VANLUE — It’s been a tumultuous season for Coach Jonny King and the Crestline Bulldogs. Still, the Bulldogs finished the season quite strong.
Quarterback Kaden Ronk rushed for 200 yards in 16 carries and scored three touchdowns and passed for another as the Bulldogs (4-6) battered Vanlue, 42-14, Friday night.
Crestline finished the season with just 16 players, but King said that his team never stopped working hard.
“It’s been an up and down wild ride,” King said. “A lot of really high highs and some pretty low lows. All-in-all, if you told me about all of the things we would have to go through this year, and we would finish 4-6, I’d probably be pretty happy with those results.”
Had the Bulldogs been in the Blanchard Valley Conference this season, they would have finished 3-4, Vanlue finished 2-8 on the year.
King said that his first full off-season will be one that will keep the first-year Crestline coach busy.
“It was a struggle this year, coming in late and we didn’t get a true, whole off-season to get things going the way I wanted to, so we’re looking forward to a short break and then back to the grind and getting after the kids in the school and getting numbers up for next year,” King said. “We have to have a great off-season in the weight room, start getting into football stuff earlier and we have to get numbers.”
The Bulldogs made some mistakes early and kept the Wildcats in the game but rushed for 309 yards for the game and raced away in the second half.
“We certainly could have played cleaner and we had a couple of games like this, where we would have been our worst enemy, but I’m proud of the way they kind of re-directed and cleaned things up and went out and executed and played their game,” King said. “I can’t say how happy I am with the seniors to go out on a win and to end their playing careers on a win is big for them.”
After the Wildcats took a 6-0 lead early, benefitting from a roughing the passer penalty on Crestline that kept the drive alive, the Bulldogs came right back, as Ronk dashed 38 yards for a touchdown, then added a 26-yard scoring run early in the second period for a 14-6 lead.
Sophomore Brandon Hiles scored on a three-yard pass from Ronk moments later for a 22-6 lead.
After Vanlue’s Xavier Temple took the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a score to cut the lead to 22-14, the Bulldogs were able to put the game away, courtesy of 5-foot-4 sophomore Owen Snyder.
Snyder had his best game as a Bulldog, picking off two passes and recovering a fumble. The second pick was returned for a 10-yard score and Crestline held a 30-14 lead at the break.
Enyce Sewell scored on a 20-yard run in the third quarter and Ronk added a 10-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter to end it.
The Crestline quarterback said that, while he didn’t know he was having such a huge game, he will never forget his final game.
“It’s very emotional but it really didn’t hit me until about the last four minutes of the game,” Ronk said of his final game as a Bulldog.
“We had a couple of games where we should have won but we didn’t play good and then the games we played good, we played really, really good. Tonight, we played as a team and we got the win.”
King said that the one thing that will be his priority this off-season will be to improve the numbers of his team.
“Participation has to get up,” King said. “Vanlue has 28 boys in their high school and 16 are out there playing football. That’s excellent participation for what they are working with. We have to be better with what we’ve got.”
Box score
Score by quarters
Crestline 8 22 6 6 — 42
Vanlue 6 8 0 0 — 14
Scoring summary
First quarter
V — J.R Snook 21 pass from Jaren Kloepfer (pass failed), 2:54.
C — Kaden Ronk 28 run (Jaden Stewart pass from Ronk), 1:34.
Second quarter
C — Ronk 26 run (pass failed), 10:35.
C — Brandon Hiles 3 pass from Ronk (Austin Silverwood run), 4:41.
V — Xavier Temple 80 kickoff return (Snook pass from Kloepfer), 4:28.
C — Owen Snyder 10 interception return (Silverwood pass from Ronk), 2:02.
Third quarter
C — Enyce Sewell 20 run (pass failed), 9:32.
Fourth quarter
C — Ronk 10 run (kick blocked), 5:56.
Individual statistics
Passing
Crestline: Kaden Ronk 2-8-0 56.
Vanlue: Jaren Kloepfer 11-27-4 115.
Rushing
Crestline: Ronk 16-200, Enyce Sewell 14-89, Jaden Stewart 3-7, Calvin Reed 2-25, Austin Silverwood 2-(-9), Snyder 1-(-3).
Vanlue: Kloepfer 5-(-24), Xavier Temple 11-29, Jerome Kloepfer 1-(-1), J.R. Snook 2-9, Tyson Brenneman 1-9.
Receiving
Crestline: Silverwood 1-32, Reed 1-26.
Vanlue: Snook 7-62, Joey Bonham 3-49, Jared Kloepfer 1-12, Jaden Kloepfer 1-9.
Team statistics
C V
First downs 10 9
Rushing 38-309 20-22
Passes 2-8-0 11-27-4
Yards passing 58 115
Total yards 367 137
Penalties N/A N/A