DELAWARE — Parker Weithman wowed everyone several times in the first half of Thursday night’s high school football opener, including the members of the Ohio Wesleyan University team in attendance.
First it was an interception in the first quarter that quickly resulted in him catching a bomb from Peyton Baker for a touchdown.
Then, a minute later, Brayden Holt slung one over the middle that was brought in by Weithman’s fully extended right hand and secured for his second touchdown.
Shortly into the second quarter, it was a jailbreak screen from Baker that Weithman took 73 yards for his third and final score of the night in Colonel Crawford’s dominant 42-7 win over Fairbanks on Aug. 21, to open the local high school football season.
“We had a play, both guys were open, but Parker had a step on the kid,” Colonel Crawford coach Jake Bruner said of the second touchdown. “He wasn’t our first read, but (Holt) made a great throw and it was a great catch. And then the jailbreak to Parker, he just quickly went the distance. When they’re playing man and bringing a lot of pressure, you have to hit them with big plays and I thought we did a great job with that tonight.”
Weithman nearly returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown as well but was tripped up around the 30-yard line. The Eagles eventually saw Holt connect with Tyler Lash for the final score of the night, while Connor McMichael rushed in the opening touchdown and caught the team’s fifth.
And it all started with a defensive stop on the opening possession.
“I thought our defense did a good job at the beginning of the game, they did a lot of different things that we weren’t prepared for,” Bruner said. “Coach (Brett) DeGray and I had worked on some stuff, and I thought us getting a stop right away (was huge) because we were going to take the ball if we won the toss.”
Colonel Crawford scored five times in the first half to showcase how potent this offense can be. Baker was 4-for-7 for 135 yards and three touchdowns, Holt 5-for-10 for 121 yards and two touchdowns, Weithman had four receptions for 187 yards and the trio of long touchdowns, McMichael rushed seven times for 32 yards and scored twice.
“We had great field position, so that helped, and big plays was it for us tonight,” Bruner said. “They were trying to toughen up in the middle with Connor, so we had to go outside and throw the ball. I thought both quarterbacks played really well at different times.
“But it’s the first game and there’s a lot of things to work on still. A lot of mistakes, a lot of miscues, a lot of different people playing … we feel like we have to grow our depth a little bit right now, and I thought it was good that we played a lot of guys in the first half.”
Speaking of growing depth, Fairbanks graduated a big senior class and saw a new era of Panthers step into the limelight.
“We had four or five freshmen out there playing,” Fairbanks coach Dave Carroll said. “They do everything we asked them to do in the summer … (that’s) way more important than a win. We’re young, anybody that doesn’t see that … needs to look at the program. We have a bunch of freshmen starting, sophomores in key positions, and even some of the older players.
“I wanted our kids to play hard, never give up, and stick together, and we had that. To me, that’s a victory. People say moral victories blah, blah, blah, but that stuff is way more important than winning the football game.”
Quarterback Bryson Griffith scored the lone touchdown of the night for the Panthers on a seven-yard keeper. With the game being moved to Ohio Wesleyan University’s Selby Field due to Fairbanks’ new field not being ready, the atmosphere for a true home opener just wasn’t there.
“These seniors wanted to play their home opener at home on our new sod field,” Carroll said. “But my college football coach said — it doesn’t matter where we’re playing, we can play barefoot on brick, it doesn’t matter. They would have rather been at home, but if you’re not going to play at home, it’s a pretty neat atmosphere here.
“It’s a great experience for our kids … and we’re really appreciative of Ohio Wesleyan for letting us play here.”
A 1-0 start is exactly what Bruner wanted, but he knows there’s still a lot of work to be done for these Eagles with hopes of winning a league title and nabbing some postseason hardware as well.
“The personal foul on us after the touchdown gave them a short field, and our defense almost held them there, but it’s those mistakes that you can’t make in big games when the score is a lot closer,” he said. “We have a big opponent next week, a bigger school coming to our place, and we’re going to need to step it up and fix some of the mistakes we had today.
“But I like the way we’re headed, we just gotta keep focusing on our goals.”
zholden@gannett.com | 419-617-6018 | Twitter/X: @Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Weithman wows in Colonel Crawford’s season opening win over Fairbanks
Reporting by Zachary Holden, Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum / Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
