Bucks drop road contest to CMVT, 32-8
BLOOMSBURG, PA – Bucktail’s football game at Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech Saturday was a loss, but Buck fans are hopeful the season-ender against the Rams was the next step in a turn-around in the football program’s fortunes. Bucktail went winless in 2021 but under first-year head coach Frank Sutliff finished 2-7 this year and was competitive in most games. And with only one senior on the squad and all the skill position personnel returning next season, further improvement would appear at hand in 2023.
Saturday was not the Bucks’ best day as the host Rams broke a scoreless tie after one period and pulled away for a 32-8 win. Bucktail had no answer for CMVT’s junior tailback Toby Zajac. The Ram workhorse carried the ball 35 times for 229 yards and three touchdowns. He finished the season with 1,452 yards, a new school record for the Ram program which dates to 1972. The victory put CMVT at 5-5 on the season, completing quite the turnaround following winless campaigns in 2020 and 2021.
Bucktail meanwhile was shutdown by a stingy Ram defense. Brett Mason gave the Bucks great field position when he returned the opening kickoff to CMVT’s 43-yardline and the Bucks moved to the home team’s 23-yardline before turning over the ball on downs.
The Rams, behind Zajac, drove deep into Buck territory but the drive ended on an interception from Buck freshman Colton Fleisher at the 6-yardline. Bucktail was forced to punt and CMVT then had good field position, starting at the Bucktail 33-yardline. Zajac went in from four yards out for the game’s first score early in period two; he added a six-yard TD run shortly thereafter and the Rams had their third touchdown of the period on a Caden Long to Shane Tomlinson 32-yard pass, the halftime score 18-0.
Zajac went in from eight yards for his third score midway through the third period, the Rams up 24-0 at the end of three. The teams traded touchdowns in the final quarter. Bucktail’s Brian Dwyer did his best running of the season, helping to set up a 99-yard scoring drive in the final period. The points came on a 42-yard bootleg score from sophomore quarterback Brody Pentz. That made it 24-8 but CMVT wrapped things up with their final score and with a 2-point conversion, setting the final at 32-8.
Dwyer finished with 77 yards rushing on 9 carries, Pentz with 70 yards on 12 carries.
Bucktail was without two starters and lost two more players through injury but battled throughout.
Coach Sutliff had words of praise for his team. He called his first year as head coach “very rewarding” and said the program is ahead of where he thought it would be. “We’re on the right track in terms of discipline and respect and I’m proud of that.”
He talked of the improvement the team made from August to November, noting the squad had five freshmen seeing action and two juniors who had not taken a varsity snap before this season and complimented his offensive line for its improvement over the course of the season. He said the program is “still evolving,” and said he had “a great group of kids, very coachable.”
B 0 0 0 8 = 8
CM 0 18 6 8 = 32
