Pass-happy Crescent remains unbeaten

Having two players run for more than 100 yards in a single game isn’t necessarily an oddity in Crescent.

But having two Tigers break the century mark in receiving yards on one night?

“It’s been a while,” said coach J.L. Fisher.

But that’s exactly what happened on Friday during Crescent’s 48-15 thumping of Watonga at home.

Kade Varner had a career night throwing the ball as he was 13 of 18 for 265 yards and five touchdowns.

Isaiah Lovett was the recipient of five of those passes for 177 yards and four touchdowns.

Although he didn’t have a receiving TD, C.J. Wilson added another four catches for 119 yards.

The monster performances helped Crescent remain unbeaten as they moved to 4-0 overall and are now 1-0 in District A-3.

“We figured they’d put nine players in the box to try to take away our run game,” Fisher said of his team’s offensive plan to counter what they thought the Eagles might employ.

“So we had it in our game plan to throw the ball more. It was good to see us air it out a little.”

Varner went to the air early and often.

He found Lovett from 48 yards out less than three minutes into the game for an early 7-0 lead.

Boston Cox quickly hauled in a 14-yard score to make it 14-0 Tigers in the first quarter.

It grew to 20-0 when Varner and Lovett got together on a 20yard score at 8:59 of the second quarter.

Watonga managed to score before halftime, but the hosts added four straight touchdowns in the second half.

The first two were Varner hitting Lovett for scores of 77 and 18 yards in the third quarter.

Tanner Rice and Tylan Neugent added TD runs in the fourth.

Rice also completed his only pass of the night, which went for 50 yards.

All told, Crescent tallied 458 yards, 315 through the air.

It’s a facet of the game Fisher says the Tigers will need to continue to show.

“We have to be able to throw the ball going forward in our district,” he said.

Stone Fisher led the defense with eight tackles as the Tigers also forced two turnovers.

Crescent travels to Christian Heritage on Friday. The Crusaders are 4-1 after last week’s 22-19 overtime win at Hinton.