Crawfordsville football saw its season come to an end on Friday in the Class 3A Sectional 29 opener against Speedway. The Athenians fell 48-13 as their 2023 season ends with a 1-9 record.
Unfortunately for the Athenians it what caused the loss was something that was all too familiar all season of falling behind big early. Speedway built a 21-0 lead before Crawfordsville got on the board in the late stages of the first half when Kaden Patton connected with Ethan McLemore on a 16-yard score. What followed however was a two-play scoring drive for Speedway (3-7) who scored to make it 28-7 at halftime. Cville came out and scored again as Patton and McLemore connected for a 20-yard TD.
“We just couldn’t get things going offensively early on,” Cville coach Brad Clark said. “That caused us to get down early and we responded a little bit but couldn’t claw ourselves all the way back.”
The Athenians tallied 174 yards in their season ending loss. 155 of those yards came through the air as Patton was one of 12 CHS seniors to play their final game in an Athenian uniform. McLemore ended the night catching six passes for 79 yards and those two TD’s. The Athenians could muster just 19 total rushing yards on 18 attempts.
Speedway churned out 446 yards with signal caller Conner Moreland throwing for 266 yards and five touchdowns. Jazz Coleman was the Sparkplugs leading rusher with 19 carries for 147 yards.
“We just tackled very poorly and had some chances to make some plays that we just were unable to make,” Clark said. Hat’s off to Speedway for executing well, but if we want to get to where we want to as a program, we have to do some fundamentally things better.”
The record will say that the Athenians finished the year at 1-9. That’s not how Clark and his coaching staff are judging success. There were plenty of bright spots this season for the Athenian football program and Clark knows they did take some steps in the right direction.
“Our kids gave us everything they had this year and there was progress this year,” he said. “I told our team after the game that I think we’re trending in the right direction and it’s because of this senior class. It’s a big building block for what we’re trying to do in the future. I don’t think we played that well tonight but that doesn’t diminish the steps we took forward this season as a program.”
Clark ended his comments by thanking his 12 seniors again for what they’ve done for the program. Along with McLemore and Patton, Ashton Wilson, Jordan Shrout, Brasen Walters, Xander Blackford, Ryan Miller, Uziel Murillo Zuniga, Jacob Russell, Reese Busenbark, Rylee Thornburg, and Ethan Cooper all played their final game for CHS.
“It’s a tremendous group of young men,” Clark concluded. “I’m proud to coach each and every one of these guys and they’re not just good football players and it’s hard to say goodbye. While its the end of their football careers, they still have plenty to accomplish in life like being good husbands and fathers and that’s way more important than what they did on the football field.”
Speedway will play Monrovia in next week’s semi-final after the Bulldogs defeated Purdue Polytechnic.
