NORTH ROBINSON (Crawford County Now) — Roen Thew’s 80-yard run opened the scoring and Parker Weithman’s 99-yard kickoff return ended it.

In between, Colonel Crawford (1-0) forced four turnovers and took a 45-21 win over Fairbanks (0-1) at H.J. Gary Field Thursday night.

Eagles acting head coach Chris Solis knew his team was ready.

“We’ve had 8 months to prepare. We’ve got a young team and kids are going to make mistakes. But we’re very proud of their efforts tonight, but there are some things we’ve got to clean up,” he said.

Plenty of new faces — or familiar faces in new positions — followed a historic season where the Eagles went 13-2 and made it to the Division VI state semifinals.

Thew, a senior making his first start at quarterback, ran for 125 yards on 8 carries and got the night started off with a touchdown.

“The last time Roen played quarterback was his freshman year. The thing that impresses me about him is he’s very unselfish and waited his turn. The whole off-season he prepared. He didn’t just show up in July and play quarterback. He did the little things to be ready to play in his first game, ” Solis said.

“A big play takes the wind out of the other team. The offensive coaches do a great job the entire week. We can throw the ball and run the ball. We’re multi-dimensional and it’s not any one kid carrying the load. That makes us hard to defend.”

Crawford had 372 yards total offense to Fairbanks’ 232 yards.

The speedy Weithman caught an 11-yard touchdown pass and ran one in from 35 yards out in addition to the KO return. He had 3 catches for 31 yards.

Avery Powers added 101 yards rushing on 9 carries.

“That kid is fun but he’s very competitive. Kids love him and feed off his energy. He’s a great leader,” Solis said.

Weithman said the team has aspects to improve upon despite the initial victory.

“We’re looking forward to coming out to play next week. The opening touchdown got us going. I was hyped and that turned the mood and got us going for sure.”

After playing in the shadow of several all-Ohioans the past two seasons, this year’s senior class realizes it’s their turn to carry the mantle.

“It’s our turn, for sure. We’re coming out to prove our point on what we want to do this year as a team,” Weithman said.

Fairbanks relied on quarterback Max Winner (14 carries for 111 yards) and Carson Shope (14 carries for 47 yards).

Two fourth-quarter touchdowns was an encouraging sign for Panthers head coach Dave Carroll.

“Those turnovers killed us. But our kids are in the making and predominantly sophomores. We turned Winner into a quarterback. He can run and our other quarterback, Aidan Hafner, can sling it too,” he said.

“We’ve got three sophomore offensive linemen and two splits. Our nose guard’s never played before, but he’s 265 pounds and is getting better. We knew Crawford would have athletes and they did some quarterback run stuff that we hadn’t seen.

“It’s a solid program with great coaching and great kids.”

Kyle Smith, Tyler Lash and Thew had interceptions and Carson Rader had a fumble recovery for the Eagles.

“We got almost 72 kids on the field tonight and we’ll continue to build our depth, that’s been a staple of ours. Next man up,” Solis said.

Fairbanks hosts Indian Lake and Colonel Crawford visits Fairfield Union next Friday night.

Despite the loss, Carroll has fond memories of playing here when he coached at Pleasant in the old NCC.

“Way back when I first started coaching when Mike Cauley was coach, we battled here and there for five years. What a tradition, then with (Ryan) Teglovic, and now Jake (Bruner) is doing a great job.”

Box score

Score by quarters

Fairbanks                        7           0         0        14   — 21

Colonel Crawford        18           7        14          6   — 45

 Scoring summary

First quarter

CC— Roen Thew 80 run (kick failed), 11:47.

CC — Parker Weithman 11 pass from Thew (kick failed), 7:50.

CC — Avery Powers 46 run (kick failed), 1:21.

F — Max Winner 25 run (Nolan Baker kick), :21.

Second quarter

CC — Carson Rader 6 pass from Thew (Lucca Troiano kick), 8:25.

Third quarter

CC — Thew 4 run (Troiano kick), 5:32.

CC — Weithman 35 run (Troiano kick), :28.

Fourth quarter

F — Carson Shope 7 run (Baker kick), 4:42.

F — Brennan Peffer 14 run (Baker kick), 2:18.

CC — Weithman 99 kickoff return (Troiano kick), 1:58.

Individual statistics

Passing

Fairbanks: Max Winner 2-6-3 11; Aidan Hafner 4-5-0 54. Colonel Crawford: Roen Thew 8-12-0 87.

Rushing

Fairbanks: Max Winner 14-111, Carson Shope 14-47, Aidan Hafner 1-5, Collin Bailey 3-2, Connor Bjorkgren 1-2, Brennan Peffer 1-0. Colonel Crawford: Roen Thew 8-125, Avery Powers 9-101, Parker Weithman 2-37, Gabe Stratton 3-13, Randall Saum 1-9.

Receiving

Fairbanks: Leo Winner 1-36, Brennan Peffer 3-25, Carson Shope 1-2, Collin Bailey 1-2. Colonel Crawford: Parker Weithman 3-31, Tyler Lash 2-27, Carson Rader 2-18, Avery Powers 1-11.

Team statistics

F            CC

First downs                   10             9

Rushing                     34-167      23-285

Passes                        6-11-3       8-12-0

Yards passing               65            87

Total yards                  232           372

Penalties                     3-20        3-15

Punts                            3-36.3     2-45.0