COVINGTON – The Covington Buccaneers closed out the regular season with a 42-6 victory over Ansonia on Friday to secure a home playoff game.
The win also locked up a share of the Cross County Conference title, the 15th CCC championship and 29th league championship in school history. Covington shares the title with Miami East, who the Buccaneers defeated 21-20 in overtime three weeks ago as both teams field 7-1 league records.
“This is a good way to close out the regular season, especially on a night where we honor our seniors,” Covington coach Dave Miller said. “Now we look forward to the next step.”
As satisfying as the win was for Covington, its wasn’t a masterful performance by any stretch of the imagination. That’s because Covington hurt itself with mistakes – primarily a penalty that negated a touchdown, a fumble at midfield on a potential scoring drive and a blown coverage resulting in an Ansonia score at the end of the half – all mistakes that could spell disaster in a close ball game.
“The kids played hard, minus the mistakes,” Miller said. “We made some mistakes tonight that we can’t make if we want to continue moving forward.”
The game started out with neither team able to accomplish anything on their opening possessions, but Buccaneer junior linebacker Deron White gave Covington some momentum by stepping in front of an Ansonia pass for an interception on the Tigers’ second possession.
Quickly, the Buccaneer offense made the Tigers pay as junior quarterback Nathan Blei found fellow junior Branden Robinson open behind the Ansonia defense for a 32-yard scoring strike and a 7-0 lead.
After forcing a Tiger punt on the ensuing possession Covington struck again as senior Jared Williams broke loose around right end and raced 45 yards untouched for a 14-0 lead.
Williams, who finished the game with 182 yards on just eight carries, pushed the Buccaneer lead to 21-0 with a 74-yard scoring run on Covington’s next possession.
But suddenly, the Buccaneers began to self-destruct as a long touchdown run by Shane Straw was called back due to a holding penalty, and then Covington fumbled at midfield to give the Tigers the ball in excellent scoring position.
And the Tigers took advantage as Dane Wentworth found freshman Devyn Sink behind the Buccaneer defense for a 40-yard touchdown strike to make the score 21-6 at the break as the two-point conversion failed.
Whatever was said at halftime was what a lackluster Covington team needed because it was a different Buccaneer mentality on the field in the third quarter.
Jared Williams scored his third touchdown of the game on the opening possession of the half as he scooted around right end from 31 yards out to push the Buccaneer advantage to 28-6.
The Covington defense also picked up the pace, holding Ansonia to a three-and-out and taking over the ball once again near midfield.
After a long run by Ethan Herron moved the ball inside the Tiger 5, senior Brandon Magee powered his way in from the one to increase Covington’s advantage to 35-6.
On the ensuing Tiger possession, Covington’s Coleman Ryan picked off a Wentworth pass and returned the ball to the 2. Senior scat back Shane Straw then did the rest as he scooted around left end for the score and a 42-6 lead as the third quarter came to a close.
From there the Buccaneers turned the game over to the junior varsity kids and started looking forward to the extended season in the state playoffs.
Covington racked up 348 yards of offense with 316 coming on the ground. The Tigers finished with 187 yards of offense.
“The kids were ready to play,” Miller said. “You could tell that from our pre-game warmup. But, we have some things we need to clean up before next week.”
Ansonia finished the season with a 2-8 overall record and a 1-7 record in the CCC. The loss ended the high school football careers of Ansonia’s three seniors: Nick Buckingham, Cody Burnfield and Dane Wentworth.
SCORING SUMMARY:
COV: Branden Robinson 32-yd pass from Nathan Blei (Nathan Blei kick)
COV: Jared Williams 45-yd run (Nathan Blei kick)
COV: Jared Williams 74-yd run (Nathan Blei kick)
ANS: Devyn Sink 40-yd pass from Dane Wentworth (two-point pass failed)
COV: Jared Williams 31-yd run (Nathan Blei kick)
COV: Brandon Magee 1-yd run (Nathan Blei kick)
COV: Shane Straw 2-yd run (Nathan Blei kick)
