ARCANUM – The Covington Buccaneers had several scoring opportunities in the season opener at Arcanum, but untimely penalties and mistakes cost the Buccs dearly in a 27-6 defeat.
The trend started in the opening possession of the game as the Buccaneers marched down the field inside the Trojan 20. A motion penalty move the Buccs out of field goal range and a dropped pass on fourth down in the back of the end zone ended the drive.
The Buccaneer defense forced a Trojan punt and sophomore Day’Lynn Garrett returned the punt into Arcanum territory. Garrett capped the short field by scoring on a 16-yard run to give Covington a 6-0 lead with 4:53 left in the first quarter.
Once again the Buccaneer defense halted the Trojans to give the offense great field position. Day’Lynn Garrett crossed the goal line for the second time on a quick pass from Kian French, but a holding penalty negated the score.
Instead of holding at least a three score lead, the mistakes the Buccaneers made kept Arcanum within one play of taking the lead – and that happened on the ensuing possession as Dakota Kendig broke loose on a 74-yard scoring run.
A fumble by Covington on the ensuing kickoff led to another quick score for the Trojans and a 13-6 lead with 8:29 left in the half.
Covington continued to battle and moved the ball into scoring position again, but turned the ball over on downs inside the Trojan 20 with just under 2:00 left in the half.
Arcanum took advantage of a pass interference call on Covington inside the five and scored on a three-yard plunge by Tristian Keckler with 25 second left to give the Trojans a 20-6 lead at the break.
The second half was similar to the first half as Covington was able to move the ball only to have penalties and two interceptions prevent potential scores.
Arcanum was able to seal the game with a 10-yard run by Landon Wagner with 5:30 on the clock in the fourth quarter.
Overall, the Buccaneers tallied 245 yards of offense with 119 coming on the ground and 126 through the air. Many more yards would have been tallied if it weren’t for the mistakes that negated big plays.
Covington (0-1) hosts Ansonia (1-0) next Friday.
