Bearcats too much for Knights, win 35-14

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

SPENCERVILLE — Crestview held serve in the first half, but Spencerville’s powerful rushing attack proved to be too much in the third and fourth quarters as the Bearcats posted a season opening 35-14 win over the Knights on Friday.

Spencerville has won four of the last five games against Crestview.

The Knights (0-1) went right to work after the opening kickoff, moving 56 yards in six playings and scoring on Brody Brecht’s 10-yard run with 9:24 left in the quarter. The first of two Kaden Kreischer extra points gave Crestview a 7-0 lead.

“Right out of the gate they made it look pretty easy and we talked about that with our guys,” Spencerville head coach Chris Sommers said. “We knew they had the potential to do that. They’re big and physical and No. 33 (Brecht) is as hard a runner as you’re going to find.”

Spencerville (1-0) responded with a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Dalty Prichard and Emerson Layman added one of his five PATs to tie the game with 3:51 left in the opening quarter, but the Knights capped off a nine-play, 77-yard drive with a two-yard scoring run by Logan Gerardot to go ahead 14-7 with 11:28 left in the second quarter. Gerardot went on to finish with seven carries for 28 yards and a pair of receptions for 30 yards.

The lead was short-lived as Dale Smith sprinted 74 yards for a game-tying touchdown just 20 seconds later. He finished the game with five carries for 96 yards.

“Anytime you play that physical style of a team in Week No. 1 you worry about conditioning and in the first half we were there punch-for-punch,” Crestview head coach Jared Owens said. “We gave up a couple of big plays but other than that we really controlled the line of scrimmage in the first half, but they kind of took control of the game with the first drive of the second half.”

After a 14-14 halftime tie, the Bearcats took the lead for good at the 8:45 mark of the third quarter on Gunner Grigsby scored from seven yards out, ending an eight play, 80-yard drive.

Spencerville put the game away in the fourth quarter with two more touchdowns – a 12-yard run by DJ Bowens with 10:27 left, and Prichard’s second score, a three-yard run with 2:42 left in the game.

“I think we were able to keep our offense on the field a little bit and that was big,” Sommers said of the second half. “

As a team, the Bearcats ran for 330 yards on 45 carries. Along with Smith, Grigsby had 17 carries for 52 yards, Keegan Goecke had seven carries for 59 yards and Bowens had six carries for 44 yards. Prichard tossed just two passes and both were incomplete.

The Knights ran for 133 yards, with Brecht accounting for 89 yards on 14 carries and Jayden Ward was 6 of 16 passing for 91 yards. Rontae Jackson had 53 of those yards on two receptions. As a team, Crestview finished with 224 yards of total offense.

“There’s no question how hard we played, but we ran out of gas a little bit and once we got to the point where we had to start playing catch-up we got away from our identity a bit,” Owens said. “Overall, we played hard but we have to continue to work hard on conditioning and continue to clean things up schematically and in our discipline.”

“This team has a lot of potential, we just have to get it put together now,” Owens added.

Crestview will travel to Paulding on Friday while Spencerville will play at Delphos Jefferson. The Panthers defeated the Wildcats 50-48 in overtime on Friday.

Scoring Summary

1st quarter

CHS – Brody Brecht 10-yard run (Kaden Kreischer PAT)
SHS – Dalty Prichard 1-yard run (Emerson Layman PAT)

2nd quarter

CHS – Logan Gerardot 2-yard run (Kaden Kreischer PAT)
SHS – Dale Smith 74-yard run (Emerson Layman PAT)

3rd quarter

SHS – Gunner Grigsby 7-yard run (Emerson Layman PAT)

4th quarter

SHS – DJ Bowens 12-yard run (Emerson Layman PAT)
SHS – Dalty Prichard 3-yard run (Emerson Layman PAT)