Bison slip by Page County

SHENANDOAH — For the Buffalo Gap Bison, the game that could’ve slipped away into the dreary Page County skies didn’t.

But it wasn’t until Bison senior Logan Huff sacked Panther quarterback Dakota Wolf in the final minute that the Gap would emerge with an exciting 37-34 Shenandoah District win.

Stopping Wolf became the Gap’s ultimate goal, but it was a key roughing the kicker penalty on Page which allowed the visitors to keep a key touchdown drive going.

“We let him [Wolf] run around too much,” said Bison head coach Rob Maxwell. “But we stopped him on three of the last four plays.”

On a wet playing surface, the two offenses managed to rack up 746 yards of offense, as the two defenses struggled to make adjustments.

While Wolf ran for 205 yards himself, Bison senior Phillp Smith tore through the Panthers’ defense for 186 yards.

The Bison struck first, taking the opening kickoff and scoring on a 36-yard pass from quarterback Trevor Campbell to Josh Tinsley. The extra point put the Bison ahead with 8:52 left in the first period.

A Gap fumble set up Page at the 30-yard line and Wolf scored two plays later from the Bison 15. Wolf’s two-point conversion pass to Anthony Cubbage gave the Panthers an 8-7 lead with 2:26 remaining.

In the second period, the Gap put together a 10-play, 92-yard drive to go ahead 13-8 with 6:55 left in the half.

But the Panthers answered back with two scores before intermission, the first on a six-yard keeper by Wolf and the second on a five-yard toss from

Wolf to Eric Baker with just 27 ticks before halftime.

The Bison chewed up most of the third quarter on a 16-play, 83-yard drive, with Huff blasting in from the two with 1:27 left in the period. The Bison drew within a point on a two-point conversion run by Huff.

But Wolf scored twice more, first on a five-yard run with 9:11 remaining in the game and then after a Smith TD and two-point conversion, gave the Panthers a 34-29 lead again on a 61-yard scamper up the middle.

Campbell then putthe Gap up for good with 2:05 left with a sneak from the Page one with 2:05 left.

Page returned the kickoff back to its own 36, but the Bison defense finally held, sacking Wolf three times in the waning moments.

The win boosted the Bison to 4-3 overall and 1-1 in district play.