photo by: Kim North

Barnesville’s Casey Carpenter (8) moves in to make a tackle of Bellaire’s Maurice Webb from a game earlier this season. The 3-0 Shamrocks head to Buckeye Local on Friday.

CONNORVILLE–Buckeye Local accomplished its first of many goals last Friday in Shadyside–getting the first win of the season and the first of the Chris Kiedaisch era.

The Panthers rolled into Tiger Town and given the weather elements at play, morphed from a spread-style offense into a ground-and-pound, wishbone team.

It worked.

The Panthers rumbled for 351 yards. Three different ball carriers ran for 76 yards or better, led by Xavier Eastham’s 101 yards on 15 carries. Kolton Roush totaled 97 on 16, Wyatt Luyter 76 on 10, and even sophomore Chase Worwa got into the act, logging 31 yards on six carries, with two accounting for touchdowns.

Worwa’s yards per carry of 5.17 was actually the lowest of all six ball carriers last Friday as the team averaged 6.88 per carry.

Identity found? Looks that way.

“We did a good job of adjusting to the elements and became a pretty physical team. We were able to push Shadyside around in sort of a goalline, short-yardage package.

“We leaned on that the entire second half.

“We’ve been trying to find an identity on offense and with this success, and even running against Union Local, it gives us something we can lean on as an offensive identity–run and be physical.”

The Panthers will need every bit of that physicality come this Friday.

The good news is after three weeks on the road, the Panthers (1-2) make their home debut at World War II Memorial Stadium.

The bad news? The Barnesville Shamrocks and their 3-0 record are coming to town.

The ‘Rocks opponents all currently sport a 2-1 record, with that lone loss coming to the boys in Green and Red. Barnesville is going for their 30th straight regular-season win.

The average score of those wins for Barnesville is 49.3-10. Not even Fort Frye, which has made a living handing out lop-sided losses in recent memory, could hold up, losing 51-16 in Beverly.

It’s a monumental task for any team.

“I think the thing that stands out the most about Barnesville is how solid they are. They have no weaknesses on either side of the ball. All 11 of them are high quality players and that makes them so tough,” Kiedaisch said.

The Shamrocks run a lot of the same plays, but with different looks out of different formations, enabling them to appear highly complicated without actually being so. That, plus the experience level for their starting units, means a seasoned and dangerous team is coming to town.

“They try to hurt you formationally while running the same plays, and they’ll get an explosive play here, or a trick play or tendency break there. We really have some admiration for what they do on offense.”

Trey Tolvier rushed for 145 yards and two touchdowns in the impressive win against Buckeye Trail last week. He was aided by two TD runs apiece from Kody Jones and quarterback Casey Carpenter.

Carpenter is also a talented passer and Barnesville can put up big numbers through the air when needed.

If that’s not enough of a reason for excitement, it’s also alumni weekend for Buckeye Local and the 30th anniversary of the team’s state runner-up team from 1995 will be celebrated during the game.

The stands will be packed and the Panthers’ players and staff want to do their fans and alums proud.

“There will be a bunch of alumni there and we’ll be playing for more than just our team, but the community and alums as well.

“Regardless of the score, regardless of what Barnesville has going for it, we’re going to go out and play as hard as we can and make them proud.”