Unbeaten Crestview edges Columbiana

Carter Hill rushed for two touchdowns and threw a scoring toss to Adam Britton.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

Vindicator correspondent

COLUMBIANA — Crestview coach Paul Cusick knew the Inter Tri-County League Tier One football game with Columbiana would be intense — it always is.

Crestview quarterback Carter Hill felt the brunt of that intensity but felt good after the Rebels held off backyard rival Columbiana 20-13 at Firestone Park.

Crestview (5-0, 2-0) remains tied with East Palestine atop the ITCL1 standings.

Carter scored twice on one-yard runs and threw a touchdown pass to Adam Britton and the Rebels recovered an onside kick by Columbiana with 1:43 remaining to preserve the win.

“It was a little helter-skelter,” Cusick said. “I mean both sides. I think the emotion never died down so the teams never got calmed down.

“Fortunately, we made a few more plays than they did. You have to make plays in a big rivalry game.”

Hill did his share of making plays as he dodged enough big hits by the Clippers to lead the Rebels to the win.

Hill rushed for 109 of the Rebels 129 yards on the ground and completed 8 of 18 passes for 124 yards.

“Hill’s a good back,” Columbiana coach Bob Spaite said. “He’s a little slippery, a little elusive. We missed some tackles but he broke some too.

“Outside of Hill, they weren’t able to do much else,” Spaite said. “Our defense kept us in the game.”

Hill said he knew that Columbiana (3-2, 0-2) would give everything they had to stop one of the top rushing teams in the area.

“Columbiana’s a big physical team,” Hill said. “I was taking some big hits but you have to get back up. Team needs me in a big game like this so you have to get back up.”

Crestview had to bounce back early in the game after the Clippers stung the Rebels on their first offensive play of the game.

Jon Ritchey took a handoff and raced 67 yards for a score to give Columbiana an early 6-0 lead.

“We couldn’t pout after that,” Hill said after that big play by the Clippers. “Nobody could pout because we knew they would keep piling it on if we just hung our heads. We had to deal with that adversity and come back and get them.”

Crestview dodged two more bullets by the Clippers in the first half when the Rebels fumbled on their 10-yard line in the first quarter and when the Clippers ran out of time right before halftime after completing a 32-yard pass to the 14-yard line.

But the Rebels responded with two first-half scoring drives to take a 13-6 lead into halftime.

Hill scored on a 1-yard run with 5:26 left in the second quarter to tie the game at 6-6 and two minutes later tossed a 32-yard scoring pass to Britton.

“Carter played pretty gutsy tonight,” Cusick said. “He’s gonna be a sore puppy tomorrow.”

Hill’s final score came early in the final quarter after Crestview’s Jacob Thompson recovered a muffed punt by the Clippers at the 19 yard-line.

Hill completed a pass to Britton down the the Crestview 1-yard line and then ran it over for a score that gave the Rebels a 20-7 lead.

But the Clippers didn’t quit.

The Columbiana defense shut down Hill and the Rebels twice in the fourth quarter and then marched 95 yards in 14 plays to pull to within 20-13 with 1:47 left in the game.

Austin Barbato led the drive and tossed a 2-yard pass to Ritchey for the score. He completed 11 of 19 passes for 157 yards and rushed for 91 yards.

Ritchey added 80 yards on the ground and caught three passes for 35 yards. The senior scored both of the Clippers touchdowns.