Tag: Liam Putman

Knights Defense Pitches a Shutout, in Conference Win.

It was Military Appreciation Night in Convoy, Ohio, on a warm, early fall evening.

The Crestview Knights took the field, donning special uniforms, after pregame ceremonies thanking local community members, for their service to our great country.

The Delphos Jefferson Wildcats made the short trip west on US-30, looking to pick up their first conference win of the season.

On the first snap of the game, the Wildcats fumbled the football but managed to recover. After picking up a first down, they would get nothing. Jefferson converted a fake punt, but a delay of game penalty and another fumble for an eighteen-yard loss, would stall their opening drive.

The Knights would not convert their own 4th and 4, on their first possession of the game. Knights TE/DE Liam Putman would get his 1st of 7 sacks (new school record) on second down, forcing the Wildcats into a 3rd and 16.

Putman would have 3rd down catches of 11 and 8 yards on the ensuing possession for the Knights.

Crestview would finally get on the board, with a 59-yard touchdown run by quarterback Huxley Grose, at the 1:17 mark of the game of the first quarter. That would be it for the quarter as well.

The Wildcats would once again struggle with the snap. This time on a 4th and 3 punt. The high snap would force the punter into an incomplete pass, giving the Knights the football at the 27-yard line. Crestview wouldn’t do anything with the ball on this drive, and ended up missing a 45 yard field goal attempt.

Another bad snap on 2nd down, making it a 3rd and 9. The Wildcats would convert on a big 48-yard pass, all the way down to the 38-yard line. After a false start penalty, Jefferson would call a timeout, with 8:12 left in the half.

The theme continued, as the 2nd bad snap of the drive, made it 3rd and 35 for Jefferson. Pressure by the Knights defense forced a bad pass, and #0 Hayden Perrott would pick it off, and take the interception back 50 yards for a touchdown. Made it a 14-0 game with 7:00 minutes left.

A Jefferson false start penalty on 2nd down and Crestview would get a sack by #66 OT/DE Will Sheets would end the drive.

Knights #15 WR/DB Braxtyn Couts would get their 2nd interception of the game.

#4 QB Huxley Grose would connect with #15 Braxtyn Couts for a 25-yard touchdown pass. PAT was good, and that would end the scoring for the first half, with the Knights leading 21-0.

Special shoutout to Crestview Knights #13 WR/DB Bowen Ayers, who returned my 50/50 tickets, that fell out of my pocket.

The Knights would lose a yard on the first play of the half, then a holding call would push the ball back to the 17-yard line. They would be forced to punt from deep in their territory.

The Knights would recover a fumble.

#2 HB/DB Braxton Leeth would finally get his first good run of the game, going 13 yards. A Crestview false start would make it 1st and 15 on the 35.

Leeth would pop off back-to-back 18 yard runs and score his first touchdown of the game. PAT good making it 28-0 with 7:55 left in the 3rd.

DEs Liam Putman and Will Sheets would get a big 3rd down sack.

HB Braxton Leeth would run for 9 yards on first down.

QB Huxley Grose would lose 2 yards, making it 3rd and 3 from the 36.

Leeth would run for 37 yards and his 2nd touchdown of the game.

The PAT was good, making it a 35-0 Crestview lead.

That would be the final scoring play of the game.

QB Huxley Grose finished the game 12 of 21, for 102 yards, and 1 TD.

HB Braxton Leeth had 17 carries, for 117 yards, with 2 TDs.

TE Liam Putman had 4 catches, for 32 yards.

Putman also led the team in tackles and sacks with 7, to become the 1st ever allsportsfan.com Player of the Game.

I spoke to Crestview Knights Head Coach Cole Harting on the sideline after the game.

I asked him what were the positives in another conference win?

“I thought our defense played lights out. Liam Putman had five, six, or seven sacks, and that was huge for us. Our defense has struggled at times this season, and to come out and with this type of dominate performance was just amazing to watch. We struggled on offense tonight and our defense picked us up.

I asked him about Liam Putmans’ dominate game, especially his catches on 3rd down. If that was something they worked on in practice this week.

“We always work on third downs, and we really work on our plays, and we really run and focus on those plays. We executed very well tonight on those plays.

The Knights were unstoppable off the edge in the game. Getting pressure on Jefferson all game long and forcing scrambles and not letting him get comfortable. I asked him about the defensive performance off the edge.

“Our guys up front played phenomenal tonight. They made it tough for their quarterback. We didn’t give him time and that led to a couple of interceptions which is pretty awesome.”

The Knights are now 5-1 overall, and 3-0 in the Northwest Conference. They travel to Bluffton next Friday Night to play the Pirates. Game starts at 7:00 PM (EST).

– by Sean McKenzie

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Stats courtesy of…..Chris Lutz.

September 27, 2025
Summer High School Football Crestview vs Antwerp Scrimmage.

As summer break for kids starts coming to a close, fall high school sports season is about to kickoff.

After a few weeks of those long, hot, dog day of summer practices against each other, teams are finally seeing how they stack up against other local area squads.

On late Friday afternoon, I made the trip up US-49 (getting lost thanks to those detour signs), to Antwerp, Ohio to watch the Crestview Knights take on the Antwerp Archers.

I wasn’t the only person who made the trip. I counted 69 parents and fellow students (including 5 members of the girls’ volleyball team), who all came out to support the football Knights.

The starters for both teams opened the scrimmage on both sides of the ball. On the first play of the scrimmage, Antwerp jumped offsides. That was something they unfortunately struggled with often on this day.

The 3rd offensive play, saw Knights HB Braxton Leetch score a TD on a long run over the right side.

On the 2nd drive, the Knights had back-to-back high snaps. This is something they’re struggling with, as they search for a new center. QB Huxley Grose threw a TD the next play.

Crestview started the third offensive drive by lining up offsides. That was a very brief setback, as the very next play, HB Braxton Leeth scored his second TD. This time a reception out of the backfield.

Leeth would score not one, not two, not even three, but four TDs in this scrimmage, as well as deliver a big hit, that forced an incompletion on Antwerp’s second offensive drive.

Knights WR/DB Braxtyn Couts would also get on the board with a TD.

The starters for the Knights dominated the Archers on both sides of the ball.

The Archers answered back though once the backups got in, with a great TD catch by #10 Kane Hines, and #12 Zack Salas bulldozing his way into the endzone.

To end the scrimmage, the starters played a full 12-minute quarter.

#8 Cash Hammons had a pick-6 for the Knights defense, and the afore mentioned #2 Braxton Leeth, as well as, #7 Liam Putman had scores.

I got a brief interview with Knights head coach Cole Harting afterwards.

“Obviously, I thought we did a lot of good things. We got a lot of kids’ reps tonight. Offensively, we found some stuff that could work. They played well and really executed well at times. We just let our athletes be athletes.”

“On the defensive side of the ball, we did a really good job of rotating guys in. They had a couple of long drives, but we did a good job of rotating guys in and out. There’s obviously things to fix, but you know, we’ll go back and watch film and see what we can improve on.”

He finished up the interview saying “I told the guys, I want us to be playing our best football Week 10. So, looking forward to watching the tape and seeing what we can fix for next week.”

The Crestview Knights will scrimmage against the Van Wert Cougars next Friday afternoon, at 6:00 PM (EST) in Convoy.

– by Sean McKenzie

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August 9, 2025
Crestview Knights Football Season Preview.

The small town of Convoy, Ohio is just 10 minutes from the Ohio/Indiana border in Van Wert County. With a population of only 1,002 (according to the 2024 census) it’s small town Americana. Mail is not delivered here. Instead, everyone in town is given a PO Box.

It has a flower shop “The Secret Garden Floral and Gifts”, run by Jason and Nate. A coffee shop “The Rebel Bean” run by Jennifer, Amy, and Ashley; and ice cream shop “Convoy Tastee Freeze”, share the same building. My daughter is in love with Daily Dose drinks. Cheers and Gears Bar and Grill has great mozzarella sticks. that I just smash on.

People are friendly, chatty, and always say “hello” when walking around and in the shops and churches.

There’s only one stoplight in the whole town, and it’s at the school.

It is home to the Crestview Knights.

3rd year head coach Cole Harting (in white shirt above) leads a team that returns 12 letter winners in total. 8 starters return on offense (mostly underclassmen) and 4 on defense.

I watched the team practice for 4 days and sat down with the head coach who granted me an interview.

With 2 of their first 3 games against their rivals, my first question was how he’ll keep his players focused on the games with all the trash talking that comes with these types of games?

“I’m sure there is more than I know about, but for the most part, you know, the kids are just interested in playing, and they want to go out there and compete. And you know the biggest thing for us is we just want to get better you know. From game to game. So, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, whether it’s’ a rival or not.”

Between those two games, in Week 2, Crestview plays the 4-time defending state champions and a team on a 64-game winning streak, in the Marion Local Flyers in their home opener.

I asked Coach how he and the staff will scheme to match such a powerhouse school with personnel.

“We’re going to run our stuff. Obviously, we’ll scout them. We’ll probably get to their first game and then maybe a scrimmage or so. We’ll tackle them like we do everybody else. See what they run, and we’ll see what we can do to stop them. I’m actually really excited for that game. It’s going to be a great game. They are the gold standard. If we want to get where we want to get to, I think it’s important to play teams like that.”

Something that I noticed in my 4 days of watching them at practice was that they were rotating a lot of players at the center position. So, I asked him about that.

“Well, right now we’re returning 4 of our 5 starting linemen from last year. The one that was lost was actually our starting center. So right now, we’re just trying some different guys in that spot and see who can execute most consistently for us there.”

Senior TE/DE #7 Liam Putman led the team in receptions and sacks last season. I asked Coach Harting, how he plans on keeping him fresh throughout the season.

“You know, some kids just have the ability to play the whole game. We try our best to rotate guys in and out depending on certain circumstances. The biggest thing is keeping him fresh during the week. We don’t want to put too much on our two-way players throughout the week.

The Knights start the final month of the regular season with back-to-back road games, against Bluffton and Columbus Grove. Two teams that made deep playoff runs last season.

“You know, with high school kids the biggest thing is you go on these road trips, and once that bus leaves, the guys are focusing and thinking about the task at hand. Our kids aren’t messing around on the bus. They should be focused, locked in, preparing themselves for what’s ahead of them.” Coach Harting replied when I asked him about those games.

The 2024 Crestview Knights season was snake bitten by injuries. That led to a lot of young players getting pressed action. I asked Coach how that experience last season, benefited them coming into this season.

“Anytime you have injuries, that’s a huge blow to your team. And in the moment, it’s tough to overcome. But when you kind of step back a little bit, it’s kind of a nice thing sometimes, where it gives kids opportunities to grow. So last year, obviously dealing with all those injuries, that was difficult, but it did give a lot of our kids chances to play.”

(Starting QB Huxley Grose, was forced into action last season due to injury. Started 6 games as a junior. He had a ROCKET side arm throw on Day 4, into a tight window.)

Coach brought up the injury to star HB/DB #2 Braxton Leeth in particular.

“Braxton Leeth got hurt last year, which forced us to play one of our freshmen at safety, Cash Hammons. And you know, he had his moments where he struggled a little bit, but after he got a few games under his belt, he started playing really well. Now as a sophomore, he has almost a full season of experience, you know, has paid huge dividends.”

Speaking of Braxton, he was absolutely unstoppable on offense and defense. In my 4 days of watching practice, he was only stopped 2 times, and that was when he and Liam went head-to-head on a tackling drill. They split the 4 reps that I saw 2-2.

Listed at 6’0″ and 185 lbs. He certainly looks the part. He’s one of the fastest players on the field, and powerful enough to break the tackles of defensive lineman who weigh in at 235, 265, 230, and 245. There were multiple times where he was breaking through double and triple tackles.

As a sophomore, Braxton rushed for over 1,200 yards. Even though he missed 4 games last season, he still rushed for over 600 yards and 10 touchdowns.

I asked Coach Harting if another 1,200 yard and double-digit touchdown season, is the bar for Braxton.

“He holds himself to such a high standard. He thinks that he’s always going to get that. Every time he touches the ball, he thinks he’s going to score a touchdown. He refuses to be tackled. He’s got the speed, agility, and the vision. On your team, you have guys at different levels, and he’s just one of those guys. He’s all in when it comes to football. It shows in his work ethic. He’s been tremendous.”

He continued to sing his praises.

“When I got this job, I mean he never missed. He’s always here. He’s always looking to get better. The injuries last year were unfortunate, but he’s a tough kid and he battled back. I fully expect him to have a great year for us.”

(High point catch in the corner of the endzone on Day 4 of practice.)

To end my one-on-one interview with Coach Harting; I asked him what his and the coaching staff’s expectations are for the 2025 season.

“Our expectations are we’re going to continue to get better every single day. We’re going to chase excellence, and we’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in positions to win games. There are a lot of great matchups throughout the season. We’re going to prepare every week, and we’re going to continue to grow week to week to week and be playing our best football come the weekend.”

Something I noticed in practice was just how well the entire coaching staff interacted with the players. Especially, when the players had questions about the schemes, proper forms, and lining up. They were eagerly asking questions and whether it was OL Coach Kory Lichtensteiger or STC/Linebackers Coach Dylan Hicks, or any of them. The coaches were clear and hands on with instruction. It was great to see.

During my 4 days interacting with the team, I also interacted with coaches from other sports. I went to the Crestview “Meet the Teams” Assembly, for the fall sports teams, held in the HS/MS gym. It was completely full. Not a seat to be found. It was a pleasure to see the community come out to support not just the football team, but the wrestling, cross country, cheer, golf, soccer, and the volleyball team. The volleyball team, led by Coach Tammy Gregory, has finished first in the conference the last 3 straight seasons, as well as deep playoff runs in those seasons.

The Knights have a deep and rich history in fall high school sports. I look forward to travelling and seeing them as often as possible this year.

– by Sean McKenzie

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Follow me on X (Twitter) @JoeAmerican6771 and @allsportsfancom.

Information packet provided to me, courtesy of……Head Coach Cole Harting.

August 6, 2025