MAN – Dominance on defense made up for special teams miscues, penalties and costly turnovers as Class A No. 16 Man earned a hard fought 20-6 homecoming victory over Buffalo Friday night at George A. Queen Memorial Field.
Man’s defense intercepted three passes, registered four quarterback sacks and held the Bison to 77 yards of total offense to overcome a pair of first half mistakes.
“Defense played real well,” Man head coach Harvey Arms said. “We just made too many mistakes and we should have put this ball in the end zone a few more times.”
Man received the opening kickoff to start the contest, however, Justin Grimmett bobbled the kickoff and was tackled at his own 5. Seven plays later Man would drive all the way to the Bison 7, but on the eighth play of the drive a high snap resulted in a Bison fumble recovery at their own 17.
“That killed a perfect drive because the best thing in football you can do is go out and score on your opening possession,” Arms said. “We just about had it made and then flubbed it.”
The miscues didn’t stop there as Man had an extra point blocked, missed a field goal and had a punt blocked resulting in the lone touchdown for the Bison.
The blocked extra point was the first miss all season for Jaxon Tipton, who was 13-for-13 entering Friday.
“We were perfect on extra points coming into tonight,” Arms said. “We had an extra point blocked and missed a field goal, which was about extra point range.”
Man was able to get on the scoreboard first as quarterback Israel Canterbury found Jeremiah Harless for a 17-yard touchdown pass with 9:38 to play in the opening half. On the play, Harless broke one tackle and drove in from the Bison 2 stretching the ball across the goal line for a 6-0 lead.
Buffalo’s ensuing drive would end at the Hillbilly 30 when Dalton Jones’ pass was intercepted by Jacob Walls. It was the first of two interceptions for Walls.
The Hillbillies would go three-and-out, but Tipton’s punt was blocked by Drew Clendenin and picked up by Chase Lovejoy, who raced 10 yards untouched to the goal line. The extra point attempt was no good leaving the score deadlocked at 6-6 with 4:51 to play in the first half.
The Hillbillies answered right back with a eight play, 61 yard drive capped off by Jordan Adams 5 yard touchdown run for a 12-6 lead with 1:52 to play in the first half.
Man would force Buffalo to punt on its opening possession of the second half as the Hillbillies took over at the Bison 42, but Man would come away with no points as Tipton’s 23-yard field goal attempt was unsuccessful as the ball fell off the tee.
Man would extend its lead to 20-6 on Jayden Brown’s 6-yard touchdown run and Harless’ successful two-point conversion run with 9:41 to play in the fourth quarter.
Buffalo would drive to the Hillbilly 25, but Walls recorded his second interception of the evening, this one in the end zone resulting in a touchback with 7:47 to play.
The Bison would get the ball back one final time, but a third interception, this one by Justin Grimmett at the Hillbilly 5 with 0:37 remaining allowed Man to run out the clock.
The Bison, who have lost three straight games against three ranked opponents, used four different quarterbacks as coach Brian Batman continues to mix and match in an effort to help a struggling offense.
“We are trying to find our identity and we are working a bunch of different guys in there,” Batman said. “We had some good runs, had some good gains, but we got to keep working and try to work on some consistency.”
Bryce Downey completed 5-of-8 passes for 19 yards and one interception. Josh Moody was 1-for-2 for 2 yards, Lovejoy was 1-for-2 for a yard and one interception and Dalton Jones was 0-for-3 with one interception.
Jones led the Bison with 51 yards on six attempts and Lovejoy added 32 yards on 10 carries and caught two passes for 13 yards.
Harless completed 2-of-3 passes for Man for 91 yards, had three rushes for 22 yards and caught two passes for 26 yards and one touchdown. Canterbury completed 5-of-his-11 passes for 67 yards and one touchdown.
Adams rushed for 69 yards on 10 carries and one touchdown while Jayden Brumfield added 40 yards on 13 attempts. Walls caught three passes for 97 yards.
“Jeremiah had a good game and our backs ran hard,” Arms said. “Our offensive line blocked well.”
Man was penalized seven times for 87 yards. A majority of Hillbilly penalties either killed offensive drives or kept drives alive for Buffalo.
“There were times that we would make a mistake and it would kill a good drive,” Arms said. “We won a ballgame and that is what counts, but we still got a lot of things that we got to correct moving forward.”
Buffalo, a playoff participant last season, drops to 1-3 on the season and will travel to Tyler Consolidated next Friday.
“We put ourselves in a big hole for the playoffs and we got to dig ourselves out of it,” Batman said. “We just got to win and that starts with preparation on Monday. We have to go up to Tyler, beat them and get a roll going.”
Man improves to 3-2 and will have a quick turnaround as they travel to Mount View Tuesday night. The Golden Knights, currently 3-1 after are a 44-18 victory over ninth-ranked Sherman, will be a tough task for the Hillbillies.
The Hillbillies and Golden Knights were scheduled to play Sept. 3 at Man, but COVID issues at Man forced the game to be rescheduled for Sept. 24 at Mount View. A lack of substitute teachers forced Mount View into remote learning the day of the game and rescheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 5.
“We got a very short turnaround and have to get a lot done on a Monday practice,” Arms said. “They (Mount View) got a lot of speed and they got a good team.”
Bison-Hillbillies Stats
Buffalo 0 6 0 0- 6
Man 0 12 0 6- 20
Second Quarter
M- Harless 17 pass from Canterbury (kick failed), 9:38
B- Lovejoy 10 block punt return (kick failed), 4:51
M- Adams 5 run (run failed), 1:52
Fourth Quarter
M- Brown 6 run (Harless run), 9:41
Buffalo Man
First Downs 5 17
Total Yards 77 295
Rushes-yards 28-55 36-197
Passing 22 158
Comp-Att-Int 7-15-3 7-14-0
Sacked-Yards Lost 0-0 4-24
Punts 5-34.6 3-21.3
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-1
Penalties-Yards 5-30 7-87
Time of Possession 23:35 24:25
Individual Statistics
RUSHING_Buffalo, Lovejoy 10-32, Jones 6-51, Harris 6-(minus 2), Moody 3-(minus 19), Downey 2-(minus 5), Kearns 1-(minus 2). Man, Brumfield 13-40, Adams 10-69, Canterbury 4-(minus 7), Harless 3-22, Grimmett 2-14, Brown 2-9.
PASSING_Buffalo, Downey 5-8-1 19, Moody 1-2 1 0, Lovejoy 1-2 1 1, Jones 0-3 0 1. Man, Canterbury 5-11-0 67, Harless 2-3-0 91.
RECEIVING_Buffalo, Lovejoy 2-13, Cobb 2-2, Harris 2-1, Kearns 1-6. Man, Walls 3-97, Grimmett 2-35, Harless 2-26.
MISSED FIELD GOAL_Man, Tipton 23 (WL)