It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Padua Franciscan had no problem doing just that on Friday. They snuck past the Buckeye Bucks with a 39-34 victory. Padua Franciscan's win was all the more impressive since the Bucks were averaging only 14.17 points allowed on the season.
Roderick Love continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 263 yards and a touchdown while picking up 9.7 yards per carry, and also picking up 64 receiving yards and a touchdown. He showed off some serious burst, cutting through the defense on one rush that went for 53 yards. Another player making a difference was Nick Barker, who threw for 213 yards and four touchdowns while completing 86.7% of his passes.
Padua Franciscan didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Christian Ruggiero.
Padua Franciscan is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 7-5 record this season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 27.0 points per game. As for Buckeye, with the defeat, they broke their nine-game winning streak and moved their record to 10-2.
Padua Franciscan will square off against Benedictine at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Benedictine's defense has only allowed 11.2 points per game this season, so Padua Franciscan's offense will have their work cut out for them. Buckeye does not have any more games scheduled as of now.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
