OLIVESBURG — He hasn’t lined up as a running back since his freshman year, but Crestview senior Adison Reymer looked right at home in the backfield Thursday night.
A converted receiver, Reymer rushed for 121 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 21 carries as the highly-regarded Cougars cruised to a 49-14 win over Loudonville at Scott Bailey Memorial Field in the season opener for both teams.
Crestview lost Connor Morse and his 1,949 rushing yards to graduation. Reymer was asked to make the transition to running back after catching 27 passes for a team-high 539 yards and six touchdowns last fall.
If Thursday’s performance was any indication, the move was the right one. The Redbirds had no answers for Reymer or fullback Wade Bolin, who added a pair of TDs of his own Thursday after rumbling for 512 yards and four scores last fall.
“With Wade back and we’ve got Adison and Clete (Rogers) and Michael (Mays) that we feel very confident giving the ball to,” Crestview coach Steve Haverdill said. “We’ve just got to work that timing with the line still. It’s just one of those things with the mesh. We’ve got to get that timing down and hopefully it keeps improving like it did with Connor last year.”
The Cougars didn’t waste any time Thursday night, scoring before most of their fans had settled into the seats on what was a picture-perfect night for football. Loudonville fumbled the opening kickoff and Crestview recovered at the Loudonville 20-yard line. Four plays later, Bolin sauntered into the end zone untouched for a 4-yard touchdown with 10:07 remaining in the first quarter.
Reymer scored the first of his two rushing TDs late in the first quarter on a 2-yard run before Bolin added his second score of the night on a 1-yard plunge early in the second. Bolin’s second touchdown was set up by a Brice Perkins interception with six seconds left in the first quarter.
“We talk about any time we get those turnovers, we’ve got to make them pay,” Haverdill said.
Crestview’s lead ballooned to 35-0 thanks to quarterback Hayden Kuhn. The strong-armed senior hooked up with Shawn Bailey on a 27-yard scoring strike with 6:17 remaining in the first half before finding Tyson Ringler for a 9-yard TD with 3:55 to play before halftime.
“I thought we came out and looked real good in the first half,” said Kuhn, who completed 14-of-19 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns. “We fell asleep a little bit at the end of the second quarter and into the third quarter, so we’ve got to work on that.”
Loudonville got on the board when quarterback Matt Sprang found Micah Simpson for a 20-yard touchdown with 1:04 left in the first half. The score was set up by an Aidan Wolford interception.
Loudonville carried the momentum into the second half and cut Crestview’s lead to 35-14 when Sprang hooked up with rugged running back Peyton Regan out of the backfield for a 44-yard touchdown with 6:10 to play in the third period.
That’s as close as the Redbirds would get, however. Reymer scored on a 6-yard run late in the third to make it 42-14. Reymer, who doubles as a free safety, iced it in the fourth when he returned an interception 57 yards for a touchdown midway through the fourth to make it 49-14 and trigger a running clock for the final 5:32.
Loudonville played Crestview evenly during the final 25-plus minutes after spotting the Cougars a 35-0 lead.
“We’ve talked all week that we’ve got to start fast,” second-year Loudonville coach John Battaglia said. “Last week in our scrimmage we did that, so it was disappointing to come out (flat).
“It’s hard to beat a good team when you … shoot yourself in the foot. We know we can be good. We’ve got talent. The guys coming out and battling and showing heart in the second half gives us hope.”
