{"id":197519,"date":"2025-09-23T20:41:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T01:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=197519"},"modified":"2025-09-23T20:41:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T01:41:45","slug":"crestview-knights-hope-to-keep-rolling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/09\/23\/crestview-knights-hope-to-keep-rolling\/","title":{"rendered":"Crestview Knights hope to keep rolling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

CONVOY — The Crestview Knights are off to a 4-1 (2-0 NWC) start, the program\u2019s best since 2018, with the latest win coming in thrilling fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Friday night, the Knights held off Allen East for a 34-33 victory. It took a goal line stand on a two point conversion attempt with 30 seconds left to preserve the win.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast Friday was a great team win for us,\u201d Crestview head coach Cole Harting said. \u201cWe faced adversity on both sides of the ball but both units overcame that and made key plays that allowed us to come away with the victory. What stands out to me most was that our defense came up with two huge forced fumbles in the third quarter to prevent Allen East from taking the lead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Crestview quarterback Huxley Grose (4) hands off to running back Braxton Leeth (2). Wyatt Richardson\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWhen things aren’t going your way, you need players to step up and make plays, and I felt senior Liam Putman did that for us,\u201d Harting continued. \u201cAllen East was about to score in the third quarter to take the lead when he forced and recovered a fumble on the two yard line. Then on the last two point try he came in and made the stop to seal the win. He’s had a slow start to the season defensively, but played phenomenal last Friday. I hope that was the spark he needed and carries that through the remainder of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting back over the first five games, Harting said he\u2019s most pleased with the offensive line \u2013 Denver McDougall, Jace Wehner, Noah Woodruff, Kale Lichtensteiger and Will Sheets \u2013 a unit that has helped pave the way for Baxton Leeth\u2019s 1,312 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was a unit that I knew would be better from last year, but they have gelled together and have exceeded my expectations thus far,\u201d Harting said. \u201cI look for them to keep improving as we continue into the back half of our season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Knights embark on the second half of the regular season, Harting said an area he\u2019d like to see improvement is tackling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have struggled to tackle consistently throughout the season,\u201d he stated. \u201cIf we want to continue to have success in these last five games, we have to tackle better. We do a great job of getting guys to the football, now we just need to finish the plays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a fun group to coach,\u201d Harting said of his team overall. \u201cThey work hard, they do everything we ask them to do, and they enjoy being around each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCrestview is a solid football team that seems to find a way to win,\u201d Delphos Jefferson head coach Allan Pohlman said. \u201cTheir running back, Leeth, is a phenomenal player and he has the statistics to show it. They run a few plays, but they run them very well. The challenge for us this week is to slow down the running game. We are excited for the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delphos Jefferson (1-4, 0-2 NWC) has endured a difficult schedule to this point. The losses have come to Evergreen, Paulding and Bluffton, three teams with a combined record of 14-1, plus perennial NWC power Columbus Grove. The lone win came against Parkway in Week No. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have experienced some ups and downs on the first half of the season,\u201d Pohlman said. \u201cWe\u2019re a very young team and we have recently experienced injuries to some key starting players which have brought us challenges. In the face of these challenges, we have seen some of our older players show resilience and continue to bring their best every day to practice and games. They are changing the culture of the program and we are going to see these changes make a positive impact on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnother thing that has been a positive for us in the first half is seeing the development of our younger players,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey are making strides and a few of them have been called up to play varsity the past few weeks and they are rising to that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis Jefferson team is different from the past few years,\u201d Harting said.  Despite their record, they have a lot of talented players and very good size at multiple positions. Defensively, they do a great job of tackling and being physical up front. Offensively, they can run the football, but have also emerged as one of the better passing teams in the league.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will have to be very sound in our assignments and make them work the ball down the field,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview won last year\u2019s matchup, 36-0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports CONVOY — The Crestview Knights are off to a 4-1 (2-0 NWC) start, the program\u2019s best since 2018, with the latest win coming in thrilling fashion. Last Friday night, the Knights held off Allen East for a 34-33 victory. It took a goal line stand on a two point conversion attempt with […]<\/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-197519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 00:46:08","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\/197519","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=197519"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197558,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197519\/revisions\/197558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}