GREENCASTLE – Crawfordsville’s football season hit a snag on the road in their 55-14 opening night loss to Greencastle.
The Athenians couldn’t find the defensive stop anywhere along the trail, as the Tiger Cubs scored on their first five possessions and eight times overall.
“Their pressure gave us problems,” Crawfordsville coach Kurt Schlicher said, “and they controlled the line of scrimmage, and that was the major factor.”
The Tiger Cubs took the opening kickoff and scored, then forced the Athenians to punt and scored again.
After Crawfordsville got a touchdown on a Kaigen Fields 5-yard run and put up the two-point conversion, it was 15-8 and a defensive stop would have spun momentum.
But it never happened.
The Tiger Cubs scored on a four-play and then a two-play drive, both featuring a 40-plus yard play.
Even when the Athenians got into the end zone late in the second quarter when Kaiden Underwood found Mikale Willis with a 5-yard pass, it was 27-14, there was that spark of hope.
But the home team dashed even that with their fifth TD in five first-half possessions, and it was 35-14 at the break.
The second half turned into a fits and spurts affair. Greencastle turned the ball over once when Caleb Belt picked off a pass for the Athenians, but they were unable to capitalize. The home team got another score late in the third and then added two more in the fourth to set the final score.
“We have to execute better offensively in places.” Schlicher said, “and we have to find a way to make a couple of plays on defense. Greencastle was just more physical than we were.
The Tiger Cubs finished with 369 rush yards and 164 pass yards. They converted on third or fourth down seven times.
“We played well,” Creencastle coach Mike Meyer said. “We were a little shaky at the start, and that was because we didn’t get a scrimmage in last week, but our offense found some consistency once we worked out those first game jitters.”
The Carrington twins, quarterback Logan and running back Brach, combined for 243 rush yards and Logan threw for 164 more.
“All three Carrington brothers came up big,” Tiger Cubs coach Mike Meyers said, referring to younger brother Chase who had 35 rush yards, two TD catches and a handful of tackles on defense.
Logan was 11-of-18 passing for a yards and a pair of touchdowns to younger brother Chase. Brach ran for 120 yards and three scores, while Logan ran for 123 of his own yards and ran one in.
Michael LeBlanc also posted 80 rush yards and a TD, as well as adding five kicked extra points.
The Athenians did get some offensive passing production, as the sophomore quarterback Underwood was 19-of-30 passing for 175 yards. He had no picks and the Athenians had no turnovers while the defense produced one, the interception by Belt in the third quarter.Andrew Martin led the receivers with five catches for 51, while Willis had five grabs for 33 yards. Martin was also part of the highlight reel play, as the senior tipped a pass heading his way to Ethan McLemore, who then went 55 yards with the tip. It led to the first Cville TD.
The visitors were unable to run the ball, however, and when five sacks came off the charts, Crawfordsville only ran for six yards. Fields finished with 38 rush yards and the one score.
“I thought we played better than expected after we didn’t get a scrimmage in and with everything else. Both lines controlled the scrimmage line and we had a lot of first-year starters play hard and play well,” Meyer noted.
Underwood was good in our passing game,” Schlicher said. “We have potential but we have to improve. It was game one and it was on the road. We have to put this behind us and get back to work. It’s all about learning from what happened.
Both teams are hopefully back in action next Friday as Greencastle travels to Northview and Crawfordsville will play host to West Vigo.
Greencastle 55, Crawfordsville 14
Crawfordsville 0 14 0 0 — 14
Greencastle 15 19 6 14 — 55
Team Stats CHS GHS
First Downs 9 23
Rush Yards 6 369
Pass Yards 175 164
Total Yards 181 533
Turnovers 0 2
Penalties 5-35 14 -116
Individual Stats
Rushing
Crawfordsville: Fields 7-38, Underwood 6 (-28), Willis 1 (-7), Cardenas 4-11, Team 1 (-8) Totals 19-6, Greencastle, B Carrington 10-120, L. Carrington 13-123, LeBlanc21-80, C.Carrington 2-35, Moore 3-6, Welker 1-5; Totals 50-369.
Passing
Crawfordsville:Underwood 18-30 175, Greencastle:L. Carrington 11-18 164
Receiving
Crawfordsville: Willis5-33, Powell3-13, McLemore 2-56, Martin 5-51, Fields 1 (-1), Hernandez 2-23, Greencastle: C. Carrington 7-121, B. Carrington 1-7, Hutcheson 1-11, George 2-25.
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
GHS L. Carrington 3 yd run (LeBlanc kick) 6:04
GHS B. Carrington 11 yd run (LeBlanc pass to L. Carrington) :20.7
2nd Quarter
CHS Fields 5 yd run (Underwood pass to Willis) 10:03
GHS B. Carrington 51 yd run (run fail) 9:17
GHS L. Carrington 42 yd pass to C. Carrington (kick blocked) 5:21
CHS Underwood 5 yd pass to Willis (pass fail)
GHS L. Carrington 4 yd pass to C. Carrington (LeBlanc kick) :30.3
3rd Quarter
GHS B. Carrington 6 yd run (LeBlanc kick) 2:01
4th Quarter
GHS LeBlanc 2 yd run (LeBlanc kick) 4:53
GHS C. Carrington 31 yd run (LeBlanc kick) :55.1
