By Lowell Spencer

sports@vindy.com

Crestview vs. Cuyahoga Heights

Gallery

Team

Crestview

Record	Div.	Conf.
6/4	Div. V	Independents

NEW WATERFORD

For 24 minutes, the football teams from Crestview High and Cuyahoga Heights stood toe to toe, and battled to a 7-7 halftime tie.

The second half was an entirely different story, as the combination of halfback Nick Blower and quarterback Adam Coppock powered the Rebels to win going away, 44-20, in a Division V, Region 17 first-round playoff game at Rebel Stadium on Friday night.

Crestview advances to play St. Thomas Aquinas in a regional semifinal on Nov. 11. The site of the game will be announced on Sunday.

“Our guys did a great job at halftime. We made a couple adjustments that we felt we needed to do,” Crestview coach Paul Cusick said. “We were really calm at halftime, there was no rah-rah speech. That was probably the best we have done at halftime execution.”

Coppock said the players were anxious to get the second half started.

“We kind of thought that that was how the game would go but we were disappointed in how we had played in that first half,” said Coppock. “We were really anxious to get back out there with the adjustments and see what we can do.”

The Rebels received the ball to start the second half, and it only took one play to change the game. Blower raced 65-yards down the sideline to give the Rebels a 14-7 lead only 11 seconds into the half.

“Nick’s explosive. He makes big plays for us,” said Cusick. “We just have to be patient with him, there are times he is going to get stuffed, stuffed, stuffed, and then boom you’re not going to catch him.”

The Rebels were not done, however, scoring again on their next possession with a Zack Moore 26-yard field goal at the 5:02 mark of the third quarter, to make it 17-7.

But it may have been the Rebels defense that really sealed the fate of this game.

With the Redskins driving deep into Crestview territory, Rebels senior linebacker Craig Lower picked off an Alex Zander pass at the goal line with 3:04 remaining in the quarter.

Crestview wasted little time to score again, with Blower racing 65 yards around right end and down the sideline. The score at the 1:25 mark pushed the Rebels’ lead to 24-7.

“I thought that was kind of a key play,” Redskins coach Al Martin said, “and their ability to grind it out of there, we weren’t able to hold them there.”

To the Redskins’ credit they kept the pressure on, scoring in the fourth stanza as fullback Troy Janashak dove into the end zone from a yard to cut the Crestview lead to 24-14.

From there, however, the Rebels took control. Coppock scored the next two touchdowns, on a 74-yard run off right tackle at the 9:22 mark of the fourth quarter, and then a 3-yards run at the 4:39 mark of the quarter.

“We’re not anything without our line, Some of those time on those touchdown [runs] we didn’t even get touched,” Coppock said.