COLONY — The Crest Lancers football team fought but ultimately came up short against Chase County on Thursday night, 70-54.
The Lancers went down big early, at one point by as much as a 22-6 deficit. But by halftime they were able to knot the score.
“Last year, in situations like that we would have packed it in,” said Crest head coach Nick McAnulty. “To see them fight like that is just awesome. Chase County is one of the best teams in Division I, a class bigger than us. So to see us step up and fight against one of those teams is just awesome. This is a playoff game in week two, so it was a great challenge for us.”
At quarterback, Ethan Godderz rushed for three touchdowns and 146 yards on 19 rushes against the Bulldogs defense.
Godderz also impressed throwing the ball, passing for two touchdowns and 101 yards on four-of-seven pass connections overall. He connected most with Stetson Setter who hauled in four catches for 101 yards and a couple of touchdown receptions.
Holden Barker was key to the Lancer rushing attack. Barker carried the ball the most for 29 rushes, 160 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
Stetson Setter also rushed for 54 yards on nine carries in the high-scoring affair.
“We’re doing a lot of good things offensively,” McAnulty said. “We’ve got a ton of guys who can touch the ball and make huge plays. Having Stetson (Setter) back is huge. He didn’t get to play at all last year and he had a huge game. You add that in with the ability to run with Holden and Ethan, we’ve got a lot of guys that can move the ball offensively.”
Crest showed a load of offensive talent even in the loss against Chase County. The Lancers have now scored a combined 108 points through two games.
On defense, Barker also stood out as he collected 18 tackles while Avery Blaufass and Cody Nolan each made nine tackles. The lone interception and fumble recoveries of the game were made by Trevor Church who managed to force two Bulldog turnovers.
“It looked like it was a lot of missed tackles and that’s something we talk about. We’ve just got to clean that up, just wrapping up that’s the biggest thing, making sure the gaps are secured. I think there were a couple of times we had a breakdown, we guessed instead of doing our job. Some of the big runs were due to that,” McAnulty said.
Although the somewhat large deficit in the final score, McAnulty’s defense stepped up a few crucial times at the goal line where they made two huge stops to keep the lead within striking distance.
The Crest football team will face off against Oswego next Friday at 7 p.m.
