By DOUG DONNELLY

DAVISON – Harbor Beach didn’t complete a pass in its season-opening win over Cass City.

The first time the Pirates dropped back to pass Saturday afternoon against Whiteford, it was a disaster as pressure by Shevy Alexander forced Harbor Beach quarterback Caden Bucholz to throw an interception which led to a quick Bobcat touchdown.

From that point on, however, Bucholz and Harbor Beach was virtually unstoppable in its passing game and running game as the Pirates beat Whiteford 43-14 and send a statement to the rest of Division 8 that they are for real.

“We knew they could pass,” Whiteford coach Todd Thieken said. “They may not have thrown the ball last week, but we’ve seen film on them where they were pretty effective throwing the ball. The thing is, in that first half, they threw two or three of those balls that they call 50-50 balls, right? Well, they were more like 100 balls for them today as they completed about 100 percent of them.”

Harbor Beach ran the ball effectively, too, outgaining the Bobcats 331 to 194 on the ground.

“That is a good football team,” Thieken said.

Whiteford struck first when Alexander’s pressure forced Bucholz into a pass from his own end zone to avoid a safety. Whiteford’s Brek Ruddy intercepted the pass inside the Harbor Beach 10-yard line, setting up a 2-yard touchdown by Andres Trejo.

Harbor Beach was backed up into its own end zone because of a 64-yard punt by Tre Eitniear that rolled out of bounce at the Pirate 2.

Whiteford’s 8-0 lead evaporated when Harbor Beach scored late in the first quarter on a 27-yard pass from Bucholz to Benson Harper then Bucholz scored twice on rushing touchdowns in the second quarter.

Whiteford put together a drive of its own right before half, capped off by a Brek Ruddy touchdown run with 9.7 seconds left in the first half, which made it a 20-14 at halftime.

“I thought right there that if we could come out in the second half and play defense, get a stop, we had some things offensively that we thought we could do against their defense,” Thieken said.

Those never came to fruition, however, as the Pirates came out in the third quarter and put together an 11-play, 72-yard scoring drive, capped off on a 17-yard run by Bucholz.

“Being down 28-14 changed things from an offensive perspective on what you can call,” Thieken said.

The Bobcats were shut out in the second half while Harbor Beach put together three touchdown drives.

Bucholz, a senior, led Harbor Beach with 165 yards rushing and 99 yards passing.

Harbor Beach had 27 first downs compared to 17 for the Bobcats. They also made all four of their fourth down conversion attempts.

Whiteford’s offense was stalled at key moments in the game, converting just five of 13 third down attempts and three of 10 fourth down chances.

Drew Ruddy led the Bobcats with 60 yards rushing and 27 yards receiving. Austin Bauman caught two passes for 21 yards, including one very difficult catch over the middle in which he was hit hard by a couple of Pirate defenders, but held on. Mason DeBarr was in on 17 tackles for Whiteford.

Whiteford was penalized eight times, compared to three by Harbor Beach.

The Bobcats will host West Unity (Ohio) Hilltop high h school next week. It will be the home opener for Whiteford.

Thieken said the Bobcats need to regroup. They still have a lot of season left to play.

“It can go one of two ways,” Thieken said. “We can use this game to get better or dwell on it. We need to go back, look at film and learn and move on. That’s what we have to do.”

WHITEFORD 8 6 0 0 – 14

HARBOR BEACH 6 14 8 14 – 43

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

W – Andres Trejo 2 run (Caden Stewart pass from Tre Eitniear), 6:04. 

H – Benson Harper 27 pass from Caden Bucholz (run failed), 1:38. 

Second quarter

H – Bucholz 1 run (Skiler Kruse psss from Bucholz), 9:55.

H – Bucholz 1 run (pass failed), 2:31

W – Brek Ruddy 1 run (run failed), 9.7

Third quarter

H – Bucholz 17 run (Harper pass from Bucholz), 6:07

Fourth quarter

H – Andrew Kabban 3 run (Kruse pass from Bucholz), 7:59

H – Ty Kunkel 2 run (Kruse kick), 4:35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Whiteford: Drew Ruddy 12-60, Brek Ruddy 9-42, Andres Trejo 8-38, Tre Eitniear 10-25, Antonio Nochtrab 3-25, Gabe Speweik 1-2, Charlie Bieber 1-2. Harbor Beach: Caden Bucholz 16-165, Rogan Messing 12-63, benson Harper 9-44, Ty Winkel 2-24, Andrew Kabban 4-16, Keagun Potestivo 2-10, Luke Bischer 3-6, Drew Nickrand 1-3.

PASSING – Whiteford: Tre Eitniear 5-11-0 51 yards, Drew Ruddy 0-1-0.  Harbor Beach: Caden Bucholz 7-11-1 99.

RECEIVING – Whiteford: Drew Ruddy 1-27, Austin Bauman 2-21, Mason DeBarr 1-5. Harbor Beach: Benson Harper 3-43, Matt Geiger 2-35, Skiler Kruse 2-21.