The rivalry of the Crestview Cougars vs Plymouth Big Red hasn’t been so much of a rivalry. Ever since 1983, when my mom was a sophomore at Crestview High School, Crestview has owned the rivalry with a record of 30-7 against Plymouth. Coming off of a blowout against South Central behind Kuhn and Hamilton’s record breaking performance, an unsung hero showed up at Plymouth on Friday Night.
The Crestview offense is one of the most balanced high school offenses I have seen in a long time. The big names behind their 5-1 season are Ross Kuhn, Chase Shifflet, and Evan Hamilton who just broke the receiving touchdowns record for a game with 4 against South Central last Friday. Ross Kuhn also decided to put his name in the record books that night, beating his dad to give him the single game passing touchdown record of 5.
Coach Steve Haverdill has praised Offensive Coordinator Coach Keener for balancing the run and pass game so much that teams can’t prepare for what the Cougars have in store on the offensive side of the ball. A player that showed up for the Cougar win on Friday vs Plymouth 33-12 was Connor Morse.
Connor Morse lead the scoring way for the Cougars averaging a touchdown every 2 carries. Morse ended with 36 yards and 3 touchdowns running the ball 6 times. The junior running back said it “definitely felt nice” being the guy Haverdill called for on the goal line situations.
Outside of the one fumble by #10 Ross Kuhn with 49 seconds left in the 1st half, Cougars were all business when they had the possession of the ball. Kuhn finished 8-13 for 107 yards while rushing for 80 yards. Shifflet helped Morse on the ground game by carrying the ball 23 times for 142 yards, averaging an impressive 6.1 yards a run.
Crestview ends the regular season as 5-1 sharing a piece of the Firelands Conference title with the 5-1 St. Paul Flyers and 5-1 Monroeville Eagles, who received their first loss Friday. The Cougars will host Evergreen High School on October 1st for the 1st round of the OHSAA playoffs.
For the Plymouth Big Red, turnovers were a big part on why their offense never got the ball rolling. Instead the ball was literally rolling on the ground Friday Night as they fumbled the ball 2 times.
On their opening possession after a momentum leading pass from Luke Hamman to Caiden Allen. The next play on that drive Shae Sparks fumbled the ball attempting to get a first down. Plymouth was just 9 yards away from being the first team to get points on the board. Crestview answered that turnover with Morse’s first touchdown run of the game. Plymouth then threw a pick 6 on their next possession as Evan Hamilton returned it for 58 yards and Crestview leads the game 13-0.
Plymouth’s Coach Mark Genders said “the last 3 games I feel like we have been starting down 13-0 and we can’t let that happen.” Clayton Miller fumbled the ball late in the 4th quarter but at that time it was too late for Plymouth to make a comeback.
Plymouth tallied 277 total yards with 172 rushing yards, sharing the carries amongst 6 Vikings with sophomore Shae Sparks leading the way with 90 yards on 12 carries. Plymouth falls to 3-3 but holds the 13 seed and will host their first playoff game against David Anderson High School on October 9th.
Photo credits to Jake Furr
Crev’s Corner 