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Barnesville earns key win at Buckeye Trail

T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY BUCKEYE TRAIL quarterback Isaac Hickman is wrapped up by a trio of Barnesville defenders, including Jaydn Lucas (76) and Jake Boulet (42) during Friday’s game at the Baker Activity Complex in Old Washington.

OLD WASHINGTON — The Barnesville Shamrocks have several set-up men that they utilize during the course of the game.

But, when they need a first down or key yardage late in the game, head coach Blake Allen brings in his “closer” by the name of Caden Lake.

Lake delivered the knock-out blow of Buckeye Trail Friday night at the Baker Activity Complex thanks to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to lift the Shamrocks to a hard-earned 31-20 victory against the Warriors.

“We tell our guys all the time that we need to grind it for three quarters and then once people get tired, Caden is a load and tough to bring down,” Allen said.

Indeed.

The Shamrocks set up Lake’s late-game scoring with a mixture of Ayden Hannahs, Gage Hannahs, Alex Meade and Uryan Meade. All of the Barnesville playmakers were featured. But, it was the passing game of the Hannahs cousins with Ayden finding Gage three times for touchdowns in the first half.

Despite the Barnesville aerial attack in the first half, it found itself with only a 19-14 lead. But that didn’t surprise Allen whatsoever.

“I knew we’d be in for a dogfight,” Allen confessed. “Barnesville and Trail always comes down to the wire because we’re so evenly matched. They have a good team and they honestly they came out and smacked us in the mouth, but we settled down and got us going.”

The Warriors (2-1) struck first, taking advantage of good field position after Barnesville botched a punt attempt. Hard-nosed senior Jack Parry, who was outstanding on the defensive side of the ball, trucked a Shamrock defender just before the goal line and plunged in from 5 yards out.

That was the point at which the Shamrocks clearly realized they were in a battle. The Hannahs hook up came through on a third-and-long for a 59-yard touchdown. Trail was in position to make a play, but it gambled and went for the interception. Gage Hannahs made the catch and was gone. The placement made it 7-6.

Trail, which had been run heavy during the first two weeks, opened it up to a tune of 200 yards passing against the Shamrocks. A large chunk of that came 17 seconds into the second quarter when quarterback Isaac Hickman found Ronnie Rominger, who climbed the ladder and brought in the jump ball and took it 63 yards for the touchdown.

The Shamrocks answered right back on their ensuing possession. Ayden Hannahs was brilliant during an 82-yard drive that culminated when he found Gage Hannahs from 20 yards out. Ayden Hannahs was 5-of-5 on the drive for 45 yards and rushed for 31.

To begin the second half, Trail put together an 8-play drive with Hickman scoring from 10 yards out.

Nursing the 20-19 lead, the second major Trail blunder came back to haunt the Warriors. After moving the ball inside the Shamrocks 30, Trail fumbled it away and Barnesville capitalized early in the fourth with the first Lake 10-yard scamper.

“We had opportunities, but we shot ourselves in the foot too many times,” Trail head coach Donnie Kerns said. “We had kids in position to make plays, but we just didn’t make plays. We knew we’d have our hands full and really we took a lot of their good stuff away and if we hadn’t done that, they could have beat the brakes off of us.”

Many of those opportunities of which Kerns spoke resulted in Shamrock points. Barnesville’s second-quarter touchdown was set up by a turnover and the Warriors had a drive thwarted by penalty.

Still, however, Trail had the ball, down by just five with 4:31 to play. Gage Hannahs got a punt to check up at the 7 yard line. Trail eventually faced fourth down at their own 10 and elected to go for it, but a pass fell incomplete, setting up Lake’s insurance touchdown.

“Our punt game was outstanding again and that was huge to pin them back,” Allen said. “I figured they’d go for it. That was their mentality to come out, throw everything they had at us and go for the win in that situation.”

Ayden Hannahs completed 15-of-21 passes for 200 yards and threw three touchdowns. He hooked up with Gage Hannahs 10 times for 132 yards. Lake finished with a team-high 66 yards on the ground.

The win improves Barnesville to 3-0, entering a road trip to Sarahsville to tangle with Shenandoah. Trail also hits the road, heading to Urichsville to take on Claymont.

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