Four-peat! Colonel Crawford crowned Crawford County Power Poll champs

The regular season is over, and it's time to crown the Crawford County Power Poll champion.

To no surprise as the season panned out, Colonel Crawford finished as the top team in the area and it's a four-peat of power poll titles for the Eagles.

Let's see the finalized positions and quickly recap seasons.

1. Colonel Crawford (9-1, 6-1)

There were a lot of unknowns surrounding the Eagles coming into the season. New quarterback, new faces on the line, new faces on defense. But those were answered quickly in a 21-20 Week 1 win way down in Hannibal, Ohio to against River on a Thursday night. Running clocks the next three weeks, Colonel Crawford suffered its only loss on the road to Carey — the Blue Devils went on to win their third consecutive Northern 10 title.

Since then the Eagles have been almost untouchable with three running clocks and a nail-biting win over rival Wynford to secure home field advantage in the postseason. There has been a ton of growth on this team from preseason to now and Colonel Crawford is playing some of its best football at just the right time with a Week 11 game against Seneca East coming up Friday night.

2. Galion (7-3, 4-3)

An up-and-down season for the Tigers who came in with sky high expectations. They opened with wins over Wynford, Carey and Upper Sandusky in nonleague play and moved to 4-0 beating Clear Fork. Three losses — largely due to key injuries suffered in each game — in the next four put the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference title out of reach.

But Galion was able to close out the season strong winning a shootout with River Valley and throttling Harding to build some momentum heading into the postseason. And unlike last year, the Tigers will get to suit up in front of the home crowd in Week 11 welcoming Oberlin Firelands. They're as healthy as they're going to get and that's huge for this team.

3. Wynford (6-4, 5-2)

Nobody had a tougher opening month of the season than the Royals. They went 1-3 with losses to Galion, Western Reserve and Carey — a win over Pleasant sandwiched between — but managed to finish out 5-1 with the lone loss coming against rival Colonel Crawford late in the game. Wynford has improved more than anyone since last season and it was apparent from Week 1 giving Galion all it could handle.

This is a team clicking riding some momentum into the playoffs and that's all any coach ever wants. Wynford travels up to Defiance to play Tinora Friday night.

4. Buckeye Central (3-7, 1-6)

It was disappointing, but also one to be proud of when the Bucks sit down to reflect on the season. They started out with a pair of big wins over Crestline and Fremont St. Joe's by a 117-0 margin before slipping up against a tricky Ada team. The losing streak stretched to six before coming to a screeching halt following an impressive 55-14 win over county rival Bucyrus to not only put an end to a six-game skid, but it snapped a 21-game Northern 10 losing streak dating back to 2020.

This was a team that had playoff aspirations coming into the season, but injuries derailed that. And still, the Bucks were a win away from sneaking in and the 48-42 loss to Upper Sandusky a week before beating Bucyrus wouldn't done the trick. Still, this team put a losing streak to rest and can look ahead to a promising future.

5. Bucyrus (0-10, 0-7)

Very little went Bucyrus' way this season. Just once was a game competitive at the end — a 36-28 loss to Cardington-Lincoln — and the remaining nine games featured a running clock either the entirety of the second half or a chunk of it. There was always going to be a learning curve with a new coach and a new quarterback was thrust into the starting lineup early in the season.

Defensively they allowed the most points (565) and yards per game (427.9), and offensively had the fewest points scored (136) and rushing yards (574) but were fifth in the league passing (1,659). There's a lot of work that needs done, but hopefully the lows of this season are enough to motivate Bucyrus to put in the time in the offseason and ensure another winless season isn't in its future.

6. Crestline (0-10, 0-9)

It was a season to forget for Crestline going winless for the third consecutive year bringing the program's losing streak to 29 which is tied for the 22nd-longest streak in OHSAA history. The Bulldogs were shut out six times this season and scored twice in a game just once for a total of 34 points on offense. Defensively they allowed 495 points and were running clocked eight of the 10 games.

Numbers have been Crestline's biggest struggle and if things don't change soon, the losing streak may not end in the near future. It might be time to consider 8-man football for the program, which could really help in the advancement of it down the road along with giving the Bulldogs a chance to win a couple games.

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Colonel Crawford are Crawford County Power Poll champs for fourth time