Crestview hopes to trump the Aces

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

The second of Crestview’s three non-conference games will be played Friday night when the Knights head to Hicksville.

Crestview (1-0) opened the season with an impressive 51-14 victory over Parkway. The Knights kept the Panthers bottled up for much of the night, while enjoying a productive night on offense.

“We were very pleased with our defense on Friday night,” Crestview head coach James Lautzenheiser said. “Our defensive scheme frustrated Rockford and allowed our offense to control the tempo and pace of the first half. I was happy with the explosiveness of our offense and the leadership of Carson Hunter on the field. We have a stable of skill players at the receiver and back positions and we worked very hard to involve as many as we could in the offense.”

Hunter completed 16-of-22 passes for 262 yards and four touchdowns while churning out 44 yards rushing and a touchdown on nine carries. Seven of his completions went to seven different receivers. Isaac Kline finished with 13 carries for 59 yards and a touchdown.

While happy with the results, Lautzenheiser noted the Knights are focused on the little things in practice this week.

“We had eight penalties and two turnovers on Friday night,” Lautzenheiser said. “We have to work to cut down on costly mistakes when we know that many of them were avoidable with better discipline and communication. Our focus is centered around building toward a more complete game this week. Our run game blocking has to improve, and we are focused on getting our line in a position to do just that.”

Last week’s performance by Crestview caught the eye of Hicksville head coach Lucas Smith.

“Crestview is extremely talented in all areas,” Smith said. “They have size, strength, and speed. We are going to have to play with every ounce of our ability and play extremely disciplined football if we want to have an opportunity to win the game.”

The Aces (0-1) suffered a 56-8 season opening loss to Patrick Henry, including 28 points in the second quarter that made it 42-0 at halftime. Hicksville’s lone score came on an 18-yard pass from Brody Balser to Brant Langham in the fourth quarter, with Langham also providing the two point conversion.

“The main focus for me as a head coach is to get our players to improve each day, not just as football players but as young men,” Smith said. “We can’t focus too much on our opponent when we have our own issues to fix. It’s sort of like the parable of the focusing on the splinter in someone else’s eye and ignoring the 2×4 in your own. We live in a world where we want to point the finger at everybody and everything else, instead of taking a good look in the mirror and holding ourselves accountable.”

“Coach Smith has a reputation for getting the most out of his players each week,” Lautzenheiser said. “He has a lot of returning players in different positions this year, but you can tell that they are working on disruptive schemes on both sides of the ball. They have a defense that wants to align in a variety of formations in order to mess up box counts and presnap reads.”

They are never afraid to blitz, slant or stunt with their players, and that can frustrate zone and option schemes at times. On offense, they have a stout quarterback that likes to run the ball downhill. We need to remain disciplined in our run fits and steadfast in our communication in order to stop them from moving the ball.”

The Knights won last year’s game 44-18 and the Aces posted a 32-13 victory in 2019. The two teams didn’t play in 2020 due the COVID-shortened schedule.