{"id":209983,"date":"2026-09-12T00:31:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T05:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=209983"},"modified":"2026-09-12T00:32:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T05:32:00","slug":"balliet-lead-knights-to-seasons-first-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/09\/12\/balliet-lead-knights-to-seasons-first-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Balliet lead Knights to season’s first win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

SPENCERVILLE — A few changes, a balanced offense and tough defense led the Crestview Knights to their first win of the season on Friday, 41-8 over Spencerville in the NWC opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels good to get in the win column and finally execute at a high level and take care of business,\u201d Crestview head coach Cole Harting said. \u201cWe did that really from the opening kick and I\u2019m really proud of how our guys responded this week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Conner Hammons breaks a tackle attempt against Spencerville. Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

An 8-yard touchdown run by Connor Hammons and a missed extra point put Crestview ahead 6-0 at the end of the first quarter, then the Knights tacked on a pair of second quarter scores. The first was by freshman Calin Balliet, who made his first start at quarterback for the Knights and scored on a 33-yard run. Later in the quarter, Hayden Waltmire raced in from 20 yards out and added the two point conversion, which put Crestview ahead 20-0, a score that stood at halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The floodgates opened in the third quarter for the Knights (1-3, 1-0 NWC). Balliet tossed his first varsity touchdown pass, a 28-yarder to Beau Lichtensteiger, followed by a two point conversion by Hammons. Balliet scored on a 2-yard run, then tossed his second touchdown pass of the quarter, a 12-yard strike to Lichtensteighter for a 41-0 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCal got the ball to our playmakers, made a lot of plays with his feet and really put us in a position to get on the scoreboard multiple times,\u201d Harting said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire fourth quarter was played with a continuous clock and Spencerville (0-4, 0-1) scored on a 15-yard run and added the two point conversion. It was the first touchdown of the season by the Bearcats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Balliet finished the game 15-of-18 for 148 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Lichtensteiger caught five passes for 60 yards and two touchdowns, while Beckham Putman had five receptions for 40 yards. Balliet led the Knights in rushing with six carries for 72 yards, while Hammons added 55 yards on seven carries. Waltmire tallied 46 yards on five carries as Crestview finished with a season-best 193 yards rushing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConner and Hayden ran the ball well for us tonight,\u201d Harting said. \u201cIt was nice to get our running game going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All 151 of Spencerville\u2019s yards came on the ground out of the old Wing-T set, as the Bearcats attempted just three passes, completing none with an interception by Evin Brincefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDefensively I thought we played really well,\u201d Harting said. \u201cWe did give up chunk yardage at times but we did a nice job of getting them behind the sticks and forcing them to do some things they didn\u2019t want to do. It\u2019s just so hard to replicate (the Wing-T offense) during the week \u2013 they run it a lot better than our scout team runs it, but it does take a few series to figure out how you can play it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Calin Balliet made his first varsity start at quarterback. Bob Barnes photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Crestview will travel to Fort Loramie on Friday, while Spencerville will host Columbus Grove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scoring summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview       6  14  21   0 \u2013 41<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencerville   0    0    0   8 \u2013   8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

C \u2013 Conner Hammons 8-yard run (kick failed)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

C \u2013 Calin Balliet 33-yard run (two point conversion failed)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C \u2013 Hayden Waltmire 12-yard run (Hayden Waltmire run)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

C \u2013 Calin Balliet 28-yard pass to Beau Lichtensteiger (Conner Hammons run)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C \u2013 Calin Balliet 2-yard run (two point conversion failed)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C \u2013 Calin Balliet 12-yard pass to Beau Lichtensteiger (Bladin Scott kick)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

S \u2013 15-yard run (two point conversion)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Hayden Waltmire tries to escape from a flying tackle attempt. Bob Barnes photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports SPENCERVILLE — A few changes, a balanced offense and tough defense led the Crestview Knights to their first win of the season on Friday, 41-8 over Spencerville in the NWC opener. \u201cIt feels good to get in the win column and finally execute at a high level and take care of business,\u201d […]<\/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-209983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-26 11:44:57","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\/209983","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=209983"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209994,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209983\/revisions\/209994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}