Week 9: Battle of the Buchs

FAUCETT, Mo (News-Press NOW) -- We've reached the regular season finale for high school football and Sports Zone's game of the week features a storied rivalry matchup between the Buchanan schools.

It's the battle of the Buchs with the undefeated Mid-Buchanan Dragons hosting the 4-4 East Buchanan Bulldogs.

This rivalry has been back and forth since 2020, with an even split for both teams at five wins and five losses while the Bulldogs lead the all-time series 18 wins to 11 losses.

The Dragons have won two straight games against the Bulldogs, a 7-3 win to close out the regular season and a 20-7 win in the Class 2 District Tournament in 2024.

Dragons head coach Aaron Fritz says playing the Bulldogs is always a big game, but with the Dragons hunting for a conference championship with a win, it makes it mean even more. Fritz wants the team to maintain focus throughout the week to give the Dragons an opportunity to compete.

"It's always a big game when you play them, and when the conference championship is on the line, it makes it a little bit bigger," Fritz said. "I'm hoping we have great focus the rest of the week of practice and come out and do the best we can and play as hard as we can."

With players like Ledger Mignery and Kyle Power leading the defense, Raife Smith has been the catalyst for the Dragons' offense. The senior quarterback has used his running ability to tear through opposing defenses all season.

Having grown up in Gower, Smith says he's always loved playing East Buchanan because of how competitive the games are.

"The big game in Gower was Mid-Buch, so I just like playing them," Smith said. "It's aways competitive. It's dirty. I just like it."

Smith actually came into his freshman year as a receiver, but when he made the jump to quarterback for the Dragons, he knew it was the best decision for the team.

"My freshman year I was a receiver. I was hoping to stay that way, but it is what's best for the team," Smith said. "The coaches trust me so I'm going to do my best every play, every rep i can get. Just hopefully everything works out."

In Gower the 4-4 East Buchanan Bulldogs, led by head coach Daniel Ritter, are preparing for the rivalry game as well.

Knowing how good Dragons quarterback Raife Smith has been all year, Ritter says the team needs to focus on tackling Smith before he can make plays with his running ability.

"Good athletes do big plays if you don't wrap up and tackle. So we have to get to the right spot and we need to make plays and make tackles," Ritter said. "We didn't really do that these last couple weeks so we got to figure it out and do it."

Ritter says the key to competing in this game is going to be the play of senior quarterback Phoenix Baugh. The six-foot tall quarterback says he needs to make sure he plays his brand of football to help the Bulldogs beat the Dragons.

"I really just need to make sure I'm smart with the ball, making all my right reads and making sure I'm not throwing it to the wrong guy," Baugh said.

Phoenix says the longer he's played at East Buchanan, the more this rivalry has meant to him and the more he likes to play against the Dragons.

"A lot of people care about this game. The longer I've been here, the more that it's really resonated with me so I really like to play against them, they're a good team," Baugh said. "We always have a good game against them and they always have a good game against us."

Be sure to tune in to News-Press NOW's Sports Zone at 10 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 24, for the highlights from the game of the week.