photo by: Kim. North

Buckeye Local’s Trey McCoy tackles Oak Glen’s Logan Murray during action Friday night from World War II Memorial Stadium in Yorkville. Murray ran for 169 yards and a touchdown as the Golden Bears won 17-0.

YORKVILLE – Oak Glen did pretty much what it wanted to on both sides of the football Friday night in posting a 17-0 shutout of Buckeye Local on the natural grass surface at World War II Memorial Stadium.

The visiting Golden Bears (4-1) ran for 358 yards and two touchdowns on 50 carries and amassed 402 yards of total offense with Logan Murray and Jacob Everett both eclipsing the 150-yard barrier. On the defensive side, they held the Panthers (2-4) to a tad over 100 total yards (108), of which 90 came via the air as the hosts could only muster 18 yards rushing on 15 carries.

“We usually play the hot hand and we go with whatever the defense is going to give us,” Oak Glen head coach T.J. Miller said. “Tonight it was our run game that got us going. We didn’t have to showcase the pass, but we did use it at the right time a couple of times.”

Had it not been for an interception inside the Panthers’ 5 and two fumbles, both in Buckeye Local territory, the score could have been a lot worse than it was. Oak Glen also had a 9-minute drive in which it came away empty-handed.

The win could have been costly as Murray gained all of his 169 on 16 first-half attempts. He was dinged up late in the first half and appeared on the sidelines sans shoulder pads in the second half.

With Murray on the sidelines, Everett, just a freshman, made the most of his chance, carrying 25 times for 155 stripes.

The Golden Bears also lost two-way standout Lucas Zoellers to a lower leg injury after intermission.

“We’ll get both of those guys checked out and see what their status is going forward,” Miller noted.

Before being shaken up, Murray scored on an 8-yard burst up the middle in which he cut to his left and dove into the end zone with Panthers draped all over him. Quarterback Maddox Bowen, who came over when Madonna folded, rolled to his right before reversing his field after a bad snap on the placement. He finally found a leaping Ben Chaney in the right side of the end zone for an 8-0 count.

Bowen had a 1-yard quarterback sneak for a touchdown in the second quarter. Chase Hartung’s PAT made it 15-0.

Miller was very pleased with the effort, especially that of Bowen and the offensive line.

“I thought Maddox did an outstanding job of managing the game, but the biggest credit goes to our offensive line,” he stressed. “They stuck with their blocks until the whistle. They don’t always get a lot of credit because they are in the trenches, but tonight they were outstanding.”

Miller was referring to Zoellers, Cole McGillian, Noah Schmidt, Kam Hebrock, Aaron Frohnapfel and Brandon Friend.

Meanwhile, it’s back to the drawing board for second-year Buckeye Local head coach Chris Kiedaisch as his offense was nearly non-existent.

“It’s frustrating for us because we felt like we had what we needed offensively, but we dropped some passes and missed some holes,” he explained. “Credit to Oak Glen. They beat us up front. They were more physical than we were and their front 5 on both sides of the ball was the difference in the game.

“I told the guys that we played hard enough tonight to win, but we need to clean up all of the little things we did wrong.”

Oak Glen hosts Steubenville Catholic next Friday while Buckeye Local makes the short trip down Ohio 7 to meet neighboring Martins Ferry.