Buhach Colony powers its way past Gregori with 300 rushing yards, two Buttrey TDs.

Immediately after crossing the end zone after his second touchdown, Buhach Colony running back Jon Buttrey’s calf cramped up. As a Thunder coach stretched out his leg, his hamstring on his other leg began to cramp.

Buttrey’s offensive linemen gave him no sympathy.

“You should drink water some time,” one of the lineman blurted out as Buttrey laid in the end zone.

Buttrey came out of the game three times because of cramps, but limped his way to 90 rushing yards and two touchdowns as Buhach Colony won its first season opener since 2012 with a 13-6 win over Gregori on Friday night at Dave Honey Stadium.

Buttrey held no ill will toward his sarcastic lineman. Not after they paved the way for the Thunder to rush for 300 rushing yards.

“Most definitely we get after it in practice,” Buttrey said. “We’re very competitive. We do like to poke jokes at each other. But we know when it’s time to turn in on in games.”

The Thunder turned it on against Gregori by pounding the ball between the tackles. Buttrey had his 90 rushing yards. Owen Thomas added 84 yards and Joshua Goodman chipped in with 80 yards.

All 254 yards from the Thunder trio came between the tackles as the Jaguars struggled to get the Thunder offense off the field. Buhach Colony kept churning out 4 to 5 yards each carry as they constantly moved the chains.

“I think that’s where our strength is,” said Buhach Colony coach Kevin Navarra. “We return our two senior backs Jon and Owen and we return most of our O-line. We ask a lot of those two backs on defense too.”

The Thunder defense also was impressive, shutting down the Gregori rushing attack. Led by the four defensive linemen who rotated in Seth Duran, Artavian Robinson, Jaylen Torres and Mason Reel, the Thunder defense spent much of the night blowing up plays in the Gregori backfield.

The Jaguars rushed for just 10 yards in the game.

“Hats off to them,” said Gregori coach Jason McCoy, whose team returns to Merced County next week to face Merced High. “They played a good game. They have a great defense and they are fine tuning their offense. I think they have six or seven guys that have played varsity for three years, so they have some experience there. They were dialed in.”

Despite dominating the game for three quarters, Gregori had a chance to steal the game in the fourth quarter.

After Buttrey’s second touchdown gave the Thunder a 13-0 lead with 11 minutes, 12 seconds left in the game, the Jaguars finally hit a big play.

Quarterback Baker Melendez found a wide open Trey Longstreth for an 80-yard touchdown to pull Gregori within 13-6 of Buhach Colony.

The Jaguars had two more chances on offense, but saw both drives end in turnovers.

Buhach Colony’s O’shea Ward pounced on a fumble by Gregori receiver Kaleb Hatten with 8:41 left. After the Thunder were forced to punt, the Jaguars moved the ball into Buhach Colony territory.

However, Thomas intercepted a pass by Melendez from his inside linebacker position at the Thunder 8-yard line to preserve the victory.

“You have to knuckle down and make a big play,” Thomas said. “I knew they had opportunities with that seam route all night because our coaches told us. I ran with my guy and I saw his eyes get big. I turned around and caught the ball.”

The Thunder offense was able to run the final 5 minutes off the clock to ice the game.

“(Gregori) was everything I thought they were,” Navarra said. “They had good size, good athletes. I’m proud of the way we battled. For me, this didn’t feel like a ‘Week 0’ game. This felt like a heavyweight fight.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2018 at 12:14 AM with the headline "Buhach Colony powers its way past Gregori with 300 rushing yards, two Buttrey TDs.."