CAREY — As long as Carey held onto the football, it was hard to stop.
The Blue Devils did enough in that in the first half to shrug off three second half turnovers in a 41-21 victory against Galion on Friday night at Wentling Field.
Austin Niederkohr scored three first half touchdowns as Carey built a 27-0 lead at the break but failed to put Galion away until late because of three lost fumbles.
“We were able to run the ball and hold on to it and put drives together,” Carey coach Jonathon Mershman said. “In the second half, we were driving. We just killed ourselves with fumbles. We’ve got to do a better job of that.”
Niederkohr scored on all three of his carries and also had an interception on defense. His first touch was good for a 32-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-3 play on Carey’s first possession. The Blue Devils three times on the drive converted third downs of 6 or more yards to go.
After Conner Norden recovered a squib quick on the ensuing kickoff, Lance Rickle broke free for a 25-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0.
Ethan Bretz’s blocked punt was followed by a Niederkohr 27-yard touchdown run, and then following his interception on defense, he scored on a 1-yard run to make it 27-0 with 5:08 left in the half.
“We just really got out-physicalled up front, and really maybe not out-physicalled, but out-quicked,” Galion coach Matt Dick said. “Their defensive line gave us a lot of headaches, and we’ve got to go back to the film to see how we can get better.”
Galion (0-2) managed just 21 yards of offense, including minus 20 rushing, and two first downs in the first half, but its offense improved after the break, with the aid of some Carey mistakes.
The Blue Devils’ first lost fumble gave the Tigers a short field, and they took advantage with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Braxton Prosser to Landon Campbell.
After giving up conversions on fourth down and then on third down, Galion’s defense finally came up with a stop, only for the offense to gift a touchdown to Carey. Landen Kemerley scooped up a fumble and ran it back 39 yards to the end zone to make it 34-8.
Carey returned the favor, however, with its second lost fumble. This one was picked up by Elijah Chafin and run back 56 yards for a touchdown, cutting the Blue Devils’ lead to 34-14 with 2:40 left in the third quarter.
The Blue Devils lost one more fumble in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers could not take advantage, and eventually, a 20-yard Conner Norden touchdown run with 4:21 remaining put the game out of reach.
“The fumbles really concern me,” Mershman said. “We’ve got to get that cleaned up. We can’t fumble the ball. Our offense isn’t built around fumbling the ball. We need to clean that up big time going into next week. That’s something that we’re going to work on this week.”
Galion wrapped up scoring with a late 46-yard touchdown pass from Cooper Kent to Chafin.
Though the Tigers did not generate consistent offense all night, they showed fight in a game that appeared destined to be a blowout at halftime.
“As a coach, you’re looking at who do you want to be?” Dick said. “What’s your second half going to look like? Our kids responded well. We coached them up and we played better. I still think the little details, we can lose our minds at times. Some of it is the sophomore quarterback being out there, some of it’s some guys being moved around. We had a freshman corner out there sometimes. There’s some young guys, and we just need more time to practice together and have the right 11 guys out there.”
Spreading the ball around to different ball carriers, Carey had four players eclipse 50 yards rushing, led by Rickle with 61 on 14 carries. Niederkohr had 60 yards, did not play after a collision on the last play of the first half, but seemed like he would be OK. Eli Steen (11 carries for 57 yards) and Norden (seven carries for 50 yards) also reached 50 yards.
Kent and Prosser shared time at quarterback for Galion, with Kent going 7-for-17 for 100 yards. Prosser was 6-for-15 for 40 yards. Chafin finished with five catches for 57 yards, but the running game was almost nonexistent with just 18 yards on 19 carries.
“The greatest thing about this is we haven’t played our best ball yet,” Mershman said. “We haven’t put a whole game together. Last week, the first half we didn’t play real well and we played really well the second half. This week, we played really well in the first half and didn’t play as well in the second half. We’re still working on putting a whole game together. That’s the fun of high school football. You’ve just got to keep working and keep grinding.”
Carey makes a long trip north to take on Waite at 7 p.m. Friday in Toledo.
Score by quarters
Galion 0 0 14 7 — 21
Carey 14 13 7 7 — 41
First quarter
C — Niederkohr 32-yard run (L. Rickle kick) 1:29.
C — L. Rickle 25-yard run (L. Rickle kick) 0:14.
Second quarter
C — Niederkohr 27-yard run (kick failed) 8:18.
C — Niederkohr 1-yard run (Pinkerton kick) 5:08.
Third quarter
G — B. Prosser 10-yard pass to Campbell (Maison run) 10:19.
C — Kemerley 39-yard fumble return (Pinkerton kick) 5:20.
G — Chafin 56-yard fumble return (run failed) 2:40.
Fourth quarter
C — Norden 20-yard run (Pinkerton kick) 4:21.
G — Kent 46-yard pass to Chafin (Hart kick) 2:47.
Individual statistics
Passing
Galion: Kent 7-17, 100 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT; B. Prosser 6-15, 40 yards, 1 TD.
Carey: Smiley 3-6, 21 yards; L. Rickle 1-3, 12 yards, 1 INT.
Rushing
Galion: Ivy 3-23; Kent 6-18; B. Prosser 10-(minus 23).
Carey: L. Rickle 14-61, 1 TD; Niederkohr 3-60, 3 TDs; E. Steen 11-57; Norden 7-50, 1 TD; Brodman 4-25; N. Putnam 4-25; Kemerley 3-20; Smiley 6-1; Team 2-(minus 2).
Receiving
Galion: Chafin 5-67, 1 TD; B. Prosser 2-26; Fuson 2-24; Campbell 2-14, 1 TD; Tyrrell 1-9; Ivy 1-0.
Carey: A. Putnam 1-12; Pinkerton 1-12; Mattimoe 1-6; Yeater 1-3.
Team statistics
G C
First downs 7 19
Rushing yards 19-18 52-297
Passing yards 140 33
Passes 13-32-1 4-10-1
Fumbles-lost 5-2 4-3
Punts 5-35.8 3-31.3
Penalties 4-45 3-25