'This team is something special'

CAREY — There's no secret, Week 1 of the high school football season can't come soon enough. Especially for Carey coach Jonathon Mershman, with a trip to Hopewell-Loudon awaiting his Blue Devils. Both teams bring back a lot of experience, especially in the playoffs the past two seasons for Carey. Two years ago, Carey made a run to the regional final, and last year it made it to the third round before being bounced by a tough Archbold squad on the road. Mershman lost some quality players to graduation, including Cade Crawford and Ian Yeater, who are both playing D-III college ball this fall. But the cupboard certainly isn't bare. "A lot of these guys have got experience from, you know, their sophomore year and from last year," Mershman said. "So, we're working on those things. We're building off of that and just finding our weaknesses and trying to work, you know, clean stuff up. So getting ready for a really excellent game one. "The offseason went really well for us. We had a lot of seniors in the weight room that, you know, led things and they did a fantastic job being great leaders in the weight room and showing them how things were done. I thought we had a really good offseason, but right now we haven't got down to our captains yet but, I think overall our leadership is really high right now. I think everybody's doing a fantastic job and I think we're ready to go." Replacing Crawford (481 yards rushing, 381 yards receiving), Yeater (185 yards receiving), Jacob Reinhart (53 tackles) and Hayden Nash (22 tackles, 3 INTs) will be tough, but Carey has some depth and some youth ready for their turn to step in. "We lost a couple of guys with Crawford and Ian Yeater, they're going off to college play on offense. And those guys are hard to replace, but I got some guys that are eager to try to replace them," Mershman said. "I believe that they can get the job done, maybe not just as well, but I mean, pretty darn close. And I'm pretty excited about those guys trying to fill those roles." Carey does have some solid returners as well. Derek Lonsway returns under center. He threw for 1,370 yards with 15 TDs and seven picks last year and ran for another 636 yards and five scores in his first season as a starter. Receiver Bryce Conti caught 22 passes for 535 yards and six TDs and offensive tackle Easton Korody was named second-team all-Ohio. He's getting some Division I offers as well. Anthony Bell was named the special teams player of the year in the N10. Those are some pretty good pieces to lean on. The offense is coming along, Mershman said, but he pointed to the defense being the real strength of the team in the early part of the season. The defense brings back Landon Kemmerley at linebacker, who recorded 88 tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles and 16 tackles for loss. Gage Summit had 54 tackles, three forced fumbles, three sacks and nine TFLs and Trennen Stoll at defensive tackle (37 tackles, 6 TFLs, 3rd-team all-Ohio). Conti returns at his safety spot where he earned first-team all-Ohio. He recorded 35 tackles and four INTs. "We are always working on it, but I think the strength right now is our defense. I do think our linebackers in the scrimmage we're flying around really well, and I'm just really proud of the way they adjusted against McComb. "You know, there are some things that we haven't gone over yet, but I thought as the scrimmage went on, they adjusted within the game really well. And that was something I was really proud of." The defense will have to be ready to go in Week 1 with a talented, experience H-L squad ready to go. Then the Blue Devils travel to Galion and then host Toledo Waite. Beyond the exciting Week 1 game, Mershman said he likes the competition of the non-league schedule, which will definitely get the Blue Devils ready for N10 play. Going into the season, the N10 might be wide open, but the usual suspects will likely be battling for the title. "Wynford is always tough. You know, they got a program," Mershman said. "It's still going to be a tough year for anybody, not just us. Mohawk's got a program, so they're going to be tough. And you never know what Upper (Sandusky) has, when they get 65, 70 guys out, you never know who they're going to have. "I think there's a lot of tough teams and if you don't come ready to play every week, and I know it's cliche to say, but it is what it is. You know I'm not overlooking anybody in our league. I know we always get everybody's best and they're always willing to show us their best side. So we've gotta be ready." Aug 20 Hopewell-Loudon A Aug 27 Galion A Sep 3 Waite H Sep 10 Colonel Crawford H* Sep 17 Mohawk H* Sep 24 Bucyrus H* Oct 1 Upper Sandusky A* Oct 8 Seneca East A* Oct 15 Wynford H* Oct 22 Buckeye Central A* *Northern 10 Conference game—All games at 7 p.m. 2020 Results CAREY COLONEL CRAWFORD 7-16 MOHAWK 20-12 BUCYRUS 69-0 UPPER SANDUSKY 64-0 SENECA EAST 49-0 WYNFORD 31-23 TINORA 48-7 POSTSEASON MONTPELIER 63-0 CRESTVIEW 42-14 ARCHBOLD 28-35 10-year records CAREY2020 8-22019 7-62018 7-42017 8-42016 6-42015 4-62014 8-22013 7-32012 8-22011 8-3 2021 roster No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. 2 &emsp;&emsp;Brayden Frederick Sr. 6-0 160 3 &emsp;&emsp;Carter Smiley So. 5-7 135 4 &emsp;&emsp;Sam Cole&emsp;&emsp;Fr. 6-2 138 5 &emsp;&emsp;Kayden Burgei Fr&emsp;&emsp;5-8 130 6 &emsp;&emsp;Jordan Mattimoe Jr. 5-10 135 7 &emsp;&emsp;Kasen Sherman &emsp;&emsp;Fr. 5-7 118 8 &emsp;&emsp;Doug Pinkerton &emsp;&emsp;So. 5-8 135 9 &emsp;&emsp;Alexander Putnam So. 6-2 170 10 Derek Lonsway &emsp;&emsp;Sr. 6-1 180 11 Lance Woods Sr. 5-11 180 12 Anthony Bell Jr. 5-11 156 13 Lance Rickle Jr. 5-10 165 14 Conner Norden &emsp;&emsp;So. 5-11 160 15 Dylan Ellis Jr. 5-11 165 16 Austin Niederkohr So. 5-11 160 23 Dominic Yeater &emsp;&emsp;So. 6-2 160 24 Jordan Vallejo Sr. 6-1 265 25 Layne Barger Jr. 6-0 157 26 Gage Summit Jr. 6-0 170 27 Nicholas Putnam&emsp;&emsp;So. 5-10 145 28 Gavin Snyder Fr. 5-7 175 29 Brandon Tanner &emsp;&emsp;Fr. 5-6 136 32 Landen Kemmerly Jr. 6-0 200 33 Jack Van Sky Fr. 5-10 130 36 Duane Gibson So. 6-0 190 38 Owen Steinmetz &emsp;&emsp;Fr. 5-10 129 40 Bryce Conti Sr. 6-1 170 42 Ethan Bretz Jr. 5-8 165 44 Cooper Brodman Sr. 5-9 160 45 Nathan Brodman So. 6-3 190 46 Jeremiah Patton &emsp;&emsp;Sr. 5-11 195 49 Isaac Carman Sr. 5-8 245 50 Tyler Bretz Fr. 5-11 150 51 Cameron Pahl Sr. 6-0 215 52 Mitchell Boes So. 6-2 198 53 Collin Ferguson &emsp;&emsp;Sr. 6-2 260 54 Ashton Clauss Sr. 5-11 212 55 Carson Pahl Sr. 6-0 203 56 Easton Korody Sr. 6-5 275 57 Jacob Scott Sr. 5-11 225 58 Cash Hartley So. 5-6 171 59 Jonah Peters So. 6-2 190 63 Nathan Gery Fr. 5-8 122 65 Dalton Myers Fr. 5-8 157 66 Cameron Penwell Fr. 5-11 165 67 Luke Steen Fr. 5-3 135 68 Logan Kessler So. 5-11 205 70 Hunter Row Fr. 5-9 138 71 Trennen Stoll Sr. 6-2 260 72 Drew Steen Sr. 6-4 300 75 Cameron Conner Jr. 6-3 177 76 Matt Allomong &emsp;&emsp;So. 6-3 275 77 Brock Bushong &emsp;&emsp;Jr. 6-2 250 79 Jadon Fraley Jr. 5-11 269 83 Bryce Puckett Fr. 6-4 142 86 Reid Blankemeyer Fr. 5-7 145 88 EJ Boes &emsp;&emsp;Jr. 6-3 180