ASHLAND — Connor Morse is used to playing low to the ground.
As a two-time district-qualifying wrestler, the Ashland Crestview senior has spent years perfecting the art of ‘low man wins.’ He’s developed into a 5-foot-9, 170-pound wrecking ball – with legs like tree trunks and balance like a jungle cat.
That’s why Steve Haverdill, who’s coached Morse in wrestling and football over the last four years, was not surprised to see the veteran tailback physically dominate East Knox on Saturday night.
“He’s a hard-nosed kid – I mean, he’s a wrestler for me, too, and the kid doesn’t give up. …” Haverdill said. “He’s got great balance and he understands leverage, and that’s huge for him.”
Morse used his strength, skill and determination to overwhelm East Knox (2-1), racking up four touchdowns and 105 rushing yards on 19 carries. He led the Cougars to a 41-21 win over the Bulldogs, marking the program’s first 3-0 start since 2011.
“We came out and gave everything we’ve got,” Morse told The OH Report in an interview after the game. “We didn’t quit.”
FAST START: Morse and the Cougars did most of their damage in the opening minutes of the game.
After fielding a short East Knox punt on their own 40-yard-line, the Cougars executed seven straight run plays – including six by Morse – and capped off the drive with a 8-yard touchdown scamper from the senior.
Then, after forcing the Bulldogs into another three-and-out, Morse returned the ensuing punt to the East Knox 23 yard-line. He’d take the ball into the end zone five plays later, on a 2-yard touchdown plunge, marking the Cougars’ 12th straight run play for positive yardage.
But the Cougars weren’t done yet. Another errant punt – this time a line drive into the offensive line – gave Crestview the ball at the East Knox 37-yard line. After two more run plays, junior quarterback Hayden Kuhn rolled out and found junior tight end Owen Barker in the corner of the end zone.
The ball was initially up for grabs, but Barker ripped it away from two Bulldog defenders, keeping his feet in-bounds and unleashing a ferocious roar as the whistle blew.
Crestview led 20-0 (one extra point missed) with 10:51 left in the second quarter.
“We preached it – we had to get out early on these guys. We knew that. These guys are very good, and we wanted to get out early and get that lead and build that confidence for our kids. And man, they came out and did it right off the bat,” Haverdill said.
“We don’t want those slow starts, we want that fast start, and when you get up early, good things happen.”
That turned out to be true for Crestview on Saturday. The Cougars struck first, and struck hard – and by the time East Knox found its footing offensively, it was already too late.
“There’s things that we’ve been harping on that we need to fix … and until we got down three scores, we didn’t really buy into fixing those things,” East Knox head coach Cody Reese said.
MOMENTUM KILLERS: East Knox got on the board midway through the second quarter, after a kickoff return from senior Shane Knepp set the Bulldogs up at their own 48 yard-line. Senior quarterback Peyton Lester hit junior wideout Carson Steinmetz up the sideline for 15 yards, then scrambled twice to advance the ball into the red zone.
Sophomore tailback Cole Delaughder finished off the drive with six consecutive runs – his last a 1-yard dive into the end zone, narrowing the gap to 13.
The touchdown brought East Knox’s traveling crowd to life. For the first time all night, the cowbells came out and the bleachers rumbled. But Crestview had no intentions of letting that momentum build.
The Cougars dealt perhaps the biggest blow of the night on their next offensive possession. Starting at their own 39 yard-line, they marched methodically down the field, draining the life from East Knox’s sideline with each bruising run and pin-point pass.
The drive ended the way many others had – with Morse bulldozing his way into the end zone, this time from 10 yards out. The Cougars led 27-7 going into the halftime locker room.
“(He’s a) hard-nosed kid,” Haverdill said of Morse, who averaged 5.5 yards per carry Saturday night. “He just follows his blocks, our line opens up the holes for him – they know how he runs, he knows how they block – and we’re just very comfortable up front and with him. He sees those holes and he’s got that little burst that can get through ‘em.”
East Knox came out of the locker room with a renewed sense of purpose. After recovering a fumbled punt return at the Crestview 28 yard-line, the Bulldogs converted twice on fourth down, with the second time resulting in a 13-yard touchdown strike from Lester to Knepp in the corner of the end zone.
But just like earlier in the game, Crestview had an answer. The Cougars proceeded to march 70 yards down the field on their next offensive possession (including carries of 16 and 27 yards by Morse) and scored on a 2-yard plunge by Morse, widening the margin to 20 once again.
“They’re just mentally strong. Nothing fazes them,” Haverdill said of his team. “They know that if something maybe doesn’t go our way, they reload, they refocus, and we get back at what we’re doing.”
The Cougars tacked on another score early in the fourth quarter, when junior defensive back Adison Reymer recovered a fumble and bolted up the Crestview sideline, 52 yards to the house.
East Knox never surrendered. The Bulldogs drove down the field one final time, marching 64 yards in 13 plays and finishing the drive on a 2-yard touchdown dive from Delaughder.
Reese said he was proud of the way his team finished the game, despite its slow start.
“We did a lot of positive things tonight, we really did. …” Reese said. “That second half, we felt much better with our performance and buying into doing the little things right on a more consistent basis. So that’s what we’re gonna build off of moving forward. That’s all we can do.”
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: Crestview finished the night with 299 total yards, including 199 on the ground. Morse was joined in the backfield by sophomore Wade Bolin, who racked up 44 yards on eight carries.
Kuhn threw 6 of 10 for 100 yards and a touchdown. Four different Cougars caught a pass on Saturday, led by Reymer and senior Gabe Smedley with two apiece.
East Knox, meanwhile, finished with 175 yards, including 92 on the ground. Delaughder carried the ball 22 times for 63 yards, and Lester kept it 10 times for 34 yards.
Lester threw 11 of 22 for 83 yards and a touchdown. Three different Bulldogs caught a pass on Saturday, led by Steinmetz (six catches for 34 yards) and Knepp (four catches for 37 yards).
On offense, Crestview’s rushing attack proved unstoppable most of the night. Morse and Bolin benefited from a strong push up front, which allowed them to penetrate the Bulldog secondary with ease. The offensive line also gave Kuhn time to throw, which allowed the Cougars to move the chains in several-late down situations.
“They’re just big up front, they move bodies, so our run splits weren’t what they needed to be,” Reese said. “We ended up getting that figured out about late-third, early-fourth quarter – you know, a little too little, too late.”
And on defense, the Cougars’ secondary stuck to East Knox’s receivers like glue. This, combined with Crestview’s relentless pass rush, made life difficult for Lester all night long.
“I think our speed (made the difference defensively),” Haverdill said. “We’ve got a lot of speed on that defensive side. But our kids read their keys well, they got off blocks. You know, our DBs were sticking on their receivers really well, and we got a lot of pressure on the quarterback.
“We forced him to get out and get off of his reads. So I think that speed really disrupted a lot of things.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Both teams will begin league play next week.
Crestview will face Western Reserve (3-0) on the road in its Firelands Conference opener, while East Knox will return home to face defending Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference champion Centerburg (2-0).
After beating Northridge by 14 and Utica by 31, East Knox suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday night. Reese hopes the game will serve as a learning experience for his team moving forward.
“We’ve just gotta look at it from a perspective of, ‘What can we do now to grow from this and learn from it, and improve moving forward?’” Reese said.
“We can go one way (or the other) from here. We’re at a fork in the road. So with the character of my team, I surely hope I know what the answer to that will be. But it’s definitely a growing experience going into league play. It’s not gonna get any easier going into next week, so all we can do is look at what we need to improve upon, build on our strengths, and move forward.”
Saturday marked East Knox’s worst loss since Nov. 29, 2019, when the Bulldogs fell to New Middletown Springfield in the Div. VI state semifinals by 28 points. Reese said the loss to Crestview could serve as a turning point for his team, if handled correctly.
“They were good. They’re a good football team. At times, they were kicking our butts – it’s the fact of the matter,” Reese said of Crestview, which won its conference last year.
“So when it comes down to it, in life, when you get knocked down, it’s all about, ‘How are you going to respond? What are you gonna do about it?’ And that’s what we challenged our players to do tonight. … We’ve just gotta build off of our successes and strengthen the errors that we need to improve upon, and we’ll see what happens.”
Crestview, meanwhile, will roll into conference play next weekend undefeated. Haverdill said he viewed Saturday’s game against East Knox as a litmus test for the road ahead.
“They’re a great team. Coach Reese does a nice job. We knew that going in. That’s why we put them on our schedule – we want to play that kind of competition, to see where we’re at going into our tough conference,” Haverdill said.
“We knew we were going to have a battle tonight, and we came out on the upper-hand. Our kids played extremely well, and now we get to go get into our league, where it’s gonna be a battle again every single week, and we got a taste of that already tonight.”
The last time these two teams met, it ended for Crestview in heartbreaking fashion. The Bulldogs edged the Cougars, 21-20, in the first round of the 2019 playoffs. A blocked extra point in the fourth quarter sealed the deal.
Morse smiled when asked by The OH Report if Saturday night’s result felt like revenge.
“It’s not revenge … but it kind of is,” Morse said with a grin. “They’re all nice kids … and they’re a good team and we respect them.”
Now, Crestview will look to build off its 3-0 start as it enters conference play. The goal? Another league title, and another trip to the postseason.
“We always (say) … our non-conference gets us ready for our conference. And we play teams that we feel (are) gonna get us ready and battle-tested. We did that and we came out unscathed,” Haverdill said.
“Now, we’ve gotta go into our season and battle week-in and week-out against teams that – obviously we’re all familiar with one another. So it’s gonna be a battle here, and at the end of it, then it becomes that playoff season. We want to go as far as we possibly can in the playoffs.”
