“What you do in the football season isn’t what allows you to be successful,” Casey Anderson said. “It’s what I did in the offseason that allows me to do that. I worked really hard day and night, doing what I can to get better at the game.” (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
Troy’s defense rose to the occasion, and the Trojans ran around and through Butler’s defense for a 42-6 playoff win. The fifth-seeded Trojans advance to play Lima Senior.
Troy, Oh – On October 2, the Butler Aviators threw for 441 yards on the Troy Trojans, despite a 45-31 loss.
Minster Bank is the official banking resource for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Four weeks later, in the opening playoff round, Butler needed a 21-yard tip-drill touchdown on the last play of the game to avoid getting shut out.
“This week we were thinking about the number 441,” Troy linebacker Jesse Valdez said. “We really came together as a team to figure out how we were gonna stop that. And it all unfolded perfectly for us.”
Alan Brads is a contributing columnist and writes sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
Troy’s lackluster performance on defense haunted them for a month, but the Trojans became the scariest part of Butler’s Halloween weekend with a 42-6 playoff beatdown.
The Trojans grounded the Aviators, allowing just 78 passing yards before the running clock kicked in and the benches emptied.
“We got a lot better at executing,” Troy Head Coach Ryan Jones said. “We didn’t change a whole lot of schemes from last time. We just did a better job at recognizing patterns and getting to where we needed to be.”
Butler quarterback Drew Suess threw for over 1,500 yards in October alone, including 530 a week ago against Fairborn. But the Trojans erased Butler’s explosive passes overnight. Before the running clock portion of the blowout, a 14-yard completion to Ryan Van Kleeck was Butler’s largest gain.
Colton Akins threw just one pass, but did has fair share on the ground, including two rushing touchdowns.
“Our execution just wasn’t where it needed to be against a very good Troy team,” Butler coach Zach Gueth said. “We weren’t able to execute in some key situations, and turnovers put us in a bad spot.”
The Trojans improved to 9-2 and solidified Jones’ first season as a success.
“It’s just really neat to see [our players] experience a victory here on their home field in the playoffs,” Jones said. “There’s a lotta guys who hadn’t been able to contribute to a win like that. So that’s really fulfilling as a coach. That’s why you do it. It makes it all worthwhile.”
If they want to best last year’s 9-3 mark, they’ll have to earn it in enemy territory next week against fourth-seeded Lima Senior.
Wilson Health/Orthopedics proudly sponsors the best in area sports and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Press Pros.
“We’re glad we’re playing them,” Jones said. “We’re just excited to be in the second round. They’re a formidable opponent with a high-powered offense. They’ve got skill guys all over the place, so it’s gonna be quite a challenge.”
Lima Senior and Troy share one common opponent: Piqua, which Lima Senior beat 42-13, and Troy beat 28-14.
Quinn Barhorst intercepts a fluttering pass, knocked offline by Troy’s vicious pass rush.
“We’re excited because we just love playing football,” Valdez said. “We just gotta outwork them throughout the entire week. Our coaches say it’s not what happens on Friday, it’s what happens throughout the whole week.”
The winner will take on the winner of Anderson and Withrow.
Butler wraps its season at 7-4, a small step forward from last year’s 6-5 campaign, but a second straight year without a playoff win.
“Our talk on the field was about how much I’ve enjoyed coaching this team,” Gueth said. “It’s a great group of kids, especially these seniors. It was a special group to get after it this year.”
Unlike the defense, Troy’s offense was content with a repeat performance of the Week 7 showdown. The Trojans rushed for 348 yards and six touchdowns. After a sack on the second play from scrimmage, Coach Jones played the hits, calling 43 run plays and one play-action pass the rest of the way.
Logan Services, with locations in Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus, proudly sponsors your favorite area sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.com.
Running back Casey Anderson led the charge with over 200 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Somehow those numbers fell a bit short of his romp in Week 7, where he went for 293 and four scores. But not a shabby night.
“It starts with the offensive line,” Jones said. “You can’t run anything without them … That O-line led by Mitch Finkes at center, Owen Swift at left guard, Jake Ernsthausen, Alec Stuchell, and Landon Rademachir, they did a fantastic job, and took a lot of pride in being able to move the ball down the field.”
Jesse Valdez tries to wrangle Kash Jordan in the open field.
Anderson doesn’t just embrace contact, he makes a point of creating it. The first defender to make contact has as good a chance of bringing him down as a political attack ad has of changing your vote. It’s just not gonna happen.
“What you do in the football season isn’t what allows you to be successful,” Anderson said. “It’s what I did in the offseason that allows me to do that. I worked really hard day and night, doing what I can to get better at the game.”
Not that the offense needed much help, but they got several short fields thanks to takeaways.
The Heath Murray Agency sponsors the Buckeyes on Press Pros
Two fumble recoveries and an interception set up touchdown drives of 60, 33 and 14 yards.
Butler’s execution errors came like trick-or-treaters on Beggars’ Night – early and often. On Butler’s first drive, wide receiver Lucas Miller caught a pass over the middle, but a hit jarred the ball loose, and Troy’s Camryn Mangas fell on it.
Troy QB Colton Akins helped Anderson plow down the field, and Anderson scored on a toss left from the 8-yard line for a 7-0 lead.
A holding penalty forced a quick Butler punt, and Anderson rolled like a bowling ball all the way to another score, this time from three yards away.
Casey Anderson led the MVL with 14 rushing touchdowns, and tacked on three more in the playoff opener.
The Aviators’ spread offense tried turning to the ground game, but to no avail. A run stuff on third down set up fourth-and-two at midfield. Already reeling, Butler went for it, but Valdez knocked the pass away to create an early knockout punch opportunity. Anderson wasted no time, breaking three or four tackles to score a 42-yarder for a 21-0 lead.
During a two-minute drill before half, the Trojans broke tendency and chucked it deep … six yards on play action. Good enough for 100% completion for Akins, but not the 26 yards he needed to eclipse 1,000 yards on the season.
The drive ended in the red zone when the clock expired after the offense didn’t get set before spiking the ball. They left three points on the field for trusty kicker Matt Barth, but it’s doubtful anyone will lose any sleep over it.
Butler came out of the locker room on life support, and on the second play from scrimmage, Troy yanked the plug. Wide receiver Landon Thompson caught a pass, but lost the handle, and Trojan linebacker Henry Wolke recovered the fumble near the red zone.
Koverman,Staley, Dickerson proudly supports your favorite high school sports on Press Pros Magazine.
Surprise, surprise, Anderson carried them to the goal line, but this time Akins snuck it in for six.
Stuchell’s crushing sack forced another Butler punt, and Akins snuck it in again to initiate the running clock in the third quarter.
Another pass rush win forced an erratic throw by Suess, which Troy’s Quinn Barhorst picked off and returned to Butler’s 14. Fullback Ethan Kirkpatrick, who blocked well all night, scored the sixth and final rushing touchdown.
Some of the Troy High School student section were dressed in their Halloween favorites for the game to cheer on their football team to VICTORY.
Hoping to avoid the shutout, Butler drove down the field and heaved a desperation pass across the field from Troy’s 21-yard line on the last play of the game. The ball slipped through both hands of a Trojan defender, and into the arms of Kash Jordan for a touchdown.
A few folks might lose just a few minutes of sleep over that one.
But the job was done, and done well. All told, Butler threw for 142 yards, less than a third of the mark from a month ago.
“We just wanted to come into this game and dominate,” Anderson said. “Because it could be our last game. We wanted to make sure that we left no question on the table about who the Troy Trojans are.”
Tight end Cole Tasker makes the call, a touchdown for Colton Akins on the QB sneak.
The Arbogast family of dealerships proudly sponsors the best area sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.com.