NORTH CRAWFORD - North Crawford wing back Stephen Munson may have missed the next to last football game of the spring season against Wisconsin Heights, but he was certainly on hand for the season finale against Kickapoo-LaFarge. And, the results showed it.
The Trojans beat the visiting Predators 44-26. It is the team’s first win since the 2018 season.
Munson made his presence known almost immediately, scoring a touchdown on a 29-yard run about midway through the first quarter. Then, he scored again on the next possession on a 42-yard touchdown run. It made the score 12-0.
Predator quarterback Spencer Vanek scored near the end of the quarter, when he completed an 18-yard touchdown pass to Teagan Arndt.
North Crawford led at the end of the first quarter 12-6. The Trojans it turned out scored a lot of touchdowns in this game, but missed six straight two-point conversions before finally making the last one on their seventh touchdown of the game. But hold on, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.
North Crawford scored their third touchdown in the second quarter, when Satchel McClurg completed a 17-yard touchdown pass to Beau Jelinek. The Trojans again missed the two-point conversion and went into halftime leading 18-6.
Then, it happened. Stephen Munson returned in the third quarter and ran for three touchdowns. An 18-yard touchdown run made it 24-6.
Then, Munson took off for a 93-yard touchdown run to make 30-6.
Not done yet, Munson ran 63 yards for his third touchdown of the quarter and fifth of the game to make it 36-6 and that’s the way the third quarter ended.
To their credit, the Predators battled back in the fourth quarter, but the hole was just to deep by that point.
KLF’s Bryar Ledman completed an 11-yard touchdown pass to Arndt. Ledman then ran the two point conversion in and the score was 36-14
The Predators’ Gage Messner scored on a 42-yard touchdown run to make the score 36-20 and yes, the Predators missed the conversion.
However, the Trojans were having too much fun to quit. So, with a little less than four minutes left in the game, Raiden Steele scored a touchdown on a seven-yard run. The two-point conversion was successful on a pass from Munson to Jelinek.
The game ended North Crawford-44 Kickapoo-LaFarge-20.
Wow! You talk about getting a monkey off your back.
Nobody was happier than North Crawford football coach Jeremy Fradette.
“We played a great game on both sides of the ball,’ Fradette said later. “The kids finally put it all together and played as a team.
“The smile on the kids’ faces and the pure joy of finally winning their first game in 13 tries (was everything),” Fradette said. “I hope this feeling pushes into next season and we can build off of it.”
For the game, North Crawford had 532 yards of total offense. They had 50 yards passing going 2-9. They had 482 yards rushing on 42 plays to average 11.5 yards per attempt.
Kickapoo LaFarge had 331 yards of total offense. They gained 103 yards passing going 15-36 with one interception. They gained 228 yards rushing on 44 attempts a 5.2 yard per carry average.
Each team had one turnover. The Predators threw an interception and the Trojans lost a fumble.
Stephen Munson led North Crawford in rushing. He gained 291 yards on 16 carries for an 18.2 yard per carry average. He also scored five touchdowns.
Raiden Steele gained 104 yards on 15 carries and scored a touchdown. Satchel McClurg gained 73 yards rushing on eight carries.
Kickapoo was led in rushing by Gage Mesner, who had 110 yards on 20 carries.
Predator quarterback Spencer Vanek ran for 84 yards on 13 carries.
North Crawford completed just two passes–one to Satchel McClurg for 33 yards and one to Beau Jelinek for 17 yards and a touchdown.
The Predator’s Teagan Arndt caught two touchdown passes for a total of 29 yards.
North Crawford turned in a strong defensive performance. Raiden Steele had 11 tackles including five solo tackles. Alex Morga had nine tackles with seven of them solo tackles. Stephen Munson, Beau Jelinek and Garrett Finnell all had 5.5 tackles. Jelinek had 5 solo tackles, while Munson had three and Finnell had two.
