CAREY — Galion’s offense took center stage in last week’s season opening win over Wynford. But it was the Tigers defense’s turn this week as Galion (2-0) held Carey to 164 yards of total offense in a 14-8 non-conference win here Friday night.
“Hats off to the defense, man. You know I’ve been all over this defensive line about getting tougher, about being grittier,” Tigers head coach Matt Dick said. “They’re not that big. Our nose guard is like 140 pounds. Playing against Carey’s line and have success in there, that was big.
“Camden Kuehlman, Kale Early, even freshman Kane Hay. These kids love to play on the edge, and we let them play on the edge. But some things we need to overcome.”
Carey drops to 0-2 as the Blue Devils rushed the ball 42 times for a net 134 yards.
“The fullback (Eli Steen), man is he just a bear. Somehow, he didn’t get loose; he had some 8-yard runs and 10-yard runs. We were scared of that, him wearing us down and just beating us,” Dick said.
Steen rushed for 61 yards on 15 carries to lead Carey.
The teams were scoreless after one quarter. Junior LB Trevor Shifley recovered a Blue Devil fumble on their initial possession, halting that drive. But Galion failed to capitalize and punted.
The Tigers scored with 4:54 left in the first half when Sam Evans ran in from a yard out. He set up the score on the previous play with a 50-yard scamper.
The visitors then drove to the Carey 3, but a penalty pushed them back and Allen Carver’s 30-yard field goal try was wide right with two seconds remaining. On the next play Galion’s Ayden Schmidt picked off a long Kyler Boes pass near midfield to end the half.
Blue Devils head coach Jonathon Mershman said his team came up “a couple of plays short” with two of the three facets operating well.
“We have to execute better on offense. Eight points ain’t gonna cut it. Defense played well enough to win the game. I thought special teams played really well too. We just turned over the ball and we had holding penalties,” he said.
“You can’t have drives … we’re not a team that can overcome a 10-yard holding penalty and it showed up a couple of times. We started well, but the first drive we fumbled and then on the next one the holding penalty. But you’ve got to finish those drives in the end zone and the outcome is a little bit different.”
Both teams demonstrated sloppy play with Galion getting 9 flags for 88 yards and Carey 8 for 80 yards.
The Blue Devils had just 55 yards of total offense at halftime to Galion’s 156.
Galion took to the air in the third quarter as Braxton Prosser found Carver on a nice 23-yard touchdown pass with under three minutes to play. That put the Tigers ahead 14-0.
But the three-time defending Northern 10 Athletic Conference champions weren’t done.
Sophomore Mace Puckett hammered his way in from a yard out to get the Blue Devils on the board. An offside penalty against Galion on the conversion resulted in a successful two-point run by Steen.
That capped a 12-play, 55-yard drive where Puckett, Steen and Bubba Tanner all picked up first downs on short-yardage situations.
That cut the score to 14-8 with 10:01 remaining. But that was all the scoring and Trey Longwell picked off a pass with 1:21 on the clock.
Dick credited his secondary, as well as the guys up front.
“We got three guys — Chambers, Carver and Schmidty — who have all played there for a ton of games,” he said.
“We’ve weathered the storm with either not making a play or just being young and making mistakes, and now those three guys are really awesome. And Trey Longwell — hats off to him. Kurt Hay comes in, sometimes Kane Hay, even (Colton) Flynn — there’s some nice depth in our secondary and some nice athletes.”
Galion kept Carey from making big plays, with 11-yard receptions by Tripp Phoenix and Lucas Smith-Hayward the longest.
“We’re learning and growing with these guys and a young coaching staff. It’ll be fun to see where we can take these guys by the end of the year. We need to focus and whatever we did tonight didn’t matter tomorrow,” Dick said.
There are some things to work on for the Tigers.
“We could have been way more explosive. I know my line coach wasn’t happy with the run blocking. They were the most physical defense we’ve seen all year, and it will help get us ready for the MOAC,” he said.
“Our kids just found a way to get it done at the end.”
Carter Bame had an interception for Carey late in the game.
Carey is unaccustomed to starting off with two home losses.
“We’ve got to get back to work and get it done. That is a really dynamic, explosive offense and we held them in check when we needed to,” Mershman said.
“Not to take away from them. I’m proud of the way we came out in the second half and competed. Sometimes you’ve got to look inward and maybe make something happen and figure it out. We’ll get better as the season goes on. Our goal is to get the picture on the wall.”
The Tigers go to Upper Sandusky in the final non-league game Friday night, while Carey visits Lima Central Catholic Saturday at 4 p.m.
Box score
Galion 14, Carey 8
Score by quarters
Galion 0 7 7 0 — 14
Carey 0 0 0 8 — 8
Scoring summary
Second quarter
G — Sam Evans 1 run (Allen Carver kick), 4:54.
Third quarter
G — Carver 23 pass from Braxton Prosser (Carver kick), 2:54.
Fourth quarter
C — Mace Puckett 1 run (Eli Steen run), 10:01.
Individual statistics
Passing
Galion: Braxton Prosser 10-22-0 135; Carey: Kyler Boes 4-11-0 30.
Rushing
Galion: Sam Evans 12-65, Braxton Prosser 10-38, Camden Kuehlman 4-16, Jacob Chambers 2-(-3); Carey: Eli Steen 15-61, Kyler Boes 10-34, Mace Puckett 3-21, Dash Puckett 5-13, Bubba Tanner 7-13, Tripp Phoenix 2-(-8).
Receiving
Galion: Jacob Chambers 5-73, Allen Carver 3-40, Colton Flynn 1-15, Kurt Hay 1-7; Carey: Tripp Phoenix 2-11, Lucas Smith-Hayward 1-11, Bubba Tanner 1-8.
Team statistics
G C
First downs 13 13
Rushing 33-116 42-134
Passes 10-22-1 4-11-2
Yards passing 135 30
Total yards 251 164
Fumbles-lost 3-0 1-1
Penalties 9-88 8-80