By BRIAN HEMMINGER
Daily Chief-Union
NORTH ROBINSON — The last thing a football team with as many new players as Upper Sandusky has can afford to do is fall behind on repetitions, but with the Wyandot County Fair taking place this week, several key players missed practice time.
The result was a one-sided 49-6 blowout loss to Colonel Crawford Friday night at Colonel Crawford High School to kick off Northern 10 Conference play.
“We struggled to prepare this week,” Upper Sandusky coach Russell Hall said. “The fair is a good thing, but today in walk-throughs is the only time we had our whole offense and defense there. You factor that in with injuries on top of that, we’re a young and inexperienced team with a lot of new players and we just really need those reps to get better. We were worried when it was offensive team day and we looked around and we actually couldn’t run offensive team in practice this week and we missed those reps and it showed.”
On the flipside, Colonel Crawford (3-1, 1-0 Northern 10 Athletic Conference) played like a well-oiled machine, limiting mistakes to just 10 penalty yards and zero turnovers while scoring efficiently on offense.
“I thought we played well,” Colonel Crawford coach Ryan Teglovic said. “We’ve been close here and there and I felt like we put it all together tonight. Our effort’s been there, but we lacked the execution until tonight. I’m very proud of our coaches and players.”
Neither team scored on their first possession, but the tide quickly turned when Upper Sandusky (2-2, 0-1 N10) muffed Colonel Crawford’s first punt, allowing the Eagles to recover the ball on the Upper Sandusky 12-yard line. Colonel Crawford scored on its next play, a 12-yard scamper from running
back Dylan Knisely.
After the Rams went three-and-out on their next possession, Colonel Crawford’s Jordan Fenner followed his blockers through a huge hole and returned Upper Sandusky’s punt 62 yards for another score, the second Eagles touchdown in just 1:17 of game time.
“I think we had a lot of big plays tonight,” Teglovic said. “We had some big plays called back in previous weeks, but this week, creating turnovers, having those big plays with the punt return, that takes a lot of pressure off of our offense and defense.”
Four minutes later, Colonel Crawford quarterback Zye Shipman found Owin Seevers on a deep ball for a 54-yard touchdown pass and the rout was on.
The Eagles tacked on three more unanswered touchdowns in the second quarter on a Seevers 6-yard run, a Tristan Cross 1-yard run and a back-breaking 46-yard touchdown pass from Shipman to Seevers as time expired in the first half to take a commanding 43-0 lead into halftime.
“(Colonel Crawford) is a very well-coached team, a very talented team and it showed,” Hall said. “There¹s a lot of guys on this team with a ton of potential, but they’re sitting on 500 reps and the guys that they’re going against have been playing football since junior high and they’re sitting at 1,000 reps. We’re trying to do everything we can to catch these guys up.”
One of the lone bright spots for the Rams was the play of wide receiver Diago Cazares, who caught six passes for 82 yards. Every one of Cazares’ catches was for at least 10 yards and he was responsible for the first five first downs the Rams offense was able to pick up.
“Diego is a kid with a ton of potential,” Hall said. “This is his first year playing football and we’re lucky he came out, joining us from the baseball team. He works hard. Levi Malone did a great job finding him and making good reads as well.”
Colonel Crawford added one last rushing score from Cross in the third quarter and the Rams avoided a shutout on the last play of the game, an 18-yard passing touchdown from Malone that receiver Eric Bils caught in double coverage.
Malone finished 12-24 passing for 170 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
“We’ll get better,” Hall said. “We’ll keep working. The guys want to win. We’ll work hard. They’re doing everything they can and I’ll do everything I can to put them in the best position to win.”
The Rams will have an opportunity to get back in the winner’s circle next week when they host Buckeye Central at 7 p.m. Friday. The Eagles will look to stay undefeated when they travel to Wynford at the same time.
Score by quarters
Upper Sandusky 0 0 0 6 — 6
Colonel Crawford 20 23 16 0 — 49
First quarter
CC – Knisely 12-yard run (Kick blocked) 7:06
CC – Fenner 62-yard punt return (Shipman pass to Seevers) 5:53
CC – Shipman 54-yard pass to Seevers (Kick blocked) 1:49
Second quarter
CC – Seevers 6-yard run (Shipman pass to Fenner) 11:29
CC – Cross 1-yard run (Shipman pass to Seevers) 8:43
CC – Shipman 46-yard pass to Seevers (D. Krassow kick) 0:00
Third quarter
CC – Cross 8-yard run (Kick missed) 6:02
Fourth quarter
US – Malone 18-yard pass to Bils 0:00
Individual statistics
Passing
Upper Sandusky: Malone, 12-24, 170 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs.
Colonel Crawford: Shipman, 10-14 182 yards, 2 TDs; Ritzhaupt, 0-1.
Rushing
Upper Sandusky: McMillan, 14-18; Herbert, 4-2; Cano, 2-(minus 2); Malone,
2-(minus 21).
Colonel Crawford: Cross, 8-63, 2 TDs; Knisely, 6-41, TD; Rowland, 7-32;
Feichtner, 1-8; Seevers, 1-6, TD; Suter, 3-5; Lohr, 1-5; Cox, 1-1; Hill,
1-(minus 4); Walsh, 1-(minus 4).
Receiving
Upper Sandusky: Cazares, 6-82; Cotto-Ramos 1-30; Bils, 3-25, TD; Roberts,
1-21; Cano, 1-12.
Colonel Crawford: Seevers, 5-116, 2 TDs; Fenner, 2-52; Cross, 3-23;.
Team statistics
US CC
First downs 8 11
Yards rushing (-3) 153
Yards passing 170 182
Passes 12-24 10-15
Passes intercepted by 2 0
Fumbles lost 2-1 0-0
Punts 4-26.8 2-33.5
Penalties 1-6 2-10