Shamrocks’ ‘D’ Dominates: Barnesville Thrashes Shenandoah
SARAHSVILLE — Last Saturday Barnesville coach Matt Johnson was despondent over his team’s defensive effort, his own coaching job included, in a 54-50 home loss to Buckeye Trail.
Today, he’s jubilant with his entire team after it dominated on defense, and offense, in a 50-16 thrashing of Shenandoah in a Week 5 high school football encounter Friday night at Zeps Stadium.
One week after watching the Warriors produce a monumental second-half rally to stun his team, Johnson looked on as the Shamrocks jumped out to a big lead again. This time though, Barnesville held its opponent scoreless in the second half in improving to 4-1 at the midway point.
”I thought our kids did a great job this week of bouncing back,” Johnson said. ”It wasn’t the best week of practice, but they played hard and played well.”
Caide Bunfill followed up his 379-yard performance a week ago with a 122-yard, two-touchdown effort and surpassed the 1,000-yard plateau. He has 1,064 yards.
Matt Burkhart, Barnesville’s quarterback, had a big night carrying the ball himself, rushing for 102 yards and three scores, part of the Shamrocks’ 267-yard total on the ground.
”I thought defensively we played better and, offensively, we just kept doing what we’ve been doing,” Johnson said.
That’s true. Unlike last week though, Johnson had a defense to match. And what an effort it was.
Barnesville held the Zeps (1-4) to 38 yards of total offense.
Shenandoah collected two first downs, committed three turnovers and had 10 plays of zero or negative yardage. The Zeps’ touchdowns came on an 85-yard kickoff return by freshman Kendal Sherman in the first quarter and a 26-yard touchdown pass from Christian Bond to Dalton Cowgill in the second. The pass was the only one Shenandoah completed in eight tries.
”We still have to get better on that side of the ball,” Johnson said. ”We know that. But I thought the effort was better by everybody, including (the coaches). It was just a better team and coaching effort.
”Our kids, I give them all the credit.”
Barnesville started strong, scoring on its first possession — a 21-yard jaunt by Bunfill 3:09 into the contest.
The Shamrocks blew things open with a 28-point second quarter that gave them a 42-16 halftime lead, very similar to last week’s advantage.
Bunfill scored on a 1-yard plunge midway through the second, but Burkhart had a hand in the other three scores. He had two TD runs — a 1-yard dive early in the quarter and a 6-yard scamper as time expired. In between, he hit Kaelan Hannahs from 44 yards out.
Hannahs finished with five receptions for 80 yards.
All told, Barnesville ran the ball 51 times, as opposed to eight passes.
”That’s kind of our style of play,” Johnson said. ”We want to take time off the clock and grind it out with Caide and Butch (Holskey). And even Matt, we’ll get him involved.
Holskey had 56 yards rushing on eight carries and a 29-yard touchdown to cap the scoring.
Unlike last week, Johnson was able to divvy up the carries better.
”It’s just easy sometimes to hand it off to Caide every time,” he said. ”We have the backs that can do the job and we showed that (Friday).”
Barnesville 50, Shenandoah 16
Barnesville 14 28 8 0 — 50
Shenandoah 8 8 0 0 — 16
B — Bunfill 21 run (pass failed), 8:51
B — M.Burkhart 5 run (Holskey pass from M.Burkhart), 2:11
S — Sherman 85 kickoff return (Miller run), 1:59
B — M.Burkhart 1 run (Bunfill run), 8:03
S — Cowgill 26 pass from Bond (Miller run), 6:55
B — Bunfill 1 run (M.Burkhart run), 4:46
B — Hannahs 44 pass from M.Burkhart (run failed), 1:54
B — M.Burkhart 6 run (run failed), :00
B — Holskey 29 run (H.Graham run), 6:52
Rushing: Barnesville 51-267-6td (Bunfill 18-122-2td, M.Burkhart 13-102-3td, Holskey 8-56-td, Hannahs 3-18, Strous 6-23, Crumbaker 1-1, Farrabee 103, H.Graham 1-(-2)); Shenandoah 20-12 (Bond 6-(-8), Miller 11-31, Wiley 1-(-7), Sherman 2-(-4).
Passing: Barnesville 8-15-94-td-x (M.Burkhart 6-11-77-td, Huntsman 2-4-17-x); Shenandoah 1-8-26-td-2x (all by Bond.
Receiving: Barnesville (Holskey 2-13, Bunfill 1-2, Hannahs 5-80-td); Shenandoah (Cowgill 1-26-td).
First Downs: Barnesville 18; Shenandoah 2.
Fumbles-Lost: Barnesville 4-1; Shenandoah 2-1.
Penalties: Barnesville 8-72; Shenandoah 2-20.
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