Galion manhandles Bucyrus

BUCYRUS – Bucyrus is a young football team and the Redmen will go through some growing pains.

Galion, on the other hand, is big, talented and experienced.

The combination was lethal to the Redmen.

The Tigers racked up 310 yards rushing in the first half alone and held Bucyrus to 28 yards of net offense, en route to a convincing 55-0 victory in this historic county rivalry.

The win enabled Galion to retain the Seccaium Park Trophy for the seventh straight year.

"Galion's a really good ball club," Bucyrus coach Aaron Eckert said. "They have the complete package. There offensive and defense lines are huge and they have guys that can run. They have a lot of speed."

The Tigers wasted no time establishing their dominance. It took just five plays — all runs — for Galion to traverse 80 yards. Drake Barnett ran in from the nine for the first of his three touchdowns at the 10:04 mark of the first quarter.

The size difference in the trenches set the tone early for the Tigers.

"That's what we preached to the offensive line all week," acting Galion head coach Todd Roston said of the holes his running backs had to run through. "We needed to go out and establish the line of scrimmage. Bucyrus changed up on us all night but we were able to counter it."

After a three-and-out by the Redmen, the Tigers struck again, this time on a 51-yard run by starting quarterback Jacob Fryer. Though he left the game later in the first quarter, Fryer rushed for 104 yards on just five carries.

The Tigers added a 26-yard field goal from Conner Moreton and a 39-yard scoring run from Barnett, to expand the lead to 24-0 after one period.

"They beat us in every facet of the game," Eckert said. "And we couldn't win the one-on-one matchups on the outside."

A four-yard scoring run by back-up running back Kevin Bowshier and 32-yard Moreton field goal made it 34-0 by halftime.

"We've worked hard all summer for this game," Roston said. "We came out and executed well."

Galion scored in the third quarter on a 15-yard interception return by Colton Moore and a 25-yard run from Barnett. Ryan Talbott's 2-yard run in the fourth quarter set the final score.

Caleb Ivy, filling in for the injured Fryer, completed four of nine passes for 33 yards, all in the first half. Barnett, Fryer and Bowshier all rushed for over 100 yards. Galion ended with 402 yards of offense.

Gavin Lewis was six for 13 for 25 yards with an interception for Bucyrus. Clinton Carr caught three balls for 18 yards.

"We were concerned about (Lewis)," Roston said. "He's a good runner. We wanted to contain him and we did."

"We have some talent," Eckert said. "We're just young. We don't want to use that as an excuse. But we'll work on some things and try to get better for Crestline next week."

Twitter: @TF_Schmidt