The Ohio Crush faced conference rivals the Zanesville Jets and won 24-16.

Crush Defensive coordination Nick Wilkie talks about the team’s overall performance.

“Overall, I thought we played well. We definitely didn’t play up to our expectations and we had some situations were things got out of hand defensively. We had regrouped and settled down for the most part. That’s our rival out there and we’ve had some bad blood with them because they’re in our conference. It’s always a tough game and when we settle down and we didn’t break. If we continue to play that way, we’ll do great things.”

In the first quarter, the Crush started off strong with stellar play from quarterback John Mason and wide receiver Marcus Woodard.

They connected for the first score of the game inside of the red zone, making the score 6-0.

Later in the first, the Crush defense stopped the Jets offense on their first possession eventually forcing them to turnover on downs.

In the second quarter, the Crush gets hit with two costly late penalties that placed the Jets in scoring position inside the 5-yard line.

The Crush defense gets a crucial stop and the Jets kick a field goal putting the score 6-3 with 8:55 in the second quarter.

Later in the quarter, the Jets score and take the lead going into halftime 10-6.

The Crush defense comes out aggressive after the halftime and open the quarter with a safety as lineman Lester Robinson chases down kicker.

The safety brought the score to 10-8.

On the Crush ensuing possession, quarterback John Mason led the offense down the field and threws his second touchdown. This time he connects with tight end Lamar Taborn.

The Crush regain the lead and go up 14-10 and convert the 2-point conversion making the score 16-10 with 5:48 in the third.

The Crush defense comes up with another big play with an interception from linebacker Justin Boldman.

Crush linebacker Caleb Moore speaks highly of his team’s defense and composure.

“This is the best defense I’ve ever played on. We have speed, we can man up and when we give up big plays it’s literally one mistake. We’re a couple of slips up away from being shut down. We’re trying to tighten up and once we do that we’ll be hard defense to handle.”

Heading into the fourth quarter, John Mason and Marcus Woodard link again for another score, giving the Crush a comfortable 24-10 lead with 11:17 left in the game.

With five minutes left, the Jets score on a punt return.

That would put the score at 24-16.

The Jets had a chance to score but fumbled and turn it over to the Crush with over a minute left.

The Crush head into the bye week 6-0 and will face the Ohio Broncos June 18th at Raynor Park.

Kick off is set for 4 pm.

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