Xenia’s Sincere Valdez gave Deante White a breather late in the game. (Press Pros Photos By Lee Woolery)
Xenia showed itself to be an MVL contender by rebounding from last week’s loss at Troy. Butler’s next step, according to coach Zach Gueth, is get back to playing with discipline.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
Vandalia, OH — Butler had a chance to establish itself as a contender in the Miami Valley League on Friday night.
The Aviators could have put Xenia into an early hole on their side of the league standings as well.
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Instead, Xenia wrecked Butler on its home field for a second consecutive year.
“I mean, to be blunt, we got our butts kicked,” Butler head coach Zach Gueth said after his team lost 20-0. “We had some things going defensively where we felt pretty good, and then kind of got into having trouble getting off the field on third down, and offensively, we couldn’t get things going.”
The loss was Butler’s first of the season, but it seemed weightier than one setback, at least for now.
After the Aviators (2-1) shared the MVL Miami division title with Troy and Tippecanoe two years ago, they came up two games short last year, and there was no mystery why.
They won eight regular season games but lost in Week 5 to Xenia and Week 6 to Tipp, the two division winners.
After wins over Franklin and Stebbins to start this season, this Aviators squad had good reason to carry confidence into the matchup with Xenia.
The Buccaneers (2-1) were coming off a decisive loss at Troy and facing questions about their fitness to defend their MVL Valley division title without the steady hand of four-year starting quarterback Gavin McManus, who graduated in the spring.
They found themselves in a familiar way Friday night, though, by running for 264 yards on 50 carries.
Senior halfback Deaunte White, as he did in a 25-17 win on the same field a year earlier, punished the Butler defense repeatedly throughout the night.
When he needed a break, sophomore Sincere Valdez stepped in admirably, though that also means the offensive line had to be getting something done in front of both backs.
As usual, White and Valdez got most of their yards running behind a pulling lineman attacking one off-tackle hole or the other.
That’s called “Power” in most playbooks, but Xenia coach Maurice Harden wanted to be sure the other popular tagline for it was brought up.
Xenia’s Shawn Fishwick scores a touchdown on a long pass play.
“We’re still running God’s favorite play. We’re still running ‘Power,’ just a different way of doing it,” said Harden, who added of White: “He’s a D-O-DOUBLE-G, baby. He is an absolute dog. We depend on that guy a lot. In order for us to be successful, we have to play a physical brand of football on the offense and defense. That’s who we are, and that’s what we want to be. So we wanted to run the ball tonight.”
While there were a lot of big hits, there was also a lot of yellow laundry on the field.
The reasons ran the gamut from false starts to personal fouls, and neither coach was happy about seeing his team draw so many.
“They were attacking us and getting after us real (good), and anytime we did get something going, you know, we had a penalty or a turnover,” Gueth said. “Way too many penalties. I mean, that’s discipline. We’re a very undisciplined football team right now. A lot of things we got to get fixed if we want to compete in the MVL.”
After the teams traded punts to start the game, Xenia missed a 38-yard field goal, but the Buccs got the ball back two plays later after recovering a fumble at the Butler 13.
White found the end zone for the first time two plays later, slicing through the defense with his upright running style and gliding across the goal line.
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The next time the Buccaneers got the ball, they turned in a more vintage Xenia drive.
Starting at their own 27, the visitors went the distance on a 14-play march that included only one pass, and it was barely one at that.
White started it with a 2-yard run then Valdez went for seven. White went back to work on a 6-yard run, then a holding penalty on Xenia set the Buccs back.
That was only temporary, though, as White ran for eight then three more to set up a third-and-1 at the Butler 48.
This time quarterback Gage Stephan kept the ball, though he didn’t fool anyone. That meant he had to lower his head to get the yard, but he did just that to move the chains.
Xenia defender Kale Webb (4) and Alex Gragg bring down Butler’s Cory Rice for a loss.
After a short “pass” to Demarco Ruffin on a jet sweep gained three, Valdez went over left tackle for eight and another first down at the Butler 33.
White took over from there, slashing left behind a pulling guard for 10 then going right for 21 more.
He lost a yard on first-and-goal then went in from three yards out to make it 13-0 Xenia with 4:19 left in the second quarter.
The PAT was no good, but the Buccaneers weren’t going to need it anyway.
With the hosts still in striking distance in the third quarter, Xenia scored three times on one possession, though only one of them counted.
It was a beauty as Stephan pumped to fake throwing a hitch then fired a strike to Shawn Fishwick, who caught it in stride and sprinted into the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown.
That came one play after Stephan and Fishwick had connected for a 28-yard touchdown on the other side of the field that was called back because of illegal procedure.
Earlier in the drive, White had a 32-yard touchdown run called back because of another illegal procedure, but it was that kind of night for both teams.
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“Being a disciplined football team, that’s not who we are right now, and that’s evident by the amount of penalties that we’ve had,” Gueth said. “And I guess that’s a reflection of me, and I’ve got to be better. I’ve got to figure something out here. But you know, the first two weeks was a problem, and it reared its head in tonight’s game. And that’s not only the penalties, but we got pushed around, too. So, a lot of work to be done to get back on track.”
On the other side, Xenia was feeling good again.
“We were not happy, and we were very embarrassed and upset and disappointed by how we played last week,” Harden said. “So we wanted to make a statement, and we wanted to come out here and play our behind off, stay as focused as we can, show people that we’re still at the top of the MVL.”
Butler’s Cory Rice picks up good yardage.
There was a negative note for the visitors, however.
Late in the game they lost senior tight end Cayden Jenkins to a severe leg injury. The training staffs from both teams rushed to the field to take care of him as he writhed in pain, and he was taken off on a cart and then to the hospital.
Butler also suffered an injury late as quarterback Luke Moeller had to leave the game after taking a hit on a pass attempt.
Junior Drew Suess completed a pair of passes to move the Aviators into Xenia territory, but the drive went for nothing when he couldn’t find anyone open on a fourth-and-long.
That let Xenia run out the clock.
“He stepped in and was opportunistic and did what was asked of him,” said Gueth, who did not have an update on Moeller yet. “So he stepped up and filled the role that we needed to. That was good.”
He was more concerned with his team as a whole getting back to playing a more disciplined game.
“We’ve got to come in and look at ourselves first and be able to point the finger at us as far as what are things that we need to get better at before we worry about anybody else,” Gueth said. “So until we fix us, it’s not really going to matter who we’re playing.”
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