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BARNESVILLE -- Buckeye Trail and Barnesville combined for 1,029 yards of offense and 104 points Friday night at Shamrock Stadium.
In the end, though, it was defense that stood tall.
The Warriors stymied a trio of Shamrock drives in the closing minutes to preserve a wild 54-50 victory capping a stirring 28-point comeback to stun the state's eighth-ranked Ohio Division VI squad.
''This so big for Buckeye Trail football,'' Warriors head coach Donnie Kerns exclaimed, tears of joy welling up in his eyes as his team jubilantly celebrated around him on the field.
''This is so big!''
Kerns, Trail's first-year head coach, watched his squad his win its third straight -- all by scoring 50 points or more.
''We kind of thought our defense would play like it did in the fourth quarter,'' Kerns said. ''But we never envisioned a 54-50 game.
''They battled. What can you say? They battled.''
After watching Barnesville score 42 points and the Shamrocks' Caide Bunfill rush for 306 of his game-high 369 yards and five touchdowns in the first half, Buckeye Trail clamped down on both in the second half.
The Shamrocks only reached the end zone once in the second 24 minutes -- a 3-yard run by Bunfill with 8:40 remaining in the third quarter. That gave the hosts a 50-34 lead.
From there, the Warriors scored 20 straight points to surge ahead, the capper coming on a 1-yard plunge by Matt Stimpert with 51.9 ticks left in the third quarter.
That capped the scoring. The final quarter belonged to the defenses.
Barnesville drove inside the Trail 40 early in the fourth quarter, but turned the ball over when quarterback Matt Burkhart threw a pass behind the line of scrimmage on fourth down.
The Shamrocks got a reprieve on the Warriors' ensuing possession when Tanner Burkhart picked off a Troy Pontius pass putting Barnesville back in business at its own 29.
Again, the Shamrocks drove deep into Trail territory. This time, though, Bunfill fumbled the ball at the Warriors' 28 with 4:24 left.
Later, with Trail faced with fourth-and-long at its own 24, Pontius faked a punt and tried to run for the first down. He came up four yards short giving the Shamrocks the ball at the Warriors' 41 with 2:35.
But on the first play, Trail forced Bunfill to cough up the ball again with 2:27 left.
Barnesville's defense held and got the ball back with no timeouts at its own 44 with 53.2 left. The Shamrocks were unable to move the ball, though, as four straight Matt Burkhart passes fell incomplete.
''It came down to stops and no one could take advantage of those stops,'' Barnesville head coach Matt Johnson said.
Sans the fourth quarter, both teams' offenses flourished. Barnesville (3-1), Thanks to Bunfill's big day, finished with 538 yards of offense. Trail, boosted by Pontius' 314 passing yards and 150 rushing yards, ended with 491 yards.
''He's one of the best athletes in the history of Buckeye Trail,'' Kerns said of Pontius. ''The kids just worked hard all summer and (Friday) it all paid off. We were stronger and more physical in the second half.''
Barnesville sprinted out to a 20-0 lead on just 10 plays, eventually going ahead 42-14. But from there, the Warriors outscored the Shamrocks 40-8 behind Pontius and Austin Snodgrass, who made the best of his three catches -- all TD grabs -- for 114 yards.
''You have to give them credit,'' Johnson said. ''We had them down early and they fought back.
''Defensively, we were just awful. Some of that's on them, a lot of it's us, I think. Offensively, if you put 50 points on the board you should win 100 percent of the time.
''That's my fault. I'm the defensive coordinator.''
Kerns told his players at halftime to just keep plugging away.
''We told them we just took their best punch and we outscored them the rest of the first half,'' he said. ''We knew if we could come down and punch it it to start the third quarter, we knew we'd have a pretty good chance.''
Johnson said the two fumbles near the end of the game were, obviously, costly, but his defense didn't do his team's offense any favors.
''The bottom line was we didn't stop them,'' he said. ''Defensively, we just didn't play good and that's squarely on my shoulders.
''We were hit with some adversity and now our kids will have to pick themselves up.''