SPARTA (Crawford County Now) — Another Friday night. Another business trip for the Eagles.
Colonel Crawford (13-1) continued its historic season with a convincing 35-7 over West Jefferson (11-2) in a Division VI regional championship at Highland High School.
Once again, the ground game set the tone as Connor McMichael had back-to-back 200-yard showings. The senior carried the ball 27 times for 214 yards and four first-half touchdowns.
“It was my O-line. They blocked and paved the way all night. We executed the game plan, and I just followed them,” McMichael said.
“We knew their offense, coming into this game, was averaging a lot of points. So we came in here knowing we had to ground and pound, chew up the clock and not let their offense get hot.”
They carried out the assignment to near perfection with 421 yards in total offense. The stingy CC defense held the Rough Riders ultra-talented quarterback Austin Buescher to 123 yards passing on 18-of-29 attempts, far below his 312-yards per game average.
The win pits the Eagles against No. 1 Kirtland (13-0) in a state semifinal next Friday at a neutral site to be determined.
“We came in here and this was a different type of opponent than we’ve faced this year,” head coach Jake Bruner said.
“The quarterback has a tremendous arm and he’s going to be a good collegiate player. With their offense you never feel comfortable.”
Colonel Crawford scored on its first possession when McMichael went off left tackle for 13 yards. He added runs of 2, 7 and 3 in the second quarter as the Eagles took a 28-0 lead into halftime.
“We probably got a little conservative in the second half. I was yelling to eat some clock. Every second that ticks away limits possessions for them,” Bruner said.
“They were trying to steal possessions with the onside kick. I thought our special teams were great tonight.”
Peyton Baker added an 11-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
West Jefferson head coach Shawn Buescher gave kudos to the Eagles.
“We knew they were really good up front on both sides of the ball. Not only are they big, but they move well. Their length was something that concerned us, but we’ve played against big teams before. They’re both long and they can move, they’re athletic.
“They do a lot of good things with the pass rush. Everyone talks about (Payne DeGray) — he’s a great player and we had to do a lot of things doubling him — but we knew when we did that, a lot of other people are singled up and they create problems. They’re a veteran football team. We’ve been in this position a lot, we’ve been fortunate enough to win it a few times, and we know what it looks like.”
The Rough Riders managed just 177 yards of total offense and 9 first downs.
“We knew they were a legit final four contender … and obviously tonight they played well enough to win,” Buescher said.
Not since the Eagles lost to Fairview in 2020 have they faced an opponent like West Jefferson.
“We talked about that a lot with our coaches and players. It was a tough week of practice for a lot of reasons. Weather, getting ready for this type of offense and trying to emulate it,” Bruner said.
“Brayden Holt, Tyler Lash, our receivers, back-up receivers, all got us ready. Brayden stroked us a lot because he’s really good with the spread offense. He did a great job preparing us.”
Holt hit on 12-of-16 passes for 140 yards, with Parker Weithman catching 8 balls for 94 yards.
“There were times tonight we maybe lost a guy here or there. But the difference always is the pass rush. They held us all night, but Payne, Dom (Dean), Connor and Walker (Cramer), Luke Christman kept coming after him enough to keep him out of his comfort zone.”
“Our defensive coaching staff did a great job. Gabe Stratton made so many tackles in space. He missed a few, but he’s a sophomore. He got four or five big stops in a row there in that one drive,” Bruner said.
Coach Buescher knew that the Eagles would provide a lot of offensive weapons.
“They’re fairly balanced. At this level you gotta be able to do something unique and have to be balanced, or your run game has gotta be something unique in style.
“They just do a good job mixing things up with the play action, and they’re balanced with the quarterback run and their tailback. He’s a big kid who runs hard. It’s a very good football team.”
Bruner again said it was a team effort.
“Jacob Cochran comes out as a senior. I’ve been trying to get him out since eighth grade. Track star. He’s put in the biggest stage, and he had hits tonight.”
Facing undefeated Kirtland is no easy task.
“I’m excited to see Tiger (LaVerde). He and I coached the North-South Game, so I know how good they are. We’ll get ready to do what we do. I’m excited for the challenge for our kids.”
Division VI Regional Finals
Region 21
No. 1 Kirtland (13-0) 21, No. 7 Sugarcreek Garaway (10-3) 7
Region 22
No. 2 Bascom Hopewell-Loudon (12-1) 35, No. 9 Carey (9-5) 0
Region 23
No. 5 Colonel Crawford (13-1) 35, No. 3 West Jefferson (11-2) 7
Region 24
No. 5 Coldwater (10-4) 14, No. 6 Anna (10-4) 12
Box score
Score by quarters
Colonel Crawford 7 21 0 7 — 35
West Jefferson 0 0 0 7 — 7
Scoring summary
First quarter
CC — Connor McMichael 13 run (Joe Zizzo kick), 6:51.
Second quarter
CC — McMichael 2 run (Zizzo kick), 11:46.
CC — McMichael 7 run (Zizzo kick), 9:52.
CC — McMichael 3 run (Zizzo kick), 1:04.
Fourth quarter
WJ — Jackson Beatty 8 pass from Austin Beuscher (Jaxon Bare kick), 11:53.
CC — Peyton Baker 11 run (Zizzo kick), 8:16.
Individual statistics
Passing
Colonel Crawford: Brayden Holt 12-16-0 140, Peyton Baker 0-3-0 0; West Jefferson: Austin Beuscher 18-29-2 123.
Rushing
Colonel Crawford: Connor McMichael 27-214, Peyton Baker 9-53, Roen Thew 4-15, Avery Powers 1-0, Brayden Holt 1-(-1); West Jefferson: Braxton Ance 8-45, Wade Reeve 3-14, Austin Beuscher 4-(-5).
Receiving
Colonel Crawford: Parker Weithman 8-94, John DeGray 1-20, Dom Dean 1-18, Jacob Cochran 1-15, Roen Thew 1-3; West Jefferson: Blake Bogenrife 4-54, Braxton Vance 6-22, Evan Switalski 3-19, Wade Reeve 3-16, Jackson Beatty 1-8, Jeremy Jester 1-4.
Team statistics
CC WJ
First downs 19 9
Rushing 42-281 15-54
Passes 12-19-0 18-29-2
Yards passing 140 123
Total yards 421 177
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Penalties 9-55 5-49
Punts 0-0.00 4-39.0