By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

You can spend all week at practice preparing for your opponent, but preparing for speed is an entirely different thing.

Understanding formations, adapting to coverage schemes, learning tendencies.

Check. Check. Check.

Re-creating the top-end speed that of your opponent?

Coaches will never have a great answer for that.

And Crestwood did not have an answer for Painesville Harvey on Friday night in a 56-14 Chagrin Valley Conference defeat.

The Red Raiders were also incredibly physical, with senior running back Blaise Collins leading the attack by running down hill, seeking contact and then delivering powerful blows that allowed him to constantly break through the first Red Devils defender.

Collins finished with 130 yards on only 14 carries and scored on touchdown runs of 26 and 29 yards.

Joining Collins in the backfield was freshman Shahn Alston, who ran equally hard and also ran over the century mark with 101 yards on just four attempts.

As a team, the Red Raiders (2-2) rushed the ball 26 yards to amass 322 yards on the ground.

“That is a physical football team and they are really well coached,” Crestwood head coach Jack D’Amato said. “They are fast and they are physical. To try to prepare for their speed in practice is tough to do. I thought they really ran through our guys and give them credit, because their guys up front really took care of business.”

Harvey took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on Collins’ first touchdown run of the game, but really  took control of the game by scoring 49 points in the second and third quarters combined.

The Raiders exploded for 28 second-quarter points on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Cavon Wise to Alston, an 11-yard run by Alston, a 52-yard pass from Wise to Davon Bradley and Collins’ second touchdown run of the game.

The 21-point third quarter needed only three plays for the Raiders.

It started with Alston’s third touchdown of a the game, rumbling from 65 yards out to the end zone.

The second touchdown appeared like it was going to be a punt-return touchdown by Bradley, but as he attempted to break free of the last defender, he fumbled the ball to the turf. The ball bounced up and directly into the hands of Collins, who had been running down the field to help block.

Bradley had fielded the punt his own 8-yard line and ran it to the Devils’ 30, then Collins scooped up the loose ball and ran in the final 30 yards for the score.

On the Radiers’ next possession, Kaleb Puckett bounced off Crestwood defenders for an 86-yard run.

Meanwhile, Crestwood struggled to find momentum on offense throughout the first three quarters. Harvey’s speed showed up on defense as well by quickly closing up running lanes and constant pressure in the pocket on passing plays.

In the first half, the Devils ran a total of 27 plays and nine of those went for negative yardage, while 13 were for 2 yards or less.

After Crestwood got a first down on the very first play of the game — a 15-yard wide-receiver screen to Jonas Honeycutt — the Devils did not get another first down that was not the result of a penalty until 2:47 showed in the third quarter.

Crestwood (1-3) scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

Jayden Julian scored the first on an 18-yard strike from Charlie Sommer. Tristen Addis ran in the second touchdown from a yard out. Julian kicked the extra points for both scores.

Following the loss, D’Amato was ready to move on to prepare for Week 5.

“That is the beautiful part of this game, you get an opportunity every week,” the Devils’ coach said. “How you prepare throughout the week, how you choose to focus on the little things, those all matter, and we will get another chance to do that.

“We call it ‘The Crestwood Way.’ We have a championship standard, and we do not divert from that, we do not lower that expectation. We did not play to that potential tonight, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get back there.”