Clash of the titans: Defense powers Carey over Colonel Crawford for Northern 10 lead
NORTH ROBINSON — It was one of those games you're excited to watch film on, but at the same time dreading seeing the little mistakes and opportunities missed.
In a battle of state-ranked teams competing for not only sole possession of the Northern 10, but the top spot in Division VI Region 22's postseason rankings, No. 3 Carey (6-0, 3-0) emerged with a 7-3 win over No. 8 Colonel Crawford (5-1, 2-1).
And one big throw was the difference. Immediately after breaking up a Colonel Crawford fake punt on fourth down, Carey put the ball in Lance Rickle's hands and he lofted a ball into the back left corner of the end zone perfectly into the outstretched arms of Austin Niederkohr for a 36-yard scoring strike.
"He made some great throws tonight and Austin made some great catches," Carey coach Jonathan Mershman said.
But outside of that big play, Colonel Crawford limited a Blue Devils team averaging 357.8 yards to just 182 yards.
"Our defense played extremely well," Eagles coach Jake Bruner said. "We did what we wanted to do stopping them from running the ball, and to our credit they got in the shotgun a bit more and threw it because they had to. At the same time, that's what they made us do, too. We knew going in we'd have to be more diverse and I thought Kam (Lohr) did a nice job running the ball early against them. There were a lot of momentum swings in that game, and I'm proud of our kids for fighting through every adversity we had.
"We come out in the second half feeling like we have control of the game at 3-0 and we fumbled. Defense stood the test of time, but when you get in games like this those few moments, few executions, those dropped passes, the holding penalties — it comes down to those for us."
Braxton Morton's 36-yard field goal late in the second quarter was Colonel Crawford's only points of the night, quite the anomaly for a team averaging a league-best 47.6 through the first five weeks. He missed his second try of the game in the third quarter with his team trailing, and some were thinking the Eagles might've gone for it on fourth down deep in Carey territory.
"Hindsight is 20/20," Bruner said. "I looked at it as we have one of the best kickers in the league, put the thing up. It was a tough (call) because they control the ball so well and I felt like if we got another score on there … there are probably a lot of things we'll regret from this game.
"But I don't regret how hard the kids played and battled through this."
It was exactly the defensive battle expected on paper, but Mershman even admitted he was surprised at the final score considering how high-powered the offenses are. Then again, neither one got going with Colonel Crawford only totaling 119 yards and Carey just 218. Combined, the teams had less than their individual averages.
"If you would've told me we'd only score seven points, I'd have said it was a rough night," he said. "But, defensively, we were lights-out. I envisioned a little more scoring, but I'll take this however I can get it. Holding them to just a field was huge.
"They do a lot of stuff and they spread the ball, it's not just one guy. They made us play the entire field, and I was proud of how our defense ran around and played the entirety of the field. Everybody did their job and that's the biggest thing when you play a team like this — everyone has to do their job. For 97% of the game I think we locked in and did our job."
Several times Carey's defense came up with a big stop whether it was on third down, fourth down, or just getting to Lohr in the backfield before he was able to get a pass off or scramble out of the pocket. Add in some costly penalties to either negate a big play or just push the team back five yards after a first down — Colonel Crawford had eight penalties for 89 yards — and it's a recipe for disaster.
"The big sacks tonight hurt us," Bruner said. "And we had some miscues, we had guys not coming in, and they did, too. We have some young guys playing — and so do they — but this was their first time handling the atmosphere and I think it showed at times on both times dealing with the noise."
But, still, the Eagles were within reach, which should be all they need to know moving forward as the teams could meet again late in the postseason.
"Two great football teams going at it," Bruner said. "I was extremely proud of our effort — our kids played their rear ends off tonight. That's a great football team … and at the end of the day I think we'll look back and say we had the opportunities, but we didn't execute on those key plays both as coaches and players.
"(But) if we keep doing what we're doing, we think we can have a long run here."
419-617-6018
Twitter: @Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Carey topples Colonel Crawford in state-ranked clash
