COLONY — The Crest High football team travels to Canton-Galva for a first round playoff matchup Friday.
After losing a core group of seniors last season, the Lancers (4-4) have endured one of their toughest in recent memory. Crest has gone 1-3 in their final four games of the season and picked up their lone win over Marais des Cygnes Valley, 54-6.
Head coach Nick McAnulty thought his team played well in the last game of the season against Lebo, a 60-12 loss. He also knows there’s more this team can do.
“We haven’t played our best football yet, the football I know we are capable of,” said McAnulty. “We never really found consistent ground. We’ve started a lot of games slowly, and this last game against Lebo we finally started the game off strong, so that was encouraging to see.”
Crest’s other three victories this season have come against Hartford, Oswego and Yates Center.
THE LANCERS have responded to adversity this season. After quarterback Rogan Weir was injured in a loss to St. Paul, Ryan Golden stepped into his place.
“Ryan’s been doing a great job filling in. The more playing time he’s had, he’s gotten better and better,” said McAnulty.
Another key to Crest’s offense has been Gentry McGhee, especially during the second half of the season.
“Gentry’s been the runner who has stepped up recently. He scored some touchdowns against Lebo, and he had one or two scores against Marais des Cygnes Valley,” McAnulty said.
As the team undergoes a transition to new leadership this season, McAnulty believes his team needs to learn to trust each other.
“We’re still not there yet, and part of it is because we’re so young. We’re throwing a bunch of guys out there that haven’t had varsity time,” McAnulty said. “We’re having to change roles and guys are out of position. We’re still growing, and we might not see those benefits until next year.”
AS FOR their opponent, Canton-Galva went 7-1 through the regular season and had three athletes on the eight-man Shrine Bowl All-Star team last year, one of whom departed for Colorado State after last season.
“Canton-Galva is a long, athletic team that hits you quick. It’ll be one of those things that we’ll have to slow them down a little and just run the ball,” said McAnulty. “That’s playoff football. You have to run the ball a little more as it starts getting colder out.”
The teams kick off tonight at 7 p.m.
