Knights and Raiders to meet Friday night

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

CONVOY — With all due respect to other opponents on the schedule, Crestview lined up against one like no other last Friday night. Now, it’s time to move on to the third and final non-conference game.

The Knights (1-1) fell to Marion Local 63-0 in what’s believed to be the first game between the two schools.

There are always things to learn from no matter the outcome,” Crestview head coach Cole Harting said. “Win or lose, the games gives us a chance to evaluate all aspects of the game. I thought our offensive line continued to improve and did a nice job picking up their pressures. I also thought our defense did a better job with their alignments and assignments. We still need to make plays, but we were in a better position to make those plays.”

Now, the Knights will turn their attention to their biggest non-conference rival, Wayne Trace. Crestview has enjoyed the upper hand in the series, with 10 straight victories, including a 37-16 win last season. Wayne Trace’s last win in the series came in 2013, 54-41. The two teams did not play during the COVID-19 season of 2020.

Wayne Trace has had a tough start to the 2025 season. After dropping the season opener to New Bremen (41-0), the Raiders lost a heartbreaker at Spencerville, 25-21, last Friday. Despite the 0-2 start, head coach Matt Holden said there are plenty of positives to build on. 

“First is that our kids are playing with great effort,” Holden stated. “That gives us a chance to be successful on any given play and even makes up for some mistakes that are made, at times. Additionally, I think our offensive line is getting things figured out.”

Jack Schoenauer pilots Wayne Trace’s offense. So far this season, the 5-8, 175 senior has completed 12-of-26 passes for 191 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions. His favorite receiver to this point has been Clay Stoller, who has seven receptions for 116 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

“Jack is a great kid and a great leader,” Holden said. “He’s done all the right things from the end of last year up until this point – organizing offseason player-only workouts, doing community service, ensuring others get to offseason workouts, etc. He’s a smart young man and cares about learning the game of football. What we ask him to do in our offense is be more of a point guard, making sure that things run smoothly and getting the ball to the proper guy based on our call and what the defense is giving us.”

Running the ball has been a challenge for Wayne Trace. So far, the Raiders have tallied 141 yards on 55 carries. Eight different players have had rushing attempts with Carter Baumle getting the bulk of the carries and yards (22-72), followed by Lance Whitman (8-55). Wayne Trace has not rushed for a touchdown yet.

“We have some other areas of our run game that need to get figured out, but our offensive line has done a pretty nice job up to this point, so we need to figure out how to turn that into more positive runs for our team,” Holden said. “Unfortunately, that’s a case of football being the ultimate team sport – at times our offensive line blocks a play really well and a running back runs to the wrong side. At times, everyone has it blocked well except one person and his guy makes the play. We’ve had a good amount of that this year which is frustrating but I’m confident we’ll get over that hump.”

“Wayne Trace has shown the ability to run the football during their first two games, but last week found some success with throwing the ball downfield,” Harting said. “They have a couple primary targets that they like to stretch the field with. We will have to try and take those big plays away and make them work it down the field.” 

Meanwhile, Crestview has run the ball with success. The Knights are averaging 267 yards on the ground, tops by a wide margin among NWC teams. Braxton Leeth is the area’s leading ground gainer with 54 carries for 500 yards and seven touchdowns.

“Obviously, Braxton Leeth is an issue,” Holden said. He’s one of those guys that on film that looks like he’s in fast forward and everyone else is on the regular playback speed. If we want to have success on Friday, we need to get everyone to the football because he’s going to break tackles and make things happen with his legs. If we can limit explosives out of him, we’ll be in a position to be competitive.”

“Additionally, they have a physical front six with their offensive line and their tight end/H back,” he added. That translates over to defense where they’re young at spots but physical. We’re going to need to bring a high level of physicality up front to be able to run the ball this week.”

While Crestview’s ground game has chewed up yardage, Harting said he’d like to see a better run-pass ratio.

“I’m most pleased with our ability to run the football, however, I’d like to be more balanced,” he said. “We need to get our passing attack going. That way we can make the defense defend the whole field, not just the box.”

Through two games, Huxley Grose has completed 12-of-23 passes for 175 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Liam Putman has six catches for 60 yards, while Hayden Perrott has three receptions for 94 yards and a touchdown.

For Holden, he’s been able to be part of this non-conference rivalry for a number of years, as a player and later assistant coach for Crestview and the last five seasons as head coach of the Raiders.

“Every year I played in this game, it was a close, hard-fought battle, which holds true for pretty much every year that I have coached in it while at Wayne Trace. I do remember that my longest run as a player occurred out on Raider Field, with a 90-yard touchdown. We ended up losing that one and I finished with like 85 yards rushing, so it wasn’t a great night other than that one run. I also remember Jake Harmon (Crestview’s defensive coordinator) taking a screen pass or a fullback dive all the way down to the 2 or 3 yard line, which we players of course teased him for. It ended up being a big run for us as I’m fairly certain that was our go-ahead scoring drive when we ended up winning at home my junior year. My junior year, I remember that our defensive game plan included me following Kim Bickford (one of our current Wayne Trace coaches) wherever he went, as he was their do-it-all running back/receiver that they would move around to various positions to get him the football.”

Friday’s game will air live on 99.7FM WKSD.