Knights run over Calvert in 50-13 romp

Calvert was right with Convoy Crestview trailing 14-13 at halftime Saturday in a Division VII second round playoff game at Frost-Kalnow Stadium.And then the second half happened.The Knights ran all over the Senecas with a 36-0 second half in what turned into a 50-13 rout.Crestview running back Brody Brecht, who is listed at 5-foot-8 200 pounds, was a menace for the Senecas to try to tackle all game long as he finally wore on the defense and finished the contest with 265 yards rushing on 24 carries with a pair of touchdowns.Overall, the Knights rushed for 382 yards on 51 attempts."Calvert had a good plan and their kids executed it early, but in the second half we challenged our kids," Crestview coach Jared Owens said. "We told them they were doing a good job of getting to their assignments but we needed them to do a better job at the point of attack and as we started to go on in the second half we were able to assert our will."I can't imagine that a defender sees (Brecht) coming through and wanting to tackle him, especially if we get him running on guys in the secondary. As the game went on, I thought his vision got even better and he was more patient. He's explosive and his speed is underrated. The power is what everybody sees, but he's got a good combination of speed and power and the fullback in front of him (Logan) Gerardot, he does a lot as far as setting things up and getting Brody some of those unsung yards when he's blocking for him."Crestview (5-2) started the scoring in the opening quarter as Brecht ran in a 22-yard score a little past midway through the quarter, but Calvert (5-2) responded.After a big 40-yard completion from Jack Shultz to Nolan Beeker on a third down, Shultz dumped off a screen pass to Leo Longo for a 22-yard TD.The Knights responded with a 10-play drive - which would become a theme of the game with long punishing offensive drives - which ended in a 7-yard TD run by quarterback Jayden Ward.Calvert responded again, but this time a tad bit quicker.On the ensuing kickoff, Hunter Yeakle ran all the way from the left side of the field to the right sideline to take the kick back 88 yards for a score, but the extra point was missed, creating the 14-13 score at the half."Props to Convoy Crestview they came in and had a great game plan and really at times took it to us," Calvert coach Steve Reser said. "We fought hard for the first half, giving oursevles a chance only going down by one at the half. Even into the third quarter it was pretty competitive . We were trying to take it into the end zone to make it a one score game, but things just didn't go our way."They did a good job on defense and came out in a defense we kind of expected to see, but when they can cover our receivers and drop that many guys, we probably needed to be a little more effective in the run game to open up the box and get some of those guys out of the box for some throwing lanes. They did a great job of covering Nick Seifert, doubling him a lot of the time, but they did a nice job all around defensively against us."The second half was all Crestview.It didn't waste much time scoring to open the second half on a five-play drive, which ended in a 5-yard plunge by Ward.Then things snowballed for the Senecas.Middle linebacker Ayden Lichtensteiger picked off a pass and took it back 58 yards for a score. Then Calvert turned the ball over on downs, which led to a Gerardot 1-yard TD, putting the Knights ahead 35-13 after three quarters.Calvert battled back to try to pull within two scores, but an interception in Crestview's end zone was what iced the comeback bid.In response, Crestview marched the ball right down the field and scored on a 39-yard run by Brecht. The Knights capped the scoring on a 1-yard plunge by Beau Eggleston."The last two games didn't go how we wanted them to, but I feel like we lost to two really good football teams," Reser said. "We let this one get away more than we would've liked, but we came out here with 29 guys and I don't know who gave us a chance to win any games nonetheless win five out of six."I give props to our young men for sticking together and we were 5-2, that's a pretty successful season. Would we have liked to win more? Yeah, but I was proud of what they did. It was a game and I hoped they learned some lessons and go through life be better and win some of those times they get punched in the mouth in real life, but time will tell."Shultz threw for 192 yards and ran for 106 more yards for the Senecas, while Beeker had 129 yards receiving on seven catches.