Season in review: ’20 Crestview Knights

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

CONVOY — It almost certainly will go down as the most unique season in Crestview football history.

The 2020 Knights opened the season with a 35-14 loss to Spencerville, but head coach Jared Owens said that loss only served to motivate his team.

“I think the Monday after our week one loss told me what I needed to know about our team,” Crestview head coach Jared Owens said. “We came back to work with a positive attitude hungry to improve. I knew from that point forward that this team had what it took to get better each day we had the opportunity.” 

Back-to-back wins over Paulding (38-14) and Delphos Jefferson (42-6) followed and Week No. 4 was supposed to be the opening game of the Northwest Conference tournament, but the game against Bluffton was canceled hours before kickoff because of COVID-19 concerns on the Bluffton side. 

The following week, Crestview put up a big fight in the NWC semifinals before losing 38-31 to eventual champion Columbus Grove, but the Knights came back and won the third place game in Week No. 6, defeating Spencerville 27-16, avenging the loss in the season opener. 

As the No. 13 seed in Division VII Region 26, Crestview crushed North Baltimore 69-7 in the playoff opener, then turned a 14-13 halftime lead into a 50-13 rout of No. 5 seed Tiffin Calvert the following Saturday afternoon.

“My favorite moment from the season was our response in the second half against Calvert,” Owens said. “The players took the adjustments we wanted to make on both sides of the ball and executed them almost flawlessly.”

What followed that was a third game against Spencerville, the first time in OHSAA history that two Ohio high school football teams met three times in a single season. In that game, Spencerville forged a 28-28 tie, but the Knights scored the final 13 points and won 41-28, setting up a regional semifinal matchup against No. 1 seed Lima Central Catholic. 

Unfortunately for Crestview, the Thunderbirds raced out to a 28-0 first quarter lead and never really looked back on the way to a 40-14 win, which ended Crestview’s season at 6-3.

“I told this group on Friday after the game that the thing I will always remember about them is how much they improved throughout their careers,” Owens shared. “They are a group that was never going to get outworked by anyone and to me, that is about the best compliment anyone could get as a player.”

During the 6-3 season, the Knights rode the legs of senior running backs Brody Brecht (176 carries, 1630 yards, 19 touchdowns) and Logan Gerardot (111-999, 12 TDs). Gerardot also finished as the team’s leading receiver with 14 receptions for 256 yards and a touchdown. Rontae Jackson (5-152, 2 TDs) and Brecht (5-45) were tied for second in catches.

Along with 279 yards rushing and five touchdowns, quarterback JJ Ward completed 33-of-83 passes for 557 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.

On defense, Trevor Barton led the Knights with 48 tackles and four sacks, followed by Gerardot (43 tackles) and Brecht (39 tackles) while Ayden Lichtensteiger had a team-high two interceptions.

The Lima Central Catholic loss marked the end for nine seniors on the squad – Jordan Thomas, Dalton Castle, Brecht, Gerardot, Brayden Moellering, JT Mills, Carson Kreischer, Trever Sheets and Ian Bailey.

Looking back at the season as a whole, Owens said in some ways, it could be termed as stressful.

“This has been by far the most difficult season I have been apart of. It didn’t have anything to do with wins or losses,” Owens explained. “There were just a bunch of challenges that we didn’t have a lot of control over and that was difficult, but in the end, I am happy we could play and our kids could experience their 2020 football season.”

When the 2021 Knights take the field, they’ll do so with a different group of seniors and they’ll see a slightly different NWC with the departure and the introduction of Leipsic as a new conference member.

“I haven’t thought too much about next year yet,” Owens said. “I hope for all involved that things are normal again.”