{"id":171773,"date":"2023-10-25T03:51:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T08:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=171773"},"modified":"2023-10-25T03:53:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T08:53:09","slug":"playoff-preview-knights-vs-senecas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2023\/10\/25\/playoff-preview-knights-vs-senecas\/","title":{"rendered":"Playoff preview: Knights at Senecas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONVOY — For the third time in eight seasons, Crestview will head to Tiffin for playoff football. The No. 15 seed Knights will face a formidable foe in No. 2 seed Calvert, a team ranked No. 6 in Division VII in the final statewide poll of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday\u2019s Region 26 opening round game will be played at Heidelberg College\u2019s Hoernemann Stadium because Calvert\u2019s stadium, Frost-Kalnow Stadium, will be used by Tiffin Columbian that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Friday\u2019s 49-28 loss to Leipsic, it wasn\u2019t guaranteed Crestview (6-4) would qualify for the postseason and head coach Cole Harting admitted there were some anxious moments while waiting for results of other games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bryson Penix (5) has passed for more than 1,700 yards. Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of the projections had us in, but of course there were some nervous moments,\u201d Harting said. \u201cSome of the other teams who were close to us had their scores put in which dropped us below them and then when I saw that Wayne Trace lost to Paulding, I knew it was going to be close. But when the dust started to settle, it all worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, the Knights played against four state ranked teams during the regular season \u2013 McComb (as high as No. 4, Division VII), Bluffton (fifth, Division VI), Columbus Grove (ninth, Division VI) and Leipsic (as high as No. 15, Division VII).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were very fortunate to play a tough schedule and our league has helped prepare us for what lies ahead,\u201d Harting stated. \u201cIn the playoffs, things aren’t always going to go your way, teams who have faced adversity and can handle it will come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryson Penix led all Northwest Conference passers with 188 attempts, 114 completions and 1,722 yards. He tossed 13 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions. Beau Eggleston was the NWC\u2019s leading receiver with 44 receptions for 598 yards and five touchdowns. The Knight ground game is led by Braxton Leeth, who has 162 carries for 967 yards and 16 touchdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHistorically they\u2019re a good football team,\u201d Calvert head coach Steve Reser said. \u201cThey do a nice job of spreading the ball out and the offensive line has nice size and they make it difficult for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Crestview, the Senecas (8-1) dropped their regular season finale, falling to No. 1 seed Hopewell-Loudon 19-7. The Chieftans are ranked third in the state, behind Marion Local and Ansonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Calvert scored on the first play of the game against Hopewell-Loudon when Jacob Rombach sprinted 68 yards for a touchdown, He finished with 115 yards rushing as the Senecas piled up over 200 yards rushing in the game but were kept out of the end zone after the opening play. Calvert threw just 10 passes in the loss. Through 10 games, quarterback Harry Shultz has completed 84-of-139 passes for 1,319 yards, 15 touchdowns and five interceptions. The leading receiver is Billy Clouse, who has 31 receptions for 554 yards and five touchdowns. Romach and Cal Warnement have split rushing duties, with Rombach accounting for 731 yards and eight touchdowns on 87 carries and Warnement logging 768 yards and 11 scores on 98 carries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur strength has been running the ball and with our size up front we try to control the line of scrimmage,\u201d Reser said. \u201cDefensively we\u2019ve been okay\u2026we\u2019ve done a good job of not letting people run up and down the field with big plays on us, but we\u2019ve had drives where we\u2019ve given up 10 or 15 plays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCalvert has had a great season and when you see them on film you know why,\u201d Harting said. \u201cThey are very big up front on both sides of the ball and they have very good athletes to go along with that. They want to run the ball behind their big offensive line, but they are also more than capable of passing that ball as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir quarterback is a great athlete who can make plays with his arm as well as his legs,\u201d Harting added. \u201cWe will have to be sound in our run fits as well as our coverage. Defensively, they do a great job of using their size to stop the run. Their linebackers and backs do a great job in coverage and swarm the football. They do a great job of not giving up big plays. We need to execute our assignments and take care of the football in order to have success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as the previous two playoff meetings between the two teams \u2013 Crestview was the underdog in both games but won both matchups, 54-20 in 2016 and 50-13 in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner of Friday\u2019s game will face the winner between Ayersville and Lima Central Catholic in the regional quarterfinals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor CONVOY — For the third time in eight seasons, Crestview will head to Tiffin for playoff football. The No. 15 seed Knights will face a formidable foe in No. 2 seed Calvert, a team ranked No. 6 in Division VII in the final statewide poll of the season. Friday\u2019s Region 26 opening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 20:17:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171773"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171813,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171773\/revisions\/171813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}