IDA — Ida’s football team took advantage of great field position Friday and beat Buchanan, 43-20, in Division 5 regional final action.

The Blue Streaks got the ball in Bucks’ territory to start all six of its drives in the first half and the last four drives ended with touchdowns. The hosts went into halftime with a 29-7 lead and already thinking about a game in the state semifinals.

“That sure didn’t help,” Buchanan coach Reid McBeth said about Ida’s huge advantage in field position. “The wind didn’t help, but I’m not here to make excuses. That’s a really good football and we have a really good football team. They beat us tonight.”

Three Buchanan punts in the first half went an average of 21 yards and on another punt there was bad snap and Bucks’ punter Dalton Riddle was tackled at Buchanan’s 30-yard line.

Ida, which improved to 12-0, also rushed for 310 yards out of its wing-T attack. Nick Levicki led the way on the ground with 131 yards rushing on 26 carries with two touchdowns. Eric Bugg added 120 yards on the ground on 27 carries with two touchdowns. Bugg’s one-yard touchdown run was the final play of the first half. Ida drove 47 yards in the final 1:16 of the first half.

“They ran the ball at us pretty good,” McBeth said. “We knew they were going to run the ball right at us and we did what we could. Our kids gave it their best shot. They’re a tough team to slow down. It was a tough ball game for us.”

Buchanan, which finishes at 11-1, totaled only 186 yards, including 39 yards rushing. A big chunk of those yards came in the first quarter when Bryce Vineyard turned a four-yard catch from Jarrett Thomas into a 59-yard touchdown. That score gave the Bucks a 7-0 lead with 5:03 left in the first quarter.

The rest of the night pretty much belonged to Ida’s defense, which totaled four quarterback sack and forced three turnovers.

“We were out of sorts sometimes because of the way they were playing defense, but they’re 12-0 for a reason,” McBeth said about his team’s offense. “That’s a pretty good football team. There were a lot of times we got sacked, but those were coverage sacks too. We didn’t have a lot of guys open in the secondary.”

Ida opened the second half with a 14-play, 69-yard drive capped by a nine-yard touchdown run from Levicki with 5:15 left in the third quarter.

“We knew they were going to try to keep possession of the ball,” McBeth said. “If they did that it wasn’t going to help our offense,” McBeth said.

In the fourth quarter, Buchanan got a 67-yard kickoff return from Tim McCaffrey and a 22-yard touchdown pass from Darren Shearer to Riddle.

“It’s going to be a long bus ride home and it’s going to hurt for awhile, but we accomplished some great things and this is a great group of kids.” McBeth said.

 

IDA 43, BUCHANAN 20

At Ida

Buchanan       7          0          0          13 – 20

Ida                    0          29        7            7 – 43

BU – Bryce Vineyard 59 pass from Jarrett Thomas (Kyle Leazenby kick)

I – Nick Levicki 6 run (Nikolai Weigel kick)

I – Andrew Oberski 14 run (Weigel kick)

I – Bryan Laux 13 pass from David Kolakowski (Weigel kick)

I – Eric Bugg 1 run (Bugg run)

I – Levicki 9 run (Weigel kick)

I – Bugg 12 run (Weigel kick)

BU – Tim McCaffrey 67 kickoff return (Leazenby kick)

BU – Dalton Riddle 22 pass from Darren Shearer (run failed)

Varsity records: Buchanan 11-1, Ida 12-0