White, who entered the night leading the area with 721 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns, broke a 17-all tie with a 49-yard scoring burst through the left side of the Butler line early in the fourth quarter.
A two-point conversion run by Trimonde Henry gave the Buccaneers a 25-17 with 10:15 left in the game, and the Xenia defense made sure that was the final score.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Xenia junior defensive end Kale Webb had a pair of sacks on Butler’s final drive, including one on a fourth down to force the Aviators to give up the ball near midfield.
“We struggled early with that lead draw, them running the ball and taking shots down the field, but we settled in and were bend-but-don’t break,” Harden said of his defense. “Our motto is make ‘em snap it again. If we do that, it puts us in a pretty good position to be successful.”
Butler led 14-10 at the half thanks to a pair of explosive plays.
Corey Rice started the scoring with a 24-yard run for a Butler touchdown to cap the Aviators’ first possession.
Xenia answered with a 7-yard touchdown run by White that capped a 96-yard drive that was set up by Cristian Corbett’s interception at the 4-yard line.
He made the first big play of the night for the Xenia defense by taking the ball out of the hands of intended receiver Braylen Crump, negating what looked like would be a first-and-goal for the Aviators with a chance to extend their lead.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Butler struck back against the Xenia secondary, though, taking advantage of a busted coverage when Mason Reckner found Julius Rusk all alone near the goal line for a 31-yard touchdown with six minutes left in the second quarter.
That put Butler up 14-7, a tally that looked like it would stand up as the halftime score when Butler’s Davon Smith intercepted a Gavin McManus pass at the Butler 20 with 1:38 left.
But Xenia took the ball right back when Reckner dropped to pass and fumbled after being hit on the next play.
The ball bounced away to be covered by a scrum that Xenia’s Ronnie Butler emerged from with the ball at the Butler 10 with 1:27 on the clock.
That set up Sean Leonard’s 27-yard field goal that drew the visitors within four with 15 seconds left.
Butler got those three points back when Bradley Griffyn connected on a 46-yard field goal, but the Buccaneers answered with a 65-yard touchdown drive.
Credit: DaytonDailyNews
White finished that one with an 8-yard run over left tackle with 2:23 left in the third quarter.
He gave Xenia its first lead about four minutes later when the 5-foot-10, 180-pound workhorse showed off his speed by accelerating through a gaping hole and outrunning the backside pursuit to the end zone.
“We depend on that kid a lot,” said Harden. “Like I said before in the newspaper, he brings that element of what we want to play as far as being physical, being able to control the line of scrimmage. When you do that, you’re able to have success. It keeps the other team off the field, and it kind of wears on them. We spend a lot of time in the offseason with our training and when that stuff comes up I tell them in the fourth quarter that’s when we want it to translate.
“And it ended up translating in the fourth quarter tonight.”
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Butler fell to 4-1 with another big MVL showdown scheduled for Thursday at Tippecanoe.
“Give credit to Xenia,” Butler coach Zach Gueth said. “They came out, ran the ball on us and gave us some challenges. They dominated the line of scrimmage there offensively.
“Offensively for us, we had some opportunities. I think it comes down to us being able to execute in key situations. We weren’t able to overcome some of our mistakes that we’ve made.”
The Buccaneers will return home to play host to Fairborn on Friday night.
“I’m proud of our guys,” Harden said. “We persevered, we fought hard. Our motto is, ‘Finish the fight.’ For a reason – because we remember how we felt at the end of the game (against Butler) last season when we were up 21-7 and lost 28-21. We had that thing circled since that Saturday. It meant something tonight. We wanted to keep showing individuals and showing ourselves and showing our community that we’re a good football team and we want to be back on top of the MVL.”
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