CAREY — Beating the Carey Blue Devils would take an extraordinary effort from a very good football team.
The Devils got it from Colonel Crawford.
The Eagles dominated the first half, outgaining the Devils, 219-91, before Carey came back in the second half.
Crawford got a three-yard touchdown run from Micah Thomas with 3:42 left in the game, before Carey came back down and got the ball in the Crawford red zone with a chance to tie the game.
On a fourth down from the Crawford 19 with just 30 seconds left in the game, CC defensive back Ryan McMichael made a great open field tackle on Carey quarterback Lance Rickle at the 13 to stop the march.
As a result, the Eagles held on for a tough 21-14 win over the defending state champion Blue Devils in the quarterfinal round of the Division VI, Region 22 playoffs.
With the win, the eighth-seeded Eagles (10-2) will face Columbus Grove (10-2) next Saturday. Time and game site are to be determined.
Carey, on the other hand, had its 26-game winning streak snapped and finished its season at 11-1.
The game was so close that either team could have come away with the win.
“A play here or a play there, it could have went differently for us,” Carey coach Jon Mershman said. “Our kids, I thought, battled all the way through to the end. Their kids battled all the way to the end.
“These are what the playoffs are all about,” he added. “The highs are high, and the lows are low. This is a wave, and you have to be able to ride it.”
“I can’t wrap myself around it right now but a great football game, obviously,” Colonel Crawford coach Jake Bruner said. “We have a ton of respect for Carey and what they have offensively and defensively. They do a great job.”
There were two controversial plays in the first half that benefited both teams, ending up in a touchdown for both.
Crawford got on the board first when quarterback Kam Lohr scampered 45 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Crawford lead after one period.
Then, the controversial plays occurred.
The first came when the Eagles were driving late in the second quarter and were looking to take a two-score lead with the ball on the Carey 36.
But, as Lohr dropped back to pass, two Carey players hit him just as he was trying to throw the ball. At first glance, it appeared that Lohr’s arm was coming forward, but the officials called a fumble. Carey’s Landon Kemerley scooped up the ball and raced 66 yards to the tying score.
The Eagles had one last chance to get on the board before the half when the second controversial play happened.
Crawford was facing a third-and-nine play from its own 21 when Lohr scrambled right along the sideline. He was knocked out of bounds short of the first down, but Carey was called for a personal foul which kept the march alive.
Five plays later, Lohr found Trevor Vogt from 14 yards out and Crawford held a 14-7 lead at the break.
Mershman said that the fumble recovery gave his team life in the first half.
“That was a great boost and it made it 7-7,” Mershman said. “I would have liked to go into the first half 7-7 or up. You don’t want to go down 14-7 at the half but it is what it is. We had opportunities but we just fell short.”
“I really felt all night we did a great job on defense,” Bruner said. “They had us on some quarterback runs but you gotta give them something. But really, when you think about the score at halftime, whatever you want to say happened, I thought we did a great job.”
The Blue Devils came back strong in the third quarter, marching 65 yards in 15 plays to the tying score.
From the Crawford five, Austin Niederkohr took a pitch around the left side and scored, tying the game at 14-14. And that was the score after three quarters.
From that point, the two teams were trading punts, giving either team any advantage.
But Crawford had its final opportunity late in the game, taking the football following a Carey punt at its own 46.
A huge Lohr-to-McMichael pass gave Crawford a first down on the Carey 24. Five plays later, Thomas bulled in, and the Eagles were able to hold on, even though the Blue Devils marched the football 57 yards in less than four minutes before McMichael made the biggest tackle of the game.
“We had our opportunities, a chance to put it away but we fell short,” Mershman said. “They made plays, and we didn’t make enough plays.”
Bruner said that the Blue Devils came storming back in the second half.
“I thought we dominated the first half completely,” Bruner said. “Now in the third quarter you could see the momentum change a little bit. They seemed to get some momentum going but our kids seemed to rise to the occasion.
“It was a long drive there, it seemed like a million-mile drive and time went off the clock,” Bruner added. “It reminded me of two years ago; we had the lead at halftime, and they were just wearing us down and that’s a credit to them. That’s a heck of a football team.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Colonel Crawford 7 7 0 7 — 21
Carey 0 7 7 0 — 14
Scoring summary
First quarter
CC — Kam Lohr 45 run (Braxton Morton kick), 8:37.
Second quarter
C — Landon Kemerley 66 fumble return (Lance Rickle kick), 4:19.
CC — Trevor Vogt 14 pass from Lohr (Morton kick), 1:21.
Third quarter
C — Austin Niederkohr 5 run (Rickle kick), 3:23.
Fourth quarter
CC — Micah Thomas 3 run (Morton kick), 3:42.
Individual statistics
Passing
Colonel Crawford: Kam Lohr 11-16-1 179; Carey: Lance Rickle 4-12-1 71.
Rushing
Colonel Crawford: Kam Lohr 16-58, Matt Clinard 13-55, Micah Thomas 3-11, Tanner Dyer 2-3; Carey: Lance Rickle 16-90, Austin Niederkohr 8-27, Connor Norden 7-26, Eli Steen 5-17, Nathan Brodman 2-9, Landon Kemerley 2-3.
Receiving
Colonel Crawford: Matt Clinard 5-98, Ryan McMichael 2-42, Trevor Vogt 2-20, Tanner Dyer 1-10, Derek Horsley 1-9; Carey: Austin Niederkohr 2-48, Jordan Mattimoe 1-13, Carter Smiley 1-3.
Team statistics
CC C
First downs 13 12
Rushing 33-126 40-162
Passes 11-16-1 4-12-1
Yards passing 179 64
Total yards 305 226
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Punts-Avg 2-39.0 3-39.0
Penalties 6-55 4-30