NORTH ROBINSON — If Colonel Crawford was looking forward to a week 12 rematch with Carey, one would never know by the way the Eagles played.
Fullback Micah Thomas rushed for 70 yards and scored five touchdowns, all on the ground, while running mate Matt Clinard added 121 yards in 15 carries and scored twice in the Eagles’ 49-14 win over Castalia Margaretta in the Division IV, Region 22 playoff game Friday night.
As it happens, the Eagles (9-2) will get a week 12 rematch with the Blue Devils next Friday in Carey. The Blue Devils (11-0) advanced with a dominating 49-6 win over Riverdale.
The game was close for much of the first half, especially after Margaretta freshman Judah Keller returned a Colonel Crawford kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, cutting the Eagles’ lead to 21-14 midway through the second quarter.
From that point, however, the Eagles scored the final 28 points of the game to pull away.
Both Colonel Crawford coach Jake Bruner and Margaretta coach Gary Quisno felt that the Eagles wore down the more physically imposing Polar Bears in the second half.
“We have nine guys going both ways and they have 55 on the roster, running guys in and out,” Quisno said. “In the second half they really wore us down. That was a big difference there in the second half.”
Wearing the Polar Bears down was part of the game plan for the Eagles.
“That was our plan,” Bruner said. “We told our kids, ‘Listen guys, I don’t know how many guys they have dressed today, but they have a lot of guys dressed and they are a lot bigger than us.’
“But we thought we could wear them out with our speed and our athleticism up front,” Bruner added. “We’re pretty athletic up front and we felt like we could just wear them down. And I thought we did.”
The Eagles came out quickly, as Thomas rumbled 30 yards for the game’s first score, then, three minutes later, added a three-yard touchdown run, giving the Eagles a 14-0 lead.
Keller put Margaretta on the board early in the second quarter with a 12-yard run, before Crawford took a 21-7 lead on a one-yard Thomas scoring run.
At that point, it appeared Crawford was gaining control of the game before Keller took the ensuing kickoff 90 yards, cutting the Eagles’ lead to 21-14.
Thomas scored his fourth touchdown with 1:26 left in the half and the Eagles took a 28-14 lead at the break.
“But you know, right when we were beginning to wear them down it was the end of the first half, so they got a little break,” Bruner added. “I felt like we had to do it all over again.
“They kept fighting,” he said of the Polar Bears. “They’re a physical team.”
The second half was all Crawford.
“I thought if we came out there and established something in the first drive of the second half, we’d get back in it, but it didn’t happen and then things kinda snowballed,” Quisno said. “The wheels fell off.
“I’m proud of our guys; we fought, and it’s been a good year,” he said. “Hopefully they’ll wake up tomorrow and realize that.”
Thomas scored his fifth touchdown with 12 seconds left in the third quarter as the Eagles took a 35-14 lead.
From there, Clinard scored twice in the fourth quarter from 12 and eight yards and the Eagles had their easy win.
“(CC) is a very good football team,” Quisno said. “We saw that on film, and I saw them early on against one of our opponents and I knew they were a good football team. There wasn’t anything tonight that changed my mind on that. A lot of weapons on offense, a very diverse offense. Defensively, they are big and strong and run to the football. A well-coached team.”
The Eagles limited the Polar Bears to just 114 yards on the ground on 28 carries and just 58 yards through the air.
“Our defense has played well all year,” Bruner said. “We made a couple of adjustments at halftime; they played fantastic. We were flying to (Margaretta running back Jake Boggs) all night; we contained the quarterback and, overall, I was really happy with the defense.”
Bruner thought his entire team played well.
“Beside the kickoff return for a touchdown; that was the one that got to me, there was a couple of times we weren’t lined up right,” Bruner said. “But give them credit. They practice, too.
“It felt like it was a struggle because they have some really good players,” Bruner added. “They’re physical and they have some tough kids. And that’s a good football team. They have three or four players that are really good.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Margaretta 0 14 0 0 — 14
Colonel Crawford 14 14 7 14 — 49
Scoring summary
First quarter
CC — Micah Thomas 30 run (Braxton Morton kick), 8:05.
CC — Thomas 3 run (Morton kick), 5:42.
Second quarter
M — Judah Keller 12 run (Jake Bouy kick), 9:23.
CC — Thomas 1 run (Morton kick), 5:56.
M — Keller 90 kickoff return (Bouy kick), 5:41.
CC — Thomas 2 run (Morton kick), 1:26.
Third quarter
CC — Thomas 6 run (Morton kick), :12.
Fourth quarter
CC — Matt Clinard 12 run (Morton kick), 9:44.
CC — Clinard 8 run (Morton kick), 4:25.
Individual statistics
Passing
Margaretta: Cameron Sosa 4-9-0 58, Judah Keller 0-1-0 0; Colonel Crawford: Kam Lohr 9-15-0 120.
Rushing
Margaretta: Kaine Smelter 9-47, Jake Boggs 13-27, Judah Keller 5-24, Cameron Sosa 4-12, Jordan Luzader 1-4; Colonel Crawford: Matt Clinard 15-121, Micah Thomas 12-70, Kam Lohr 7-30, Trevor Vogt 1-4.
Receiving
Margaretta: Hayden Wiley 1-42, Judah Keller 1-16, Kaine Smeltzer 1-2, Jake Boggs 1-(-2); Colonel Crawford: Trevor Vogt 2-33, Kaden Bruner 1-27, Micah Thomas 1-22, Lucas Foy 1-13, Matt Clinard 1-9, Ryan McMichael 1-8, Jacob Maddy 1-6, Tristin Baker 1-2.
Team statistics
M CC
First downs 6 15
Rushing 28-114 35-229
Passes 4-10-0 9-15-0
Yards passing 58 120
Total yards 172 349
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1
Punts-Avg 6-33.0 3-37.6
Penalties 9-88 7-50