Stars outshine Athenians

Sam Minnette carries the ball for the Athenians in the game against Western Boone on Friday.

Susan Ehrlich/Journal Review

Western Boone 41, Crawfordsville 0

Score by Quarters

WB 7 20 14 0 — 41

CHS 0 0 0 0 — 0

Scoring Summary

1Q

WB: Amich 3 yard run (kick good), 8:34

2Q

WB: Potter 2 yard run (kick good), 11:24

WB: Amich 30 yard run (kick failed), 5:36

WB: Amich 8 yard run (kick), 1:54

3Q

WB: Amich 6 yard run (kick), 8:49

WB 4 yard run (kick), 3:43

Team Stats         CHS                WB

Rushes-Yards     34-109          43-324

Att-Comp-INT   0-6-2            6-11-1

Total Yards         110                 419

Penalties             3-20              4-37

First Downs         5                     20

Individual Stats

Passing: WB Potter 6-10 95, Kopriva 0-1 0; CHS McCarty 0-5 0, Minnette 0-1 0.

Rushing: WB Amich 22-192, Potter 8-65, Smith 4-27, Sheets 1-3, Yancey 1-1, Shue 4-22, Kopriva 1-(-3), Williamson 2-17; CHS Ronco 3-72, Hites 16-26, Surface 3-8, Minnette 2-(-3), McCarty 7-19, Team 2-(-13).

Receiving: WB Fortner 2-1, Saunders 1-13, Westerfeld 1-23, Amich 1-42, Sheets 1-16.

Western Boone used a strong ground game to roll past Crawfordsville 41-0 on Friday.

The Stars ran the ball 43 times for 324 yards — including 192 yards on 22 carries from Mason Amich. The senior scored five times in the win.

“Western Boone, we know they’re well coached,” Crawfordsville coach Brad Clark said. “We knew what they were going to do and they kind of imposed their will on us and they did a great job of running their stuff.”

After a Crawfordsville three and out, Western Boone (3-0, 1-0 SAC) drove a short field and scored on an Amich 3-yard run. The Athenians forced a pair of stops on the next two possessions, and a long run put Crawfordsville deep in Western Boone territory, but a lost fumble and failed fourth down play cost them their best chances to score in the first half.

“We got a little bit of momentum on that drive with the big Maddox Ronco run, and went for it on fourth down and threw the interception,” Clark said. “After that it did kind of snowball out of control. It’s one of those things where we have to find a way to regroup when bad things happen and that’s a thing we continue to talk about is how we handle adversity.”

Western Boone scored on its final three drives of the first half and led 27-0 at the break. At the half, the Stars had outgained the Athenians 247-111.

Crawfordsville’s struggles offensively only got worse in the second half. The Athenians (2-1, 0-1 SAC) managed (-2) rushing yards over the final 24 minutes, and didn’t complete a pass in the game. Western Boone churned out 419 total yards to 109 for Crawfordsville. The Stars totaled 20 first downs to just five for the Athenians.

“That was a good game plan coming hard off the edge every time we ran a sweep or sprint out and tried to take away McCarty a little bit,” Clark said of the Stars’ game plan. “We have to do a better job of having an adjustment for that.”

Maddox Ronco was Crawfordsville’s leading rusher with 72 yards on three carries. Braeden Hites added 26 yards.

Western Boone is at Tri-West next week, while Crawfordsville is at North Putnam.