CAREY — Carey never threw a pass in the second half Friday night. The Blue Devils didn’t have to.

The big and physical Blue Devils controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball in their showdown with Colonel Crawford, shutting the Eagles out in the final two frames.

Offensively, Carey went to the ground in the second half, running 27 plays in the final two frames to just 13 for the Eagles, en route to a 35-17 win.

With the win, Carey took a huge step toward control of the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, beating the team that was one of the league’s favorites. Carey is 3-1 overall, 1-0 in the N10, while Crawford fell to 3-1 and 0-1.

Still, Carey coach Jonathon Mershman downplayed the critical win over the Eagles.

“(The win was) about as important as every single Friday night,” Mershman said. “You have to go win them all, man. You have to try and win them all if you want to do what you want to do at the end. It was a critical game, just like next week’s game is a critical game.”

Offensively, Carey gained 167 of their 244 rushing yards in the second half and finished with 279 for the game.

But the Blue Devils were more impressive on defense. Crawford never got a first down in the second half, going three and out on all four possessions.

The Eagles gained 158 yards in the first half and two total yards in the second. The N10’s leading rusher, Lincoln Mollenkopf, was limited to just 49 yards on 13 carries and minus-7 in the second half.

Colonel Crawford coach Ryan Teglovic said he was concerned with Carey’s physical nature before the game.

“You have to be,” Teglovic said. “They have five returning starters on the offensive line, you have to be concerned. They are huge upfront.

“They’re huge and physical and we gave them some short fields, too, which didn’t help,” he added. “It felt like, in field position, we were always at a disadvantage there. We fought hard in the first half, and we were able to make it a game. We came out in the second half, and we just couldn’t get anything going.”

Crawford did have things going in the first half, however.

After Carey took a 7-0 lead early in the game on an eight-yard run by quarterback Derek Lonsway, the Eagles tied the game in the first quarter on a one-yard run by Mollenkopf.

Carey regained the lead at 14-7 early in the second quarter on a 16-yard pass from Lonsway to tight end E.J. Boes.

The Eagles got a 24-yard field goal from Braxton Morgan and a seven-yard run Matt Clinard run right before the end of the half to take a 17-14 lead at the break.

The second half was a completely different story. Running back Lance Rickle gave the Blue Devils a 20-17 lead in the third period with a 13-yard run.

From there, running back Jordan Vallejo took over. The 265-pound senior rushed for 100 yards on 16 carries and scored twice in the fourth quarter on runs of one and 13 yards. Lonsway finished with 96 yards on 18 carries.

“On the offensive side, we just started doing what we do, which is moving people,” Mershman said. “We had to move people and they started doing it.

“The second half is where we showed our physicality,” he added. “What I thought we should have been from the first half.  Colonel Crawford is well-coached, very physical and we knew that coming into the game. We caught a couple of breaks that helped us out and we took advantage of them.”

Teglovic said that the Blue Devils made some minor adjustments defensively to shut the Eagles down.

“They added a defensive lineman, more of a bear front, that type of thing,” Teglovic said. “We’re a running football team, we had to make some throws and we weren’t able to do that. They had us on our heels a little bit.”

Box score

Score by quarters

Colonel Crawford      7         10          0         0   — 17

Carey                            7           7          6        15   — 35

 Scoring summary

First quarter

C — Derek Lonsway 8 run (Anthony Bell kick), 6:07.

CC — Lincoln Mollenkopf 1 run (Braxton Morgan kick), :49.

Second quarter

C — E.J. Boes 16 pass from Lonsway (Bell kick), 8:38.

CC — Morgan 24 field goal, 2:32.

CC — Matt Clinard 7 run (Morgan kick), :50.

Third quarter

C — Lance Rickle 11 run (kick failed), 7:47.

Fourth quarter

C — Jordan Vallejo 1 run (Rickle run), 11:22.

C — Vallejo 13 run (Bell kick), 3:04.

Individual statistics

Passing

Colonel Crawford: Kamryn Lohr 6-16-0 52. Carey: Derek Lonsway 3-7-1 35, Lance Rickle 0 1-0 0.

Rushing                                      

Colonel Crawford: Lincoln Mollenkopf 13-49, Kamryn Lohr 9-33, Matt Clinard 6-26. Carey: Jordan Vallejo 16-100, Derek Lonsway 18-96, Lance Rickle 9-44, Gage Summit 1-2, Bryce Conti 1-1, Isaac Carmen 1-1.

Receiving

Colonel Crawford: Nolan McKibben 2-36, Trevor Voight 1-11, Carson Feichtner 1-8, Lincoln Mollenkopf 2-(-3). Carey: E. J. Boes 2-20, Lance Rickle 1-15.

Team statistics

CC              C

First downs                  9               15

Rushing                    25-108       44-244

Passes                        6-16-0        3-8-1

Yards passing               52              35

Total yards                  160            279

Fumbles-lost               1-1            1-0

Penalties                      6-47        4-55