team when it has the ball: Carpenter incompleted two of his first three passes but then completed nine straight passes to close the game, five of which went to McIntyre for three touchdowns.
“Everybody knows what talented running backs we have and a big, physical offensive line,” Allen said. “We started to get more aggressive in the second half. Casey got more involved in the rushing game than usual and I thought Brady had a great game.”
The two schools have met 41 times, with Burnsville leading the game 34-7, including five straight wins. Buckeye Trail’s last win came in 2017, with a 43-12 victory at the Baker Activity Center in Old Washington.
Burnsville has won 28 straight regular season games since the 2021 season, and has also won 13 straight at home.
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