ASHLAND – Friday night would have been picture-perfect for Ashland and its football faithful at Community Stadium had things ended after one quarter.
Provided pristine weather for an Ohio Cardinal Conference opener during which the school honored local military members, veterans, law enforcement and first responders, the Arrows fired out to a 10-0 lead against New Philadelphia through 12 minutes.
Almost nothing went right after that.
The Quakers’ run game exploded for five touchdowns and nearly 400 yards on 30 carries, shell-shocking an Ashland program that hadn’t lost at home since the 2023 season, 35-10.
The defeat snapped the Arrows’ 16-game home win streak – its longest this century, if not ever – as their only touchdown came on a 34-yard pick-6 from Brayten Stuart on the game’s third play from scrimmage.
“Our kids gave good effort, but we’ve got to execute better and we’ve got to get the ball in the end zone more,” said Ashland head coach Scott Valentine, whose program was tied for sixth in Ohio with an active streak of 15 consecutive games scoring at least 20 points.
“It comes down to playing good team football and I didn’t have us ready for this week,” he said. “(New Philadelphia) came out of a tough non-league schedule and we knew that coming in. We knew they would be good.”
Including Ashland (3-1, 0-1 OCC), the Quakers (1-3, 1-0) now have played four teams with a combined record of 13-2.
Sixth-year New Philadelphia coach Mike Johnson said his team was tested enough to start OCC action well if it stayed the course.
The Quakers came to town with their first three-game regular-season losing streak since 2010, but they proved they were better than their record.
“I don’t want to say we were desperate to find an identity, but it kind of felt like that,” Johnson said. “We had done some things nice in the pass game and a few things in the run game, but we had not been consistent offensively until tonight.
“(The tough non-conference schedule) helped our guys know how to battle,” he said. “We saw how those teams played, and we knew we were capable of doing some big things, too.”
The elixir proved to be the two-headed monster of senior running backs Kolston Fox (15 carries for 205 yards) and C.C. Crowthers (8 carries for 145 yards).
Both of them scored two rushing touchdowns – all four coming on carries of at least 47 yards.
The first bit of flashiness didn’t come until just 1:51 remained in the first half.
Crowthers took a carry up the middle and broke through the attempted tackles of at least seven Ashland defenders before sprinting away for a 63-yard touchdown.
Johnson said it almost felt like that play was a pressure-valve release for an offense that had been on the cusp of big plays plenty of times in the first three weeks of the season.
“I don’t know how far he ran that touchdown for, but I thought he should have been tackled eight times,” Johnson said. “That was kind of the crack in the dam for us.
“Then after that, Kolston Fox did it a couple times and it kind of got contagious.”
Crowthers, who entered the game with just 23 rushing yards on six carries, also ran for a 50-yard score in the fourth quarter. Fox busted off second-half touchdowns of 74 and 47 yards, while New Philly quarterback Parker Rieger (2-of-10 passing for 29 yards) also ran in a touchdown from two yards in the fourth period.
The Quakers had entered the night with just one rushing touchdown through three weeks, but a pile of missed tackles and the speed to outrun Ashland’s defense led to a breakout.
“Those guys are fast and we knew that because we saw it on film,” Valentine said. “When you play somebody like that, you’ve got to take different angles than you would with somebody else.”
On the other side of it, the offense never fully materialized for Ashland.
After Stuart’s interception return, the Arrows and junior quarterback Liam Hubacher did have a promising first offensive drive.
Ashland moved the ball 57 yards on 14 plays on that drive, with Hubacher going 6-of-8 for 42 yards and four first downs.
That set up a 33-yard field goal from Layton Roop and the 10-0 advantage.
But the Arrows never scored again.
A 15-play, 67-yard drive in the second quarter ended in a turnover-on-downs and Ashland couldn’t get much going after that.
Hubacher finished 16-of-29 for 118 yards through the air while sophomore Carson Graber entered at quarterback late in the second quarter and was 6-of-10 for 36 yards and two interceptions overall.
The Ashland ground game – still missing standout senior running back Grayson Baith due to injury – didn’t have anyone clear 25 yards.
The Arrows started the game 6-of-8 on third-down conversions, then went 1-of-8 in those situations the rest of the way.
Senior wide receiver Killian O’Brien (6 catches, 48 yards) was able to clear 100 career receptions and junior Carter Nelson pulled in eight catches for 42 yards, but the AHS offense was shut out for the first time in three years.
“Half the teams in the conference lost their first (OCC) game tonight,” Valentine said, “so we’ve just got to go one at a time from here on out and keep trying to get better.”
Ashland gets another OCC test next week when it visits Dover (2-2, 1-0). The Tornadoes cruised past Lexington (0-4, 0-1) by a 43-7 score on Friday and are a team many think will be in the thick of the league title chase.
New Philadelphia, meanwhile, will host Mansfield Senior (0-4, 0-1), which dropped a 47-7 outcome Friday at West Holmes (3-1, 1-0).
