Santana Keys hauls in a 59 yard touchdown pass as Butler cornerback Joey Love tries to knock the ball away.
Photos Ron Nunnari | The Register-Herald
CLAYTON — Northmont has a lot of work to do to right its ship, and that is an understatement. In their season opener the Thunderbolts were annihilated by Butler 49-20.
After the Aviators left the Greater Western Ohio Conference the two schools decided to keep their rivalry alive. Since 2021 the rivalry game has served as the season opener. Northmont won the 2021 game 28-13, the 2022 game 49-13, and last year’s game 28-10.
Butler decided to end the renewed rivalry making this year’s contest the last. Maybe that decision came too soon. The Aviators totally dominated the game from start to finish.
Looking at the statistics would make someone think that this was a close game. Total yards: Butler 322, Northmont 312. Pass completions: Butler 10, Northmont 9. Passing attempts: Butler 15, Northmont 16. Passing yards: Butler 109, Northmont 148. Rushing yards: Butler 213, Northmont 164.
But repeated miscues by the T’bolts gave the Aviators ideal field position – and that is what led to the lopsided score.
A short 22 yard punt gave Butler the ball at Northmont’s 43. Five plays later Joey Love scored on a six yard run and Griffyn Bradley’s PAT put the Aviators up 7-0 at 6:51 in the first quarter.
Northmont couldn’t sustain its next drive and another short punt gave the Aviators the ball at the Thunderbolts’ 45. Five plays later Julius Rusk caught an 11 yard TD pass from Mason Reckner. Bradley’s kick put Butler up 14-0.
The Thunderbolts answered with a 59 yard touchdown pass from Bryce Staggs to Santana Keys. Colby Barr’s PAT cut the Aviators’ lead to 14-7.
Butler scored on a 13 pass from Reckner to Brody Miller and on a two yard run by Love to take a 28-7 halftime lead.
The Aviators returned the second half kickoff to the 36. Kaiden Bates broke off a 32 yard run for a first down at the Northmont 32. On the next play the T’bolts recovered at fumble at its 33. Northmont returned the favor by fumbling the ball away with the Aviators recovering the ball at their own 39.
Eight plays later Riley Seibert scored on a one yard run to boost Butler’s lead to 35-7 with 6:15 left in the third quarter.
Keys returned the kickoff 57 yards to give Northmont at first down at Butler’s 33. Quarterback Brady Lupton kept the ball for a 16 yard gain. A few plays later the Aviators were slapped with a face mask penalty to set up a first down at the four. From there Calilien Grant scored but the point after failed to make it 35-13.
Disaster struck when Tayven Crump returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a TD and Bradley’s kick boosted Butler’s lead to 42-13.
Northmont’s final score came on a three yard run by Grant with three seconds left in the third period. Barr’s PAT closed the gap to 42-20. The Aviators tacked on another TD on a four yard by Bates with 2:16 remaining. Luke Moeller’s kick made the final tally, 49-20.
“We learned some hard lessons tonight about some things we have to get better at,” said Northmont coach Tony Broering. “We’ve got to get better at just the fundamentals of football – blocking and tackling. It’s not anything major schematically, it’s just the fundamentals of football.”
Northmont saw a few key players suffer injuries during the loss and already had a few players out with injuries to begin with, so the team came into the game already banged up.
“We were off-stride and it got worse as we went through the game, so we’ve got a lot to work on,” Broering said.
It didn’t help losing outside linebacker Cedric Works (6-feet, 4-inches, 225 pounds) who moved out of the district to a school in Kentucky for his senior season. The team also lost 10 of its 11 defensive players with younger players having to move up to fill their shoes.
“But, I saw some really good things out of the defense towards the end of the game,” Broering noted. “The encouraging thing was they kept going, kept fighting, kept working and I was really impressed with a couple of the young guys on defense. Dominic Alexander really flashed there.”
Broering feels the team has a very good offensive line.
“We’ve got some things going there, especially in the second half but we just made too many mistakes,” Broering said. “You can’t turn the ball over, which we did multiple times, or you aren’t going to beat anybody. You know that since you’ve covered football for so long. You make turnovers like that and you are going to lose. Butler had a short field the whole game. We just made too many errors.”
Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].
