MOUNT GILEAD (Crawford County Now) — Chunk plays were the big difference.

Colonel Crawford scored on its first four possessions Friday night and cruised to a 42-8 win over Mount Gilead in a Division VI, Region 23 quarterfinal game here Friday night.

“We wanted to have a great start. We knew this was their first playoff game here in school history. The fans, my goodness, they turned out and we knew they’d be excited,” Colonel Crawford head coach Jake Bruner said.

The excitement didn’t last long for the Indians.

First, Connor McMichael broke off tackle and rambled 31 yards for a touchdown a minute and a half into the game. On the next possession, Walker Cramer broke through and blocked a Cole Fricke punt to set up McMichael’s second score from 4 yards out.

A Mount Gilead punt on the next series gave the Eagles the ball at their 40-yard line. It took just two plays to make the score 21-0 as Parker Weithman caught a pass in mid-stride and hurdled a defender near the goal line.

Weithman, a 165-pound junior, had a spectacular night, catching 4 balls for 187 yards and three touchdowns.

“Parker is a special kid. They were big up front, but we were more athletic, and I thought our scheme worked. When you try to take Connor away playing so many in the box, you give our quarterbacks lots of places to throw the ball.”

Quarterbacks Holt and Peyton Baker were effective, combining on 7-of-10 passing for 219 yards and the three TD strikes to Weithman.
Being a perennial playoff team helped the Eagles, Bruner said.

“We knew we had been here and had to be focused. Hopefully, our experience showed a little bit. I thought our guys were very relaxed and poised in what we did and how we did it,” he said. “We wanted to get up quick. Our special teams did well and our speed against that was good.”

The Eagles (11-1) visit Centerburg in a regional semifinal contest at 7 p.m. Friday. The Trojans (10-1) dumped Ridgewood 28-14.

A second Weithman catch, this one from Peyton Baker, covered 55 yards and Crawford on top 28-0 midway through the second quarter.

“You let Parker run around, he’s gonna hurt you,” Bruner said.

The blocked punt turned the tide early.

“Coach (Chris) Solis does a great job. He’s the former coach at Shelby and has been an assistant with us for four years. He handles our special teams and our DBs. He puts time and effort in, and our kids really believe in him,” Bruner said. “He told them all week we were going to get one (blocked punt) and it may be in a weird way. Walker did a great job and he’s done that many times.”

Offensively, the Eagles piled up 359 yards of offense and held the vaunted Indians running game to 130 yards, well below its nearly 300 yards per game average.

Carson Barnum rushed 23 times for 71 yards, but didn’t have a gain of more than 6 yards. The Indians scored on a 36-yard pass with about a minute to play to avoid the shutout.

“Centerburg is an opponent that I’ve seen that is dynamic. They have a quarterback, receivers that can run. They’re athletic,” Bruner said.
“They had a great season, and they will challenge us in every phase of the game. For us, we just need to get ready.”

Closer playoff games are welcome by the Eagles.

“Centerburg ain’t that far. We’ve been on the road for 3-4 hours in the past. Monroe Central (last year) is a rough way to go.”

The Eagles lost at Grandview Heights 13-6 in the quarterfinals last season and to Ottawa Hills at home, 28-21, in 2023.

“Our guys want to play more football. They’re having fun,” Bruner said.

Baker broke loose for a 64-yard run in the fourth quarter for the Eagles’ sixth touchdown. Joseph Zizzo was 6-for-6 on extra-point kicks and his kickoffs kept MG pinned deep to start possessions.

Mount Gilead ends its historic season at 9-2.

“Their kicking game put them in a lot of good spots tonight. Give credit to Colonel Crawford, in all three aspects,” MG head coach Mike Reid said. “We wanted to come out a little bit tougher than we did tonight. The big plays to No. 1 (Weithman). He’s pretty good. They spread the field and make you defend the whole field. Sometimes you just run out of enough stops.”

The loss shows where the Indians need to go to get to the next level.

“To advance would be next. We appreciate making the playoffs and the 9-win season. I just told the guys it’s nothing to be ashamed of. This program has never been in week 12 and has only won nine games twice,” Reid said. “They made Mount Gilead football relevant again.”

Box score

Score by quarters

Colonel Crawford     21             7           7         7 — 42

Mount Gilead              0              0           0         8 — 8

Scoring summary

First quarter

CC — Connor McMichael 31 run (Joe Zizzo kick), 10:32.

CC — McMichael 4 run (Zizzo kick), 3:32.

CC — Parker Weithman 53 pass from Brayden Holt (Zizzo kick), 1:02.

Second quarter

CC — Weithman 55 pass from Peyton Baker (Zizzo kick), 6:30.

Third quarter

CC — Weithman 70 pass from Holt (Zizzo kick), 5:15.

Fourth quarter

CC — Baker 64 run (Zizzo kick), 9:01.

MG — Hayden Somerlot 36 pass from Cole Fricke (Carson Barnum run), 1:07.

Individual statistics

Passing

Colonel Crawford: Brayden Holt 5-7-0 148, Peyton Baker 2-3-0 71; Mount Gilead: Cole Fricke 6-18-0 83.

Rushing

Colonel Crawford: Peyton Baker 3-73, Connor McMichael 10-59, Roen Thew 1-7, Brayden Holt 1-2, Madden Tesso 1-(-1); Mount Gilead: Carson Barnum 23-71, Tyler Harr 10-41, Brogan Pfleiderer 3-13, Cole Fricke 3-(-5).

Receiving

Colonel Crawford: Parker Weithman 4-187, Dom Dean 1-16, Roen Thew 1-9, Connor McMichael 1-7; Mount Gilead: Hayden Somerlot 4-64, Brogan Pfleiderer 2-19.

Team statistics

CC              MG

First downs                    9                11

Rushing                     16-140         39-130

Passes                         7-10-0          6-18-0

Yards passing             219                83

Total yards                  359              213

Fumbles-lost              1-1                0-0

Punts                           0-0.00         6-30.3

Penalties                     3-25             5-45