Bucks shut out by Eagles in season opener

The Breckenridge Buckaroos football team opened its 2025 season hosting the Holliday Eagles at Buckaroo Stadium. While it was an improvement upon last year’s 64-0 loss at Holliday, the Bucks still failed to find the scoreboard, losing 43-0.

After Holliday won the coin toss, they elected to defer to the second half. Ryan Waller returned the kickoff to the 33-yard line, which set the Bucks up well on offense. But the drive stalled as they went three-and-out and were forced to punt. 
It was a short punt to midfield, and the Eagles capitalized. The Bucks struggled in closing out plays, in which they did all game.

With the pressure getting to Holliday quarterback Brady Jones, the Bucks were unable to finish it off with a sack, and Jones threw it downfield for a long touchdown to Owen Hays. After a two-point conversion was successful, the Eagles led 8-0 with less than three minutes into the game. 

Bucks’ Jaimie Cruz fumbled the ensuing kickoff deep inside their own side of the field. Holliday took advantage of the early miscue and kept the momentum on their side. This time, Jones scrambled for the score. After an extra point, it was 15-0 with 8:16 left in the first quarter.

“A few miscues early on, running in and turning the football over in the kicking. Those are miscues that are hard to overcome,” Head Coach Casey Pearce said. “Just got to get better at it, telling them that we’re going to find a way to run the football, come Hell or high water. We took some steps toward that tonight, but it’s got to get more consistent.”

The Bucks finally got something going on the next drive, taking the ensuing kickoff to the 35-yard line. With 6:22 remaining in the opening quarter, they were able to move the chains for the first time in the game. 

However, that drive also stalled out, as they punted from their own 49-yard line. After a punt to the 45-yard line, the Bucks got a big defensive play from sophomore Tucker Baugh, forcing a fumble that senior Joseph Juneau recovered.  

With the ball at their own 30-yard line, Hudson Woodward found an open Erik Saucedo for a first down. The Bucks were able to move the ball a little more after that, but were then forced to punt again towards midfield.

It was a strong punt by Cruz down to about the 15-yard line, but an even stronger return to midfield for Holliday. The clock would run out on the quarter as the Bucks trailed 15-0. 

A few seconds into the second quarter, junior defensive end Hayden Mendoza picked up a big tackle for loss and forced a fumble at the Holliday 40. The Holliday punter fumbled the snap, and although the Eagles recovered it, the Bucks still got the ball at the 47-yard line and were in good position to finally find the endzone. 

The Bucks were able to move the ball downfield and got into the red zone, but were turned away from scoring as a 4th down pass from Woodward was knocked down in the end zone. 

Holliday took over with 7:47 to go in the half and moved the ball efficiently downfield. Down inside the five-yard line, the Bucks were able to come up with a stop as they defended a pass well in the end zone to force a turnover on downs.
 
Taking over at their own 4-yard line, the Bucks got out from under the shadow of their own endzone when Cruz ripped off a big run close to midfield after a toss from Cooper Wimberly. 

That drive stalled out, though, and the Bucks were forced to punt again. The punt was fumbled and recovered at the 25-yard line by the Eagles. Holliday took advantage of another miscue, scoring on a touchdown run by Brayden Hamill with 1:41 remaining in the half and converted the two-point try for a 23-0 lead. 

Cruz returned the ensuing kickoff to the 40-yard line. Woodward broke off a big scramble but coughed up the ball back over Holliday at the Eagles' 24-yard line. Woodward’s knee looked close to being down before the ball came loose, but it was ruled a fumble. 

After a sack of the quarterback with 6.2 seconds left in the half, Holliday took a timeout. After the timeout, they set up a lateral play, with the player who caught the lateral running all the way downfield towards the endzone as the clock hit triple zeroes. 

The ball carrier fumbled the ball forward, and it was recovered in the end zone by another player. This, according to NFHS rules, is not officially a touchdown, but it was ruled as such by the referees. The NFHS rule states that under normal circumstances, it is a touchdown, but there are exceptions for the last two minutes of a half. 

The Bucks trailed 29-0 going into the halftime locker room. 

On the second half kickoff, the Eagles had a short return, after which the Bucks forced a three-and-out following an incompletion on third down. Wimberly returned the punt to the 30, but Juneau was intercepted with just over three minutes into the second half. 

The Eagles took quick advantage of the Bucks’ miscue as they scored again on another touchdown pass from Jones with 7:59 to go in the third. The extra point made it 36-0. The Bucks couldn’t move the ball on their next drive and had to punt from their own endzone. 

Holliday scored their final touchdown of the day close to the end of the third quarter, getting out to a 43-0 lead.

There wasn’t too much action in the fourth quarter, outside of a forced fumble by Breckenridge, which was recovered by Mendoza.  

“Defensively, we’ve got to get it where we can get people on the ground. We talked about it for the last three weeks. That’s the hardest thing to do in the game of football, to play in space and tackle,” Pearce said. “You walk a fine line in how you practice those things, with limited numbers, but we got to find a way to be able to do it in practice and then show up on Friday nights.”

Despite the score, Pearce stated that he is not embarrassed of the effort that the Buckaroos put forward, as they played with high energy and even players who didn’t get playing time were energetic on the sideline. 

“Our kids are resilient and I’m not embarrassed of their effort. Got a little too emotional there late in the game, but that’s just part of playing the game,” Pearce said. “If you can’t play emotional for four quarters, people are going to continue to beat on your head and you don’t need to take it. Better be able to compete and fight back. This group’s going to fight.”

The Bucks continued to roll out three quarterbacks in the game, who all had their share of snaps as the playcaller. Pearce said that he believes all three of Woodward, Juneau and Wimberly were fairly even.

“Turn the football different ways…execution was – I’d call it 80%. But those dude’s compete,” Pearce said. “I cut us out of rotation; Juneau should’ve had that last set, but he had played about 15 snaps of defense there. Pulled him, and then we got back into our diamond package. Got him back on the field and gave him a shot running with the football.”

Pearce stated that they intended to see that type of package because it is a goal-line look, and they wanted to get it on the field live to see what they could do with it. 

“It’s a special look, make somebody have to prep,” Pearce added. “Make them wonder about it.”

Pearce hopes to find a way for the Bucks to win one game in the non-district schedule, as things can change fast once you have one win under your belt. The Bucks head to Childress next Friday, Sept. 5 to face the Bobcats. Last year, the Bucks fell to Childress, 35-7, in their home opener. 

“Next week is our next opportunity to [try and win one] so we’re going to take advantage of the opportunity,” Pearce said. “It’s all we can do.”