Goldbugs battle the Buccaneers to try and keep playoff hopes alive

TONKAWA – The Alva Goldbugs struggled on the road Friday night as they faced off with the Tonkawa Buccaneers in their last effort to stay playoff bound at the conclusion of the regular season.

The Goldbugs' offense struggled throughout the first half, as Tonkawa's defense held strong to prevent a third-down conversion with four yards to go, forcing Alva to punt the ball away on their first possession.

The Buccaneers saw more success in their possession as they began their first drive of the game on their 32-yard line. Tonkawa went to their ground game and slowly gained ground into Goldbugs territory.

Once across the 50, the Buccaneers had back-to-back big plays to put them within 10 yards of the end zone. A 15-yard quarterback keeper to Rustin Martin up the gut, followed by a 16-yard run along the right side from Jayden Myer, put Tonkawa on the Goldbugs' eight-yard line with a first-and-goal. Three plays later, on a fourth-and-goal, Martin ran the ball in for a three-yard touchdown to lead Alva 0-7 with 6:12 left in the first quarter.

The Buccaneers got their final touchdown of the first half as Martin ran up the middle for his second touchdown for a 39-yard touchdown run, increasing their lead over Alva 0-14 in the second quarter.

With 3:16 left in the game, the Goldbugs had their first big drive of the night to try and build momentum going into halftime. Starting from their 21-yard line, Alva began their drive a little shaky gaining no yardage on their first two plays. On a third-down with 10 yards to go, quarterback Mitchel Meyer found Davion Murrow for a first-down and more all the way to the 50 for a 29-yard gain.

After a pass interference penalty on Tonkawa put the Goldbugs further into Buccaneer territory, Meyer had another big pass completion to Murrow to put them on the 25-yard line. Murrow followed that with a big run all the way into the end zone, but a holding call on Alva put them on Tonkawa's 23-yard line.

Alva came within 16-yards of the end zone, but that was as far as they would go as they committed a turnover on downs off an incomplete pass with 21 seconds left before halftime. Tonkawa took a knee to send the game into the second half with a 0-14 lead over Alva.

The Goldbugs came into the second half fighting as they started off with an onside kick, recovering the ball to takeover on Tonkawa's 43-yard line. This resulted in a four-yard touchdown for Meyer eight plays later. After a successful two-point conversion, the Goldbugs were back into the game trailing Tonkawa 8-14.

Unfortunately, the Buccaneers answered right back on an eight play, 67-yard drive resulting in a two-yard touchdown for Braydon Hampton. A failed two-point conversion put Tonkawa ahead Alva 8-20 with 4:44 left in the third quarter.

Alva tried to come back with a response, picking up three first-downs to get across the 50-yard line. After across the 50-yard mark, Meyer threw an interception into the hands of Jonathan Mercer with 1:30 left in the third, and Tonkawa returning that ball to Tonkawa's 23-yard line.

The Buccaneers had another impressive drive, turning into an 11 play, 77-yard march ending in a 13-yard touchdown run for Hampton with 6:59 left in the game to increase their lead to 8-28.

A lot happened over that last minute, starting with a two play scoring drive from the Goldbugs as they started on their 44-yard line. Back-to-back big pass completions to Hayden Colwell ended in Alva's second touchdown of the night.

Alva started the drive with a 21-yard pass to Colwell to put the Goldbugs inside Buccaneers territory on the 21-yard line. On the very next play, Colwell was the go-to again catching a 23-yard touchdown pass to close the gap with 6:43 left in the game and the score at 14-28.

Alva tried for another onside kick, and at first it appeared to be another successful attempt as the Goldbugs were initially given possession after believing the ball was touched by a Tonkawa player. However, after further review, the ball was given to the Buccaneers after discovering the ball had first hit an Alva player before traveling 10 yards.

From the 45-yard line, Tonkawa's quarterback, Martin went untouched up the middle for a touchdown run with 6:33 left in the game and the score at 14-34.

Alva began their next drive from their 42, but Meyer threw his second interception of the night that was treturned all the way to the Goldbugs' 24-yard line.

Despite have a short field to work with, Alva's defense held strong turning it into an eight play drive. I seemed that it would end in a turnover on downs, as Tonkawa chose to go for it on a fourth-down and 13 yards to go. However, Martin found another hole that resulted in a 13-yard touchdown run into the end zone and the final score at 14-40.

Despite the big improvements for the Goldbugs since last season, this battle for a playoff berth ended Alva's post-season hopes.

Stats

Alva struggled on the ground against Tonkawa, getting only 56 yards off 19 carries. Meyer had 53 of those 56 yards off 10 attempts with one touchdown. Meyer also completed 8-of-15 passes for 118 yards for a touchdown and two interceptions.

Colwell was the top receiver of the night ending the game with two catches for 56 yards and a touchdown. Murrow followed closely behind with 42 yards off three catches. Other contributors in receiving were Grant Ritter caught one for 11 yards, and Austin Shklar picked up nine yards off two receptions.

Alva (5-4) will have their final game of the regular season as they host Newkirk (0-9) for Senior Night on Nov. 4 with a kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.