Potent offense rolls up more than 400 yards
BUCYRUS — The Friday night high school football season began for the Galion Tigers on the road against the Bucyrus Redmen. In the 106th meeting between the two schools and the battle for the Seccaium Park Trophy, the Galion squad secured the trophy again by defeating the Redmen in a shutout; 34-0. Bucyrus has not defeated the Tigers since 2008 and head coach has won two of his three total games against the Redmen.
Galion got off to a rough start as they received the opening kickoff to the season. The Tigers’ first possession equated to just five yards on three rushes before a punt by Gavin Pennington. Galion got another quick offensive opportunity after the Redmen coughed up the football after a long, 20-yard pass completion.
Back on offense, Galion wasted no time and put themselves on the board with a three-yard touchdown run by Joah Singer. Isaiah Alsip missed the extra point but the visitors had an early 6-0 lead.
On their third possession, Galion used a long, 42-yard bomb from quarterback Harrison Ivy to wide receiver Takoda Crisman and the PAT off the foot of freshman Dominic Pittman put the Tigers up two scores; 13-0.
Steven Hoffman put another six on the scoreboard for the Tigers on a “pick-six” which he returned back from 34 yards out. Another Pittman extra point continued to put the game further out of reach from the home team; 20-0.
Still not finished, the Galion Tigers added yet another touchdown before the end of the first half. Ivy kept the ball and with a push from Singer converted the “quarterback keeper” from a yard out. Add the extra point and Galion took a 27-0 lead into the half.
After the intermission, the visiting Tigers would tack on another score on their first drive of the second half. This time it came on a handoff to Tanner Crisman who punched it in from two yards out. Pittman went on to convert his fourth extra point attempt and Galion lead 34-0. Not much action on the field after the fifth Galion touchdown as 34-0 would end up as the final score.
The Tigers would finish the contest with 401 yards of total offense, far surpassing the host Redmen, finishing with just 114 yards from scrimmage. Leading the way in total yardage for Galion was the quarterback Ivy. Ivy was 9/14 passing for 136 yards, a TD and one interception. On the ground attack, Harrison posted 86 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown. Elias Middleton, filling in for Ivy in the final quarter, finished with 2/4 passing for 29 yards and carried the ball once for a 10-yard gain.
Other rushing statistics for Galion: Tanner Crisman- 9 carries, 102 yards, TD; Singer- 3 carries, 9 yards, TD; Nakoma Breedlove- 9 carries, 27 yards and Trevor O’brien- 1 carry, 5 yards.
Receiving statistics for the Tigers: Takoda Crisman- 4 catches, 96 yards, TD; Tanner Crisman- 3 catches, 26 yards; Breedlove- 1 catch, 15 yards; Alsip- 2 catches, 14 yards and Kalib Griffin- 1 catch, 14 yards.
“I thought that the defense played great tonight,” coach Dick states. “Our coaches did a great job preparing the kids, putting them in the right positions and our kids played aggressive, nasty defense.” Dick continues, “Offensively, we may be young in spots but we have some explosive athletes that really did well tonight. The blocking up front wasn’t great but our guys found a way to make it work and grind it out.”
On Friday, September 1, the Galion Tigers will welcome the Cardington Pirates of the Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference to town for their home opener. The contest between the Tigers and the Pirates will also be senior night for the hometown Tigers.
