OLIVESBURG – Crestview needed to have a short memory.
In Week 8, the Cougars had a 15-9 lead on St. Paul with less than 30 seconds to play, only to watch the Flyers score a game-winning touchdown in what arguably was the game of the year in the Firelands Conference.
With Western Reserve visiting Scott Bailey Memorial Field on Friday night, the Cougars had to have a fresh start and that’s exactly what they got, forcing five turnovers in a 28-8 victory over the Roughriders.
The win came on the school’s Military Appreciation Night and kept playoff hopes alive for Crestview (4-5, 4-2). It also drove a dagger into the shared FC title hopes that Western Reserve (6-3, 4-2) carried into the night.
“We turned the page (after the St. Paul loss) and we knew this was the time to go,” Cougars head coach Steve Haverdill said. “… We told them, ‘Hey, this is it. We’re going to see how mentally tough you are and we’re going to see what kind of football players you are.’
“They took the challenge and stepped up. A lot of teams would have rolled over (after last week’s loss) and said, ‘Oh, this is it.’ That shows the mental toughness that we have and the players that we have.”
Crestview continued to be a brutal opponent for Western Reserve. The Cougars now have won nine of the last 11 meetings in the rivalry and haven’t allowed the Roughriders to win at CHS since 2012.
Less than seven minutes after kickoff, Crestview had a 14-0 lead behind a pair of Liam Kuhn touchdown passes.
The Roughriders committed fumbles on two of their first three offensive plays. The first one set up a 53-yard Kuhn-to-Karter Goon touchdown pass, coming less than two minutes after Kuhn rolled right and found Gavin Barker for a 20-yard score on the game’s opening drive.
“It was a tough loss last week and we knew we had to be in the right head space coming into this week and that’s what we did,” said Kuhn, who went 9-of-13 for 159 yards through the air in the first half, pushing him over 1,000 passing yards for the season.
“There are always a little nerves (in a must-win game),” he added, “but after that first drive when we got the score, they all went away.”
The Cougars couldn’t capitalize on Western’s second fumble, stalling in the redzone after Logan Friges’ 40-yard scoop-and-scamper off the fumble recovery.
The Riders then cut the margin to 14-8 on the first play of the second quarter when quarterback Hayden Keith plunged in from three yards out.
The dual-threat junior came into the night averaging 206 passing yards and 99 rushing yards per game.
“When he gets those shoulders going, he’s a hoss,” Haverdill said of Keith. “We have a lot of respect for him so we forced him to do some different things defensively to force him out wide (in the run game).”
Any Western momentum from its first scoring drive was stunted on Crestview’s next possession.
The Cougars used an 11-play drive that featured four Kuhn pass completions to march 65 yards and answer right back.
On fourth-and-8 from the WR 9, Kuhn connected with Tyson Ringler for his third passing touchdown of the game. Elyse Belcher’s third of four PAT kicks made it 21-8 with 7:34 left in the first half.
The Roughriders punted after that, Crestview added a 3-yard touchdown run from Barker to make it 28-8, and Cougars junior Dylan Burge then pulled in the first of three Keith interceptions.
Western ended up with what head coach Ty Stevenson said was likely a season-high five turnovers – committing at least one in every quarter.
Joe Kososky picked Keith in the third and Ringler yanked down a one-handed interception at the CHS 1-yard line in the fourth that buried any hope Western might still have had.
Crestview’s offense also was a sparkling 8-of-10 on third-down conversions in the first half.
“Hats off to them, I thought they played really well,” said Stevenson, whose team is headed back to the playoffs for the sixth straight season. “I still like our team, I like who we’ve got. We’ve just had a couple bumps in the road.”
The Roughriders have just one senior on their roster and haven’t played in a game closer than 20 points since Week 3.
“We’re starting a bunch of young guys,” Stevenson said. “We’ve got good kids and we’re excited for them and we just need to continue to grow and mature and get stronger.”
Neither team scored in the second half, as Crestview focused on holding Western at Bay.
Cougars defensive back Nolan Moore had a variety of pass breakups in the game while teammates Goon and Friges got to Keith for a few sacks as well.
Western’s quarterback finished 11-of-21 for 177 yards through the air, with Hayden Dobias totaling 80 yards on two receptions to lead the team.
The Roughriders managed just 107 yards on 29 carries, with no one clearing 40 yards on the ground.
Crestview, meanwhile, got 82 yards on 16 carries from Ayden Reymer, pushing him over 500 rushing yards this season.
Goon had 83 receiving yards on three catches and Ringler had 49 yards on four catches.
“The line gave (Kuhn) time to throw, he was able to find the open receiver and we were catching it,” Haverdill said. “The offense was smooth tonight.”
“Any time we can get those turnovers, get it back into our offense’s hands, control that clock and score like we did tonight,” he added, “we’re very tough to beat.”
The Cougars are on the brink of their fifth straight trip to the playoffs and will round out their regular season next week at home against Mapleton (4-5, 3-3), which was a 47-16 winner Friday over New London (2-7, 0-6) but appears to be out of the playoff picture.
Crestview will be looking to avenge a 28-18 loss against the Mounties a season ago.
Western Reserve travels to face New London in Week 10.
Firelands Conference race
Also in the FC on Friday night, Monroeville (9-0, 6-0) clinched a share of its first league title since 2020 after a 59-0 rout at Plymouth (2-7, 1-5). It was Monroeville’s fifth straight shutout this season.
The Eagles will host St. Paul (5-4, 5-1) in Week 10, when they could win their first outright conference crown since 2002. A loss against the Flyers would mean a shared FC title between the two.
(Photos courtesy of Tom Theodore)
