January 13, 2025

Creston kicks off football season tonight

By JARED LARSON

Creston senior Austin Seaton is one of the four captains this fall for the Panthers. He returns after missing the first four games of the 2021 season and will play at offensive line and linebacker for Creston this season. (JARED LARSON)

For a program that lost 12 seniors to graduation and had 14 juniors on the 2021 roster, 11 Panthers who are now seniors return to the 2022 team.

“As far as the returning guys that understand our system, I’m very excited about them,” head coach Brian Morrison said. “We tweak things year to year, but we’re pretty consisten in what we do in our program. It’s been a fun four weeks and it’s been a fun summer.”

There are over 50 members listed on Creston’s varsity roster on Bound.

“This is the biggest number of kids we’ve had on the roster, ninth through 12th grade, since I’ve been the head coach,” Morrison said. “That’s good news for the program. That means our flag football program, our junior padded program, our junior high program is feeding us kids.”

Creston’s schedule is a mirror of the 2021 season, road games are now home games and vice versa.

The Panthers host the Clarinda Cardinals today, travel to Winterset on Sept. 3, host Denison-Schleswig on Sept. 9, head to Gilbert on Sept. 16, have a Panther-Panther battle against Knoxville for Homecoming on Sept. 23, play at ADM on Sept. 30, head 35 miles east of ADM the following week to play Saydel on Oct. 7, host 2021 class 3A state champion Harlan on Oct. 14 and finish out the regular season against Atlantic on Oct. 21.

Focus wise, no specific team is necessarily circled on the calendar

“I think for a team where we want to be at the end of the season we have to focus on us first,” Morrison said. “I think our kids’ focus is improving on us, Creston, and that should take care of itself.”

Coach Morrison enters his 13th year at the helm of Creston football.

There are some underclassmen that have been making strides in camp this summer.

“Weston Trapp, he’s a running back and safety for us,” Morrison said. “He was dinged up in the scrimmage against Carlisle a little bit but he’s fully healthy for us. Xander Drake has performed well for a sophomore at wide receiver. We’ve been slowing things down for him so he understands what he’s doing, he’s a playmaker. Those two sophomores will see reps (today).”

The captains for the 2022 Panthers are Ty Morrison, Gannon Greenwalt, Kyle Strider and Austin Seaton.

Last year’s passing breakdown had 56 completions attributed to Strider and one to Cael Turner.

“Strider, he’s the guy,” Morrison said. “He is a great leader for us. Not just on offense, but as a leader of the team. He’s done really good things for us throughout the summer and of course in the preseason. I’m excited to see how he develops. Brandon Phipps does a great job with the quarterbacks. Those guys will be prepared, there’s no doubt.”

With Chris Wilson and Owen Richards graduated and currently at Graceland University, and Avery Fuller at Benedictine College, the offensive line is rebuilding this fall.

“We’re losing three really good linemen from last year,” Morrison said. “Jagger Luther we return him as a starter at center. Max Chapman he’s another returner. We also have kids that pieced in last year, Tucker Rohrig started and played the entire game against Clarinda last year as a sophomore, he’s done well. Quinten Fuller, he’s done an outstanding job at playing on both sides of the football. Moving Austin Seaton, who was hurt the first five or six weeks of last season, we moved him to guard this season. Payton Conley has also moved to guard to give us some depth. I’m very pleased with that group of kids.”

Trapp has healed up and Creston looks to be at full strength against Clarinda tonight at 7 p.m.

“Right now, we should be full go with everybody,” Morrison said. “I think it’d be the first time in a long time. Last year we played pretty clean which helped us.”

Lineups

Creston(0-0, 0-0)

OFFENSE

T Max Chapman 6-4 240 Jr.

G Austin Seaton 6-0 195 Sr.

C Jagger Luther 5-8 210 Jr.

G Tucker Rohrig 6-1 215 Jr.

T Quinten Fuller 6-2 235 Jr.

WR Brandon Briley 5-8 145 Jr.

WR McCoy Haines 5-9 145 Jr.

WR Dylan Calvin 6-0 165 Jr.

QB Kyle Strider 6-2 185 Sr.

RB Brennan Hayes 6-0 180 Jr.

H Will Bolinger 5-9 180 Jr.

PAT/FG Brennan Hayes 6-0 180 Jr.

DEFENSE

DL Max Chapman 6-4 240 Jr.

DL Quinten Fuller 6-2 235 Jr.

DL Payton Conley 6-0 160 Sr.

LB Austin Evans 5-8 150 Jr.

LB Ty Morrison 6-0 185 Sr.

LB Austin Seaton 6-0 195 Sr.

LB Cade Wurster 5-10 170 Sr.

SEC McCoy Haines 5-9 145 Jr.

SEC Dylan Calvin 6-0 165 Jr.

SEC Gannon Greenwalt 6-0 185 Sr.

SEC Cael Turner 6-2 165 Jr.

P Dylan Calvin 6-0 165 Jr.