HARTINGTON - Cedar Catholic tops Crofton in a 40-12 routing on Friday night at Russ Hochstein field in the inaugural War For The Oar.

The Trojans sprinted past the Warriors in the first quarter and never looked back, leading the game the entire way.

Junior running back Nathan Potts had a career night, rushing five times for 77 yards and three touchdowns.

“It’s a good feeling,” said Potts. Our team puts a lot of effort in. We are all family, we all love to work together and have a good time.”

Potts was a tremendous compliment to Jacob Keiser who ran the ball 20 times for 170 yards and two scores. The 170 yards by Keiser puts him over 1,000 yards for the second straight season, and he still has two more games in the regular season to top last year’s mark of 1,437.

Potts started the scoring with an 11-yard run on the opening drive. Cedar would get the ball back and Jacob Keiser would score from 41 yards out on a veer option play. Quarterback Myles Thoene waited until he nearly reached the home sideline to pitch the ball to Keiser and it left a huge cutback lane for the score.

“He is developing in our option stuff,” said Cedar coach Chad Cattau of his sophomore quarterback. “He is starting to read things better. He ran a nice veer for us that Jacob scored on.”

Cedar would score a third time in the first quarter on a 39-yard run by Potts. The junior would earn a hat trick with a third touchdown in the second quarter from 12 yards out.

Crofton did score on a 24-yard pass and catch by Andy Knapp to Zach Weber with under two minutes left in the first half. Thoene would respond with a two-minute drill drive that was capped off by a 16-yard pass to Matthew Becker in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.

At halftime, Cedar led 34-6.

Both teams would not score again until the fourth quarter, and Cedar Catholic would go on to win this historic rivalry 40-12.

Cedar lengthens the lead in the rivalry over Crofton with a record of 33-23. More recently, Cedar has won four of the last six match-ups. The 40 points scored by the Trojans on Friday is the third most by Cedar in this series. The Trojans scored 54 points against Crofton in 1970 and again in 1971.

The rivalry used to be played for the Little Brown Jug,  but no one has seemed to know where this trophy went. In 2010 a plaque was introduced that was given to the winner of the game each season. This year a new trophy was added to the mix.

This rivalry game has now been nicknamed the War For The Oar because the new trophy is an oar to tie in some regional qualities to the game. It is an old wooden oar that bears the words “War For The Oar” on the paddle.

“It has a little history from the area thrown in there. We came up with the idea of the oar because it includes the lake and the river that these communities are a part of.”

When Cedar won the game senior Josh Pinkelman went running over with Peyton Haahr and Jacob Rohan to retrieve it. The players celebrated and broke down as a team with their helmets and the oar raised high in the sky.

Cedar Catholic will now keep the oar until the two teams play again next season.

the win for Cedar improves to 3-4 and is one game under .500. The Trojans will travel to Battle Creek on Friday.

 

Crofton 0 6 0 6 — 12

Cedar Catholic 20 14 0 6 — 40

 

First Quarter

CC (8:31) - Nathan Potts 11-yard TD run (XP by Ted Bengston good)

CC (2:27) - Jacob Keiser 41-yard TD run (XP by Ted Bengston good)

CC (0:32) - Nathan Potts 39-yard TD run (XP by Ted Bengston no good)

Second Quarter

CC (8:17) - Nathan Potts 12-yard TD run (XP by Ted Bengston good)

C (1:37) - Andy Knapp to Zach Weber 24-yard passing TD (XP by Connor Dahl no good)

CC (0:10) - Myles Thoene to Matthew Becker 16-yard passing TD (XP by Ted Bengston good)

Fourth quarter

CC (6:38) - Jacob Keiser 6-yard TD run (XP by Ted Bengston no good)

C (2:27) - Jimmy Allen 10-yard TD run (2pt conversion try no good)

 

Team Stats C CC

Total Off. 231 394

Passing Yds 140 56

Rushing Yds 91 338

Penalty Yds 2-10 3-25

First Downs 14 22

 

PASSING

Cedar Catholic - Myles Thoene, 6-7 56 yards 1 TD. Crofton - Andy Knapp, 11-14 140 yards 1 TD 1 INT.

RUSHING

Cedar Catholic - Jacob Keiser, 20-170 3 TD; Nathan Potts, 5-77 3 TD; Eric Hoesing, 11-43; Easton Becker, 3-21; Connor Vlach, 1-16; Myles Thoene, 4-11. Crofton - Jimmy Allen, 12-52 1 TD; Andy Knapp, 14-24; Cody Crosley, 3-7; Connor Dahl, 1-4; Zach Weber, 1-2; Justin Potts, 3-1; William Poppe, 1-1.

RECEIVING

Cedar Catholic - Matthew Becker, 2-22 1 TD; Cole Becker, 3-21; Jacob Keiser, 1-13. Crofton - Brad Tomasek, 4-47; Cody Crosley, 3-44; Zach Weber, 1-4 1 TD; Justin Potts, 1-19; Brady Anthony, 1-7.

TACKLES

Cedar Catholic - Josh Pinkelman, 9; Eric Hoesing, 8; Rex Becker, 8; Cole Becker, 7; Tate Thoene, 6; Nathan Potts, 5; Easton Becker, 5; Jacob Keiser, 4; Myles Thoene, 3; Kerby Hochstein, 3; Matthew Becker, 2; Carter Arens, 2; Derek Heimes, 1; Connor Vlach, 1; Ben Loecker, 1; Noah Arens, 1. Crofton -