This past Friday night the Buchholz football team jumped out to a quick 21-7 first-quarter lead against rival Gainesville before the game was postponed early in the second quarter due to unplayable field conditions.
The Bobcats picked up where they left off on Monday night by scoring a touchdown on their first two drives and imposed a running clock in a dominating 52-7 win against the Hurricanes at Citizens Field.
Buchholz (4-3) ran its streak to six straight wins in the series but also snapped a 3-game losing streak.
“It’s always nice after three tough losses to get a big win in a city rivalry game,” said Buchholz coach Mark Whittemore. “Gainesville is a much-improved team.”
On Friday, the Bobcats took the opening kick and marched 58 yards on only four plays, capping the drive with a 10-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Trace Johnson to junior wide receiver Keil McGriff just under two minutes into the game.
Although GHS (4-2) was able to answer on an 87-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Nelson Tambling to junior wide receiver Aric Welch to tie the game, Buchholz finished with 45 unanswered points.
On Monday, Buchholz needed just two plays on their first possession to find the end zone again.
Play resumed with Buchholz at the GHS 37-yard line and Johnson completed a 22-yard pass to McGriff down to the 15-yard line.
On the next play, Johnson hooked up with McGriff again on a 15-yard scoring pass with 9:01 to play in the half to give the Bobcats a 28-7 lead.
“We did not want to dilly dally around,” Whittemore said. “We didn’t want to get all in a malaise. You know it’s Monday night, you’re already up 21-7 so the obvious danger there is what’s on everybody’s mind, we don’t want to get stuck. It’s muddy, it’s nasty, it’s a light drizzle, so we wanted to really put an exclamation point on coming out early, get a score…and really build that cushion early.”
Buchholz scored on its next possession, taking advantage of a short field with a 60-yard scoring drive.
Junior wide receiver Justin Williams, who had an 18-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, ran for 21 yards down the GHS 29-yard line.
A few plays later, on 3rd-and-10 at the 15-yard line, Johnson threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Williams for a 35-7 lead with 4:58 to play in the half.
Gainesville did threaten to score a couple of possessions later thanks to a 51-yard pass from Tambling to senior Calvin Thomas. However, the drive stalled in the red zone just before the half.
Buchholz forced a 3-and-out on the Hurricanes’ first possession of the second half. Then on Buchholz’s first play of the third quarter, which began on the GHS 40-yard line, the ‘Cats struck again.
Johnson, who threw four touchdown passes, found McGriff on a 40-yard touchdown pass down the Buchholz sideline for a 42-7 advantage with 10:08 to play in the third quarter, which ensured a running clock.
McGriff finished with over 100 yards receiving and three scores.
“He’s special,” Whittemore said. “He’s got great hands. He gives us three, four really good pass catchers and with a trigger man like Trace in the backfield really gives us the opportunity to have a smorgasbord of guys to go to in different situations. I can’t be more excited about Justin, DJ (Hicks), Keil, Tony Sanchez is coming along really nicely, and we’ve got a solid group of backups as well.”
Junior kicker Jay Giunta added a 42-yard field goal late in the third quarter and freshman running back Josh Menefee scored on a 25-yard touchdown run for Buchholz, which had its Class 6A-District 3 home game against Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine) for this Friday moved to 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 14.
After three straight losses to teams who have a combined record of 17-1, the Bobcats are back in the win column and will have some time off before their third straight Monday night game.
“I really like how they’ve attacked this whole situation; I mean this has been a real booger bear,” Whittemore said. “We’ve had an incredibly tough schedule, the weather, you add all of those variables together and stir them up and it’s a pretty tough deal, that and mixing your academics and everything that’s going on, so I really think they’ve shown a lot of resilience, a lot of togetherness, and the ability to have enthusiasm even maybe when they don’t feel it.”
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