FOSTORIA – Just looking at the stat sheet, Van Buren completely outplayed Fostoria Friday night in the Week 1 opener at Fostoria. But stats don’t always tell the story. In total, Van Buren ran 75 plays to Fostoria’s 24. VB ran the ball 63 times for 366 yards. Amazingly, Fostoria had a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, but ultimately couldn’t sustain drives or make enough plays to complete the comeback in a 23-14 loss. “That’s crazy because that’s been our identity and something we preach where we’ve controlled the ball and ran the ball when we’ve had to sustain drives and we lost games where we dominated the clock, but that was the total opposite tonight,” Redmen coach Derek Angelone said. “We didn’t dominate the clock in any fashion or sustain drives. “We had some misplays out there, it’s high school football, so that happens, but I was proud of the way those guys came back in and made another play, showing some resilience. We left opportunities out there and they truly believe that, so they’re hurting right now because we truly believed we were the better football team. That’s when it hurts when you thought you were the better football team and you didn’t get it done the way we should’ve”. Out of the old-school Maryland-I formation from the first drive, VB (1-0) capped a 10-play drive with a Caleb Mason 13-yard rushing touchdown to grab an early 7-0 lead. Then Fostoria couldn’t field the pooch kick, but made a stop on defense with a turnover on downs. On the second play of the Fostoria drive, quarterback Boston Trent hit Lamont Johnson for a huge 70-yard TD to get the Redmen right back in it, tying it up 7-7. Then Fostoria’s Alekye Sanders picked off a VB pass, setting up the Redmen with good field position and more momentum. But the Redmen couldn’t stay on the field with a turnover on downs at VB’s 14. The Black Knights responded with an 11-play drive, capped off by Mason once again – this time a rush from five yards out. Van Buren tried to score again before the first half ended, but couldn’t punch it in as the half expired with VB at Fostoria’s 4. That was a common theme for the Black Knights all game long. “Those linemen blocked their butt off tonight we just have to be able to finish in the darn red zone because we had the ball inside the 10 five times and we didn’t punch it in,” Black Knights coach Ethan Percer said. “That’s concentration and on us, but we got two returning starters from last year’s team, so we knew it might take a little time. But we battled through some adversity, which was good to see them not quit. “Our guys have embraced (smash-mouth football) because we have some big guys up front this year that we didn’t have the last few years averaging about 175 on the line, so we’ve gained about 50-plus pounds up there. They ran well, but Fostoria played hard tonight. I was happy to come out on top tonight.” After a scoreless third quarter, VB went ahead 21-7 after a Cooper Hanna bootleg TD from two yards out with 9:41 left in the game. However, the Redmen came right back as Trent found Johnson across the middle and after making multiple Black Knight tacklers miss, he crossed the goal line for a 33-yard score with 7:14 left. But with VB was running the ball and sustaining drives, FHS had to make a play. After 11 plays, Fostoria finally made a stop at its own 6 with 1:25 left in the contest. But on the first play, Trent rolled left and was dumped into the end zone for a safety. “I do have to give them credit because there’s so much right that we did tonight that we didn’t experience last year, so there’s a tremendous amount of growth and we’re going to continue that,” Angelone said.