TERRE HAUTE — Crawfordsville’s 2019 football story fell short Friday night in a 45-18 loss to West Vigo.
Big plays in the first half spelled the difference for the Athenians, as they fall to 0-2 while the Vikings, who received a few votes in the 3A poll this week, moves to 2-0.
“We have to come ready to win,” C’ville coach Kurt Schlicher said. “We only came tonight ready to play. With their skill, we had to be ready, and we weren’t at the start of the game. We got better as the game went on, but we have to come ready to play, and that is on me.”
West Vigo quarterback Dane Andrews was the mad-passer, as the senior threw for 316 yards and seven touchdowns, setting a new school record. He has a gaudy 13 passing scores in the first two weeks of the season.
“He (Andrews) is a big guy with a lot of skill,” Schlicher noted. “He made all those big plays in the first half and that was the difference in the game. We couldn’t bring him down, and even tipped a couple passes, which both ended up as catches.”
Trailing 32-0, the Athenians got their feet under them and played better than even with the Vikings the rest of the way.
“Our second-half effort was good,” Schlicher said. “We produced a couple turnovers and found some confidence, the confidence that was lacking at the start of the game.”
Crawfordsville got on the board with a 6-yard catch by Mikale Willis late in the second quarter from Cale McCarty. McCarty would score the last TD of the night for Crawfordsville on a 2-yard run in the fourth. Noah Allen had the middle touchdown, on a 10-yard run in the fourth.
WEST VIGO BIG PLAYS
The Vikings had eight plays of 20 yards or more, six through the air. Their seven scoring drives never lasted two minutes.
Andrews looked better than some Thursday night quarterbacks who were playing for NFL spots. He threw long, and short. He evaded tackles and found receivers on close patterns.
“We tipped two of his passes and they both got caught,” Schlicher said. “We just couldn’t bring him down, and then we couldn’t bring down the guys he threw to. It was the worst tackling.”
Andrews finished 17-of-23 for 316 yards and the seven TDs. He was sacked three times and was picked once by Andrew Martin, who returned the ball 38 yards and set up a score.
“Andrew had a good game for us tonight,” Schlicher said of the junior, who also grabbed four McCarty passes for 57 yards.
Kaleb Hannahs finished with six catches for 126 yards and one score. Brendon Stroud had three TDs.
CRAWFORDSVILLE SETTLES DOWN
The Athenians found some offense and got their defense working later in the game.
They scored three of the last five TDs and forced two second-half turnovers. They scored three times in the red zone, and ran out of time at the end of the half at the 5-yard line.
McCarty finished 15-of-27 for 180 yards and was intercepted twice. Carson Scott also had four catches, going for 59 yards. Seven different receivers had at least one catch.
Allen ran for 74 yards in the second half, finishing with 98 on 17 carries. All told, Crawfordsville had 124 yards on the ground and 304 the game. They finished with three turnovers and only had four penalties.
“It’s all about confidence,” Schlicher said, “We started finding that after the first quarter. Allen ran hard, McCarty did a nice job at quarterback, but we have to be ready from the first play of the game. From the second quarter on, we saw the team that we see in practice, not the one we saw in the first quarter, and that is all about getting ready.”
MOVING ON
The Vikings are at Greencastle next week, while the Athenians open Sagamore Conference play with a road trip to take on the defending 2A state champions at Western Boone.
“There were some positives tonight,” Schlicher said. “We ran the ball better and our passing game improved as the game went on. This is a long season, with a lot of building to do. We found tonight that we have to be ready to play from the first minute, but when we play with confidence, we can do some good things.”
WEST VIGO 45 CRAWFORDSVILLE 18
CRAWFORDSVILLE 0 6 0 12 - 18
WEST VIGO 12 26 0 7 - 45
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
WV Andrews 18 yd pass to Wilbur (kick fail)
WV Andrews 10 yd pass to Stroud (kick fail)
Second Quarter
WV Andrews 28 yd pass to Stroud (Burson kick)
WV Andrews 25 yd pass to Hannahs (kick fail)
WV Andrews 15 yd pass to Stroud (Burson kick)
CHS McCarty 6 yd pass to Willis (kick fail)
WV Andrews 33 yd pass to Stroud (kick fail)
Fourth Quarter
CHS Allen 10 yd run (kick fail)
WV Andrews17 yd pass to Wilbur ( Burson kick)
CHS McCarty 2 yd run (kick fail)
Team CHS WV
First Downs 16 18
Rushes-Yds 35-124 22-78
Comp-Att-Int 15-27-2 17-23-1
Pass Yds 180 316
Total Yds 304 394
Punts-Avg 6-27.2 3-34.0
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-2
Penalties-Yds 4-30 6-45
Individual Stats
Rushing
CHS: Allen 17-98, , McCarty 14-25, Fields 4 (-1), Pendleton 1-2.
WV: Sholar 6-37, Gabbard 3-44, McCalister 6-20, Lowe 2-3, Andrews 5- (-26).
Passing
CHS: McCarty 15-27-180 2TD
WV Andrews 17-23-316 7TD
Receiving
CHS: Martin 4-57, Scott 4-59, Willis 2-13, Hernandez 1-14, Fields 2-28, Hortin 1-1, Allen 1-8.
WV: Hannahs 6-126, Wilbur 4-75, Stroud 5-91, Lowe 2-24.
