Wednesday, September 14, 2011

High school football game story by Jason Grier

Aviators run over Arrows
By Jason Grier

VANDALIA – Vandalia-Butler is off to a 2-0 start after beating Tecumseh 37-22 at home Friday night.

Butler gained 362 yards on the ground led by senior Tyler Jones who rushed for 257 yards on 26 carries. This is Jones’ second 250-yard game of the season. Jones says his success is because of the offensive line providing great paths for him to run.

“Those guys work really hard and they earn every bit of what we accomplish out there,” Jones said. “I owe it all to them.”

The great play of the offensive line also allowed quarterback Ryne Pugh to complete six passes for 132 yards including two drive-changing plays to Nathan Martin and Nick Simones for 40 and 59 yards, respectively.

Tecumseh (1-1) started fast, scoring in the first minute on a 77-yard pass to Logan Crockett from second-year starting quarterback Tony Evans. But following that, the offensive line of Butler was just too strong for Tecumseh’s defense. Even when Tecumseh seemed like it would get a stop, the vision and running ability of Pugh would give them the first downs, accumulating over 20 in the game.

Tecumseh’s coach Kent Massie said he is proud of his team’s toughness and how they never stopped competing.

“We’re a banged-up group, we are very young, and to have a young banged-up group and some guys stepping up and playing hurt and injured play as hard as they played tonight and as hard as they competed tonight is something positive we can take with us,” Massie said.

Butler scored all five of its touchdowns on the ground with three coming from  Jones and  two from Pugh. The combo of Jones and Pugh provided the offensive with constant progress down the field that ate up the game clock.

Tecumseh did come back late after a successful two-point conversion  to be only down 8. But with only 5 minutes to go, they were stuck with a fourth-and-five on Butler’s 25 and failed to get the first down.

Tecumseh’s Evans only passed eight times, with four of his 5 completions going for more than 20 yards. Their offense ended with 72 rushing yards and 196 passing yards to have 268 yards of total offense compared with Butler’s 494.

The Tecumseh Arrows will head home next week for their game against Miami Trace, while the Butler Aviators will head to Springboro to try and start the season 3-0.

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