The Crestview Knights varsity team started the 2025 high school football season against rival Parkway, with a big 62-41 to beat the Panthers for the 5th straight season.
From the opening drive, it was the Braxton Leeth show in Rockford, Ohio.
The 6’0″, 185 lbs HB/DB, ran by, ran around, and ran through, the Panthers defense, for new school records of 408 yards rushing and scored 7 touchdowns.
He continues to display the power to break through arms tackles, and the speed to take it to the house from anywhere on the field.
I spoke to Knights Varsity Head Coach Cole Harting today.
“Defensively we missed some tackles, so we gotta clean that up. We had a few penalties, which isn’t too bad for a first game. We got some things to work on in practice and get ready for next week.”
The Knights (1-0) varsity football team will play the 4-time defending state champion Marion Local Flyers (1-0), at home, next Friday night at 7:00 PM.
On Saturday morning, the Crestview Knights JV team hosted the Parkway Panthers.
The Panthers started the game on offense. The Knights got a big sack on the third play of the game, forcing a punt. Crestview offense stalled out, after long completion from quarterback #9 Cooper Miller to wide receiver #11 Logan Matson.
Knights TE/DL #84 Beckham Putman would put Crestview on the board first, with a scoop and score fumble recovery (2 pt attempt failed).
The Knights struggled in the first quarter with penalties. They had three offsides calls against them, including one that gave the Panthers a first down.
In the second quarter, the Knights would get back on the board when an bad snap sailed high. RB/LB #25 Noah Mosier would scoop and score, for the defense to get their second touchdown of the half. (The 2 pt attempt would be successful), to make it a 14-0 game. Crestview would take that lead into halftime.
The Knights would start the second half on offense HB/LB #32 Trenton Osborn slashed and gashed his way to a big run on the first play. On fourth down the Knights would commit another penalty. Illegal motion on 4th and 8. Parkway would get the stop on the next play.
Knights QB #9 Cooper Miller was shaken up on a big hit the following drive and would be done for the rest of the game.
Parkway would finally get on the scoreboard with a touchdown pass (2 pt attempt failed), to make it a 14-6 game in the 3rd quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Knights would attempt a fake punt on a fourth down, which the Panthers snuffed out easily.
The Knights would force a fumble (I missed the number), on a fourth down attempt by Parkway.
Crestview would finish the scoring for the day, with a trick play touchdown. Knights HB/LB Noah Mosier would score again. Breaking a tackle and taking it the house (2 pt attempt successful), making it a 22-6 game.
It was a sloppy game by the Knights. They struggled with penalties, and QB Cooper Miller threw 2 interceptions before leaving the game with injury.
The Knights JV team (1-0) will travel down 49-S to take on the Fort Recovery Indians (unknown at press time), next Saturday morning at 10:00 AM.
– by Sean McKenzie
First 3 photos courtesy of…..Wyatt Photograhy.
Number information courtesy of…..Crestview head coach Cole Hardesty media packet.
The Crestview Lady Knights opened their 2025 season at home against the New Bremen Cardinals.
Two programs that are no strangers to state championships and deep playoff runs.
Both teams also starting a lot of underclassmen on their varsity teams.
The Cardinals only have two seniors, in #4 Mary Rindler and #9 Allie Bornhorst with 9 girls either freshmen or sophomores.
The Lady Knights only sport three seniors, #7 Emily Lichtle, #10 Lillie Best, and #21 Haley McCoy, with 7 girls being underclassmen.
The Lady Knights lost the 1st set 25-19 to the visitors. Coach Gregory called a timeout in the 2nd set trailing 10-3. It got some momentum for the home team started.
Both teams played a long volley back and forth in the 2nd set, which was won by Crestview to make it a 15-11 game. That would be the best for them in that set, as they eventually lost 25-16.
Down 2 sets to 0, the Lady Knights were hoping to recapture some of the magic they displayed against the Paulding Panthers on Tuesday. They went down 2-0, then came back to win 3 straight sets to bring home the victory.
The Cardinals weren’t going to make it easy on them, scoring the first 5 points of the set, before Crestview got on the board, and took 3 straight points in return.
The Knights student section was up and loud, cheering on the Lady Knights in the 3rd set.
It just wasn’t meant to be for the young Lady Knights on this night. Every time they got a bit of momentum, the Cardinals were quick to shut it down.
They fell in the 3rd and final set 25-17.
The Knights were led by #3 Kaci Gregory, who finished the game with 14/16 serving with 3 aces, as well as 8 digs and 6 kills.
I first caught up with New Bremen Cardinals head coach Diana Kramer.
It was the 2nd straight road win for the Cardinals; I asked her how she feels about the early season road wins and some positives coming out of it.
“We’re in the gym a lot. There’s a lot of inexperience, a lot of young girls here. You got to trust your preparation and trust what you got to do in moments like this. The blockers did a good job controlling the net, which frustrated their hitters. I felt like outside of only one or two rotations; we were in control of most of the match.”
She praised Coach Gregory, “With a great coach like Tammy on the sidelines, you have to bring your best.”
I spoke to Knights head coach Tammy Gregory shortly after the game, as well.
I asked her what were some positives the team could take away from the loss?
“Having good teams like this come here and compete is only going to teach our younger girls. We would get down, and we had to fight much harder to come back, because we were always down like five points. We had to waste a lot of energy to come back from that.”
I brought up that there seemed to be a lot of miscommunications during the game.
“We did just talk about that. I think we’ll have to take that with a more serious practice.”
The Lady Knights (1-1) are back in action at home against the Coldwater Cavaliers, on Tuesday August 26th, at 7:00 PM.
– by Sean McKenzie
Stats courtesy of…..Crestview head coach Tammy Gregory.
Van Wert County, Ohio is a rural county with strong agricultural roots. Only 1% of the counties 410 square miles has been deemed “urban”. The Lincoln Highway Byway is a beautiful driving route, with many land markers and stops along the way. America’s very first free public county library was built here (Brumback Library). The Van Wert County courthouse, built in 1876, is a Gothic and Romanesque architectural marvel. I’ve visited multiple times.
There is strong community support and spirit in the towns that dot the landscape. People greet each other by name. Know your family and help neighbors out in times of need.
There’s only one thing that could divide families, and put friendships on hold for a few hours, and that is high school football.
The two predominate football teams in Van Wert County are the Van Wert Cougars.
and the Crestview Knights.
Parents and children are often related to someone from the other team. Friendships formed from youth sports, church events, pancake breakfasts, and other community events.
So for that brief moment in time, when the helmets are put on. The chin straps are snapped on, and pads start popping, the trash talking starts. On this hot and clear, but beautiful summer evening, the friendly chirping was aplenty.
Knight Pride vs Cougar Pride.
The 2025 football scrimmage game had both teams looking to clean some things up, lingering over from summer practice. Both teams hoping that this would be the start, of a return to the playoffs.
The varsity starters played an entire first half of football.
On the first play, Knights HB Braxton Leeth busted through the middle for a 15-yard run. but it was to be short lived, as the Knights fumbled the football on the very next play.
The Cougars couldn’t capitalize, as the Knights stopped them on a 4th down attempt.
Van Wert QB #15, sophomore Zach Crummey missed a throw, to a wide-open receiver, that would’ve been a touchdown on Van Wert’s fourth offensive drive.
The defenses ruled, and after the first quarter of play, it was a 0-0 game.
Finally, with 1:31 left to play in the half; the Cougars put the first points up on the board, when QB Zach Crummey scored on a quarterback draw from the 1-yard line, on a 3rd and 1.
The lead would be short lived for the visiting Van Wert Cougars as a mere 25 seconds later, the Crestview Knights would tie the game when senior QB #4 Huxley Grose connected on deep pass to senior WR #5 Hayden Perrott, with 1:06 left on the clock.
That would be it for the varsity football teams from both schools. Ending up in a 7-7 tie at the end of the half.
The Knights outgained the Cougars in total yards 162 to 151. Both teams struggled on 3rd downs, going a combined 2 for 11.
Knights QB Huxley Grose finished the half completing 5/9 for 89 yards.
His counterpart Cougars QB Zach Crummey 9/14 for 60 yards.
I spoke with Crestview head coach Cole Harting first after the game.
“I thought both teams played really hard. Both offenses were able to move the ball at times. We had a couple penalties here and there, so we got to clean that up. We got to get our snap game a little better, we had some bad snaps, but we should be OK. Braxton had a really nice game. He had a couple tough runs, and a couple deep runs. Obviously, Hayden Perrott had a nice game, and I thought Huxley played really nice.”
I asked him specifically about the Knights defensive line getting lots of pressure on Cougars QB Crummey, mostly on the edge.
“We have a little bit more experience on the edges there, and our kids are pretty athletic, so that bodes well for us on the perimeter.”
Van Wert head coach Keith Recker has been leading the Cougars for 14 seasons, and led them to a state championship in 2020. I caught up with him after the game.
“Defensively we played well. We challenged them to really stop the run. They ran all over us last year with the same running back and a lot of the same offensive line. So, we challenged our linebackers to fill and keep their shoulders square. We did a really nice job against that.”
I asked Coach Recker about #11 sophomore WR/DB Xavier Kelly, who was a 2024 Honorable Mention as a freshman.
“Yeah, X does a great job and he’s only a sophomore. He can play a lot of different positions. We put him in at running back today because he can get a lot of touches that way.”
Van Wert’s starting QB Zach Crummey is a big kid, at 6’6″. He showed some scrambling ability for a kid his size. I asked Coach Recker about his ability to move around.
“Unfortunately, our pass pro broke down quite a bit and he had to be elusive, but I thought he showed that really well. We want to keep him healthy through the scrimmage and but he’s tough and he’ll do whatever he needs to when we get into the game.”
At the end of the day, there were hugs and handshakes by all. Players, coaches, and even the fans who came out to support their kids and teams. They’ll be seeing each other again. I know both teams will be represented at the Wren Homecoming Pie Eating Contest, in Wren, Ohio on Saturday at 2:15 PM.
I wonder if it will be as competitive as last night’s game.
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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As we come up on the midpoint of the summer calendar, we start counting down the days until the first college football game of the new season. 66 days by the way, as of this writing.
The first few weeks is mostly non-conference games.
There are always big games, like this year we have Texas traveling to Columbus to take on Ohio State.
In a big surprise for us college football fans, an SEC team is actually traveling, to play a big non-conference game at another school. They typically always, always make them a neutral site game, which is garbage for the sport.
LSU is heading northeast to play the Clemson Tigers, in Memorial Stadium.
Upsets always happen. Teams that have no business “staying close” to a powerhouse, almost beat them.
Example of that happened last season, as the Bowling Green Falcons from the MAC, almost beat Penn State (Big Ten) and Texas A&M (SEC). Losing both games ONLY by a combined 13 points.
So, without further ado, here are 5 non-conference games, that you should watch and pay attention to (in no particular order).
Toledo Rockets (MAC) at Kentucky Wildcats (SEC). August 30th. Game starts at 12:45 PM (EST) on SEC Network.
Kentucky is coming off a 4-8 season and ended HC Mark Stoops 8-season bowl streak. They are replacing starters at every skill position on offense and most positions on defense. Stoops hit the transfer portal hard, and got a lot of new players from G5 schools. Stoops hasn’t had consecutive losing seasons since 2015.
Toledo returns their starting QB Tucker Gleason, speedy WR Junior Vandeross, and 3 starting offensive lineman. HB Chip Trayanum transferred in from Kentucky and Ohio State. They also return their entire secondary from last season.
I am officially calling the upset in this one. The Rockets travel the 284 miles down I-75, and get their 2nd straight upset over an SEC opponent.
Auburn Tigers (SEC) at Baylor Bears (Big-12). August 29th. Game starts at 8:00 PM (EST) on FOX.
This game is getting a bit of buzz, especially from Josh Pate (check him out on YouTube. I listen daily). and rightfully so.
While neither team is going to win their conference, this game is going to shape their individual seasons.
Auburn has a new starter behind center in transfer QB Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma), and a very good WR corps, with top WR transfer Eric Singleton Jr (Georgia Tech), and returning starters Cam Coleman and Malcolm Simmons. Defensive Coordinator DJ Durkins has DE Keldric Faulk (7 sacks) returning and 4 returning starters in the secondary. They only had 13 total takeaways though, so he’ll hope that number improves.
Baylor returns almost their entire offense from last season, led by QB Sawyer Robertson, was tied for the 19th ranked scoring offense in the country last season. On defense, the Bears hit the transfer portal HARD. Basically, shopping at the Big-10 store, bringing in players from Ohio State, Northwestern, and Oregon to make improvements on one of the worst defenses in the Big-12.
This game is going to be a shootout, and maybe even go into OT…..or 5.
West Virginia Mountaineers (Big-12) at Ohio Bobcats (MAC). September 6th. Game starts at 4:00 PM (EST) on ESPNU.
HC Rich Rodriguez is back in Morgantown for his 2nd stint, where he was 60-26 in 7 years the first time around. He has his work cut out for him, as he’s replacing all but 2 starters on offense. Good news is that 6 players followed Rich-Rod from Jacksonville State on this side of the ball. Bad news is that he’s replacing every single starter on defense. He’s really hoping that transfer DE Jimmori Robinson, who was C-USA DPOTY (10.5 sacks at UTSA) will lead the way.
QB Parker Navarro threw for 2,423 yards and ran for another 1,054 yards, and he returns for the Bobcats. 2 starting WRs and their starting TE also return, to lead a dangerous offense. The defense got absolutely smashed in the transfer portal. Only 3 starters return, and they’re all in the secondary.
It’s only 149 miles between these 2 schools; it’s not like they’re strangers. Expect some trash talk and points on the board in this one.
Boise State Broncos (Mountain West) at Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Independent). October 4th. Game starts at 3:30 PM (EST) on NBC and Peacock.
Notre Dame has arguably the best running back in American returning in Jeremiyah Love. They always have a good/great offensive line. The offense will go through the running game. On defense they have an excellent pair of CBs in Christian Gray and Leonard (trial by fire last season for Moore after Morrison went down). Though no starters return on the defensive line, they all played significant snaps last season, whether through rest or injury.
Yes, the Broncos lost Heisman Trophy runner-up Ashton Jeanty, but QB Maddux Madsen returns after throwing for 3,018 yards with 23 TDs to only 8 INTs. In front of him, 4 starters are returning on the offensive line. On defense, Boise State led the entire country in sacks last season with 55. 3 of their top 4 sack leaders are returning in DE Virgin-Morgan (10), S Seyi Oladipo (6.5), and DT Braxton Fely (5.5).
If you aren’t excited for this game as a college football fan, you aren’t a fan. How can you not be excited to see the Boise blue at Notre Dame Stadium?
If Boise State loses, they have NO CHANCE of making the college football playoffs.
Vanderbilt Commodores (SEC) at Virginia Tech Hokies (ACC). September 6th. Game starts at 7:30 PM (EST) on ACC Network.
Vanderbilt’s starting QB Diego Pavia is back for his final season, after throwing for 2,293 yards with 20 TDs to only 4 INTs, while adding 800 yards and 8 TDs rushing as well. They return 7 starters on a defense that only allowed 23.4 points per game all of last season. Their magical season last year, started by beat Virginia Tech at home.
The Hokies have a good dual threat QB in Kyron Drones. When he’s healthy, he’s as good as anyone in the country. Transfer HB Terion Stewart (Bowling Green) is going to give the offense some power and pop in the running game. On defense, they must replace their entire secondary and defensive line, but they return both starting LBs.
Clark Lea and Vanderbilt need to prove that last season wasn’t a fluke. What better way to start that process than back-to-back wins over a P4 school with prestige.
HC Brent Pry is on the hot seat in Blacksburg. If he loses to Vandy again, the cries for his job will get even louder.
– by Sean McKenzie
Stats and information courtesy of…..ESPN and NCAA.
Pictures courtesy of…..wallpapercave, ESPN, athlonsports, and MSN.
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