SYCAMORE (Crawford County Now) — You don’t always get a marquee game to open league play. But those in attendance at Warrior Field were treated to one as Colonel Crawford edged Mohawk 24-21 in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game Friday night.
The Eagles (4-0, 1-0) didn’t play a perfect game. Far from it, with 115 yards in penalties, but used a balanced attack and a special teams score to secure the hard-fought victory.
“The first half I thought we dominated them physically,” Colonel Crawford head coach Jake Bruner said. “We controlled the line of scrimmage and penalties killed us, obviously.”
The visitors struck first when Joseph Zizzo drilled a 33-yard field goal just five minutes into the game.
The Warriors (3-1, 0-1) answered in the second quarter when quarterback Andon Clouse scored the first of his three rushing touchdowns from 2 yards out, to give the hosts a 7-3 halftime lead.
“I’m not gonna say too much more about that (penalties). There were some times that we held. There were some times we didn’t,” Bruner said.
“Our kids won that game. Tonight, as coaches … I’ve been coaching for 25 years … we lost our cool as coaches on the officials, on the clock operator and it was a disaster.
“But our kids rallied through all that. It says a lot about them. We made some mistakes as coaches. And give credit to Mohawk. Their kids are well coached, and they play very hard.”
Connor McMichael, wearing a cast on his left elbow, rushed for 103 yards on 25 carries to lead the Eagles.
Quarterbacks Brayden Holt and Peyton Baker combined for 134 passing yards on 9-of-12 completions.
Parker Weithman caught a leaping 32-yard pass from Holt early in the second half and four minutes later ripped off an electrifying 76-yard kickoff return, following Clouse’s second TD run.
“Parker has made big plays all year. Tonight he had the play on special teams and a couple of big catches early. He’s dynamic. He makes plays. That catch in the end zone, that was a pretty special catch,” Bruner said.
Mohawk head coach Eric Daniel credited his team with a solid effort.
Faced with a fourth and 6 at the Crawford nine, Daniel opted to go for it rather than try a field goal with 4:02 remaining.
The Eagles held, took possession at their own 5-yard line and picked up two first downs to secure the victory.
“We were on the hash and didn’t want to kick it from there. I have confidence in our sophomore kicker (Aden Patrizi), but we wanted to go for the win,” Daniel said.
“I’m not playing for any tie and really didn’t want to go to overtime with their depth.”
The Warriors (3-1, 0-1) got a strong performance from the junior Clouse, who ran for 74 yards on 23 carries and hit 7-of-11 pass attempts for 122 yards.
Clouse went in from a yard out early in the fourth quarter to put Mohawk on top 21-17.
The game turned back to the Eagles when Walker Cramer fell on a fumbled punt at the Warriors 42-yard line.
From there it took Crawford just four plays to score.
Baker picked up the final 22 yards and with 6:44 left gave the Eagles the lead for good.
“They battled till the end. I’m proud of our kids but we got a lot of work to do as coaches and as a team,” Bruner said.
He credited Holt and running back/linebacker Dom Dean, among others, for adapting to various situations.
“Those two played different roles for us tonight in small groups, from making a big catch and making a big throw. It was a group effort tonight on both sides of the ball from a lot of different people.”
Getting a win on the road against a quality opponent is significant.
“An early match-up like that is a tough one. We played a Division IV team in week two in Fairfield Union, and we faced great quarterback last week against East Knox. Then we come over here to Mohawk and play one of the better teams in the league.
“That’s a big win for our kids. We were banged up. Connor was wearing an elbow brace. He got horse-collared last week and almost dislocated his elbow. But he carried the rock for us,” Bruner said.
“A lot of guys were banged up and nobody said they wanted to take a week off tonight. Brady Fox played a great game tonight. He didn’t play last week. It says a lot about our seniors, our leadership and the toughness our kids have.”
Colonel Crawford visits county rival Buckeye Central on Friday night. Mohawk travels to Bucyrus.
“What a fun football game,” Daniel said. “It’s tough, but we’ll learn from it. I wanted to see them tested and I knew they would be.
“They showed me they can respond to adversity. I wanted to see some grit out of them. I’m really proud of them.
“Special teams killed us tonight. In an ideal world number 1 (Weithman) never touches the ball. They schemed it up good on the kick return. He’s leading the league in receiving for a reason,” Daniel said.
Weithman has seven total touchdowns this season and is averaging over 100 yards per game receiving.
“We’ve got little things to clean up. Brant (Kirian), Levi (Tiell) made plays tonight,” he said.
“Andon is fighting his butt off for us and he plays middle linebacker for us, which you don’t see with a lot of quarterbacks. But we’re a Division VII team with 38 kids, so we need his body on both sides of the ball.”
Daniel said he expects Colonel Crawford to have a great season.
“We’re close, man. That team is going to go 9-1 or 10-0 and go deep in the playoffs. Remember this in week 13, when they’re still playing, because they will be,” Daniel said.
“I’m super proud of our kids and I want our kids to play teams like that, and they fought their butts off for four quarters.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Colonel Crawford 3 0 7 14 — 24
Mohawk 0 7 7 7 — 21
Scoring summary
First quarter
CC — Joseph Zizzo 33 field goal, 7:04.
Second quarter
M — Andon Clouse 2 run (Aden Patrizi kick), 9:13.
Third quarter
CC — Parker Weithman 32 pass from Brayden Holt (Zizzo kick), 8:55.
M — Clouse 5 run (Patrizi kick), 4:56.
Fourth quarter
M — Clouse 1 run (Patrizi kick), 10:14.
CC — Peyton Baker 22 run (Zizzo kick), 6:44.
Individual statistics
Passing
Colonel Crawford: Peyton Baker 5-8-1 102, Brayden Holt 4-4-0 32; Mohawk: Andon Clouse 7-11-0 112.
Rushing
Colonel Crawford: Connor McMichael 25-130, Peyton Baker 8-42, Parker Weithman 2-18, Avery Powers 2-10, Roen Thew 2-8; Mohawk: Andon Clouse 23-74, Kaden Bish 9-33, Owen Patrizi 2-2.
Receiving
Colonel Crawford: Roen Thew 2-71, Parker Weithman 4-55, John DeGray 1-11, Dom Dean 1-3, Jacob Cochran 1-(-6); Mohawk: Levi Tiell 2-63, Brant Kirian 5-59.
Team statistics
CC M
First downs 11 9
Rushing 39-181 34-109
Passes 9-12-1 7-11-0
Yards passing 134 122
Total yards 315 231
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1
Penalties 12-115 5-40