Belvidere North might have the three most explosive players in the NIC-10.
None of them is the Blue Thunder quarterback.
Yet, they all depend on Andrew Bucci.
“People don’t recognize him as the leader of our offense, but he’s making everything happen,” Nathan Alexander said after catching two touchdown passes in North’s 21-0 win at Freeport on Friday, Sept. 5.
Alexander averaged 28.4 yards a catch last year. Ben Bucher averaged 18.4 yards per rush. Erik Roman averaged 11.6.
Those are the three players that everyone wants to stop when facing NIC-10 favorite Belvidere North (2-0). That just makes Bucci even more valuable, as he showed against Freeport (now 1-1).
“We took what the defense gave us,” North coach Jeff Beck said. “For the second week in a row they had a really nice game plan to take away our perimeter, so we had to hit the box. We beat up the box pretty good.
“They are trying to take away our big play. That’s fine. We have to take what’s there. We pounded it between the tackles.”
Bucci kept the ball in North’s triple option 13 times, running for 75 yards. Fullback Zavian McElroy ran 19 times for 95 yards. With those two pounding the ball up the middle, the Blue Thunder didn’t even use NIC-10 defensive MVP linebacker Roman on offense — except to throw a 24-yard pass on a third-down trick play. And Bucher was held to nine yards on his first four carries before breaking off two long runs and finishing with 110 yards on nine carries.
Bucher is the NIC-10’s ultimate home-run hitter. But he needs Bucci to set him up.
“It’s definitely hard when they are keying on me and bringing the safeties over,” Bucher said, “but we just have to keep attacking the middle. When we get our middle game working, we are not going to stop running it up the middle.
“Andrew plays a very big role. In the triple option, he has to read everything. He is doing a lot of check calls, also. He calls audibles all the time. He is out there all alone running our offense. It’s a very hard thing to do and he’s doing it great.”
North seldom throws the ball — 3-for-4 for 61 yards Friday — but Bucci and Alexander bring big-play potential to almost every pass they throw. North took a 7-0 lead on its first drive on a 29-yard pass to a leaping Alexander and then made it 14-0 with an 8-yard pass to Alexander with 29 seconds left in the first half. Those were Bucci’s only two passes until the last two minutes of the game. He also threw a 53-yard pass to Alexander on third-and-20 in a tight win over Guilford last week.
“I saw someone’s sideline view of that throw, and it was beautiful,” North coach Jeff Beck said. “He dropped it into really tight coverage and made some nice throws tonight. He’s a baseball kid. He can get the ball to our receivers when we need it.”
Bucci has a big arm, but it’s his running skills that may give North a new dimension this year. Even though he is only the third — or maybe even fourth runner after McElroy — player opponents are worried about tackling.
“As a quarterback, I am always told, try to stay away from contact, try to stay healthy, but I love running up the middle, head down, trying to run people over,” Bucci said. “And I know Zay does, too. To be able to have our speed on the outside and me and Zay bowling people over inside, it’s awesome.”
It’s a combination that could lead to Belvidere North, last year’s co-champions with Hononegah, winning its first-ever outright NIC-10 football title.
“I definitely think I get overlooked at times, but my job as a quarterback is to get them the ball and let them do the work,” Bucci said. “As you can see, two touchdowns to Nathan, one touchdown to Ben, all I did was get them the ball. They are the playmakers. I put my trust in them. They put their trust in me. That’s why we are such a great team.”
Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: On a Belvidere North football team loaded with stars, Andrew Bucci makes all pieces fit
Reporting by Matt Trowbridge, Rockford Register Star / Rockford Register Star
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