By JIM GRIES
TIFFIN — When two high school quarterbacks put the ball in the air 67 times, chances are a lot of yards and a lot of points will be scored.
That was the case Friday night at Burns Field when Class 3A, District 5 foes Oskaloosa and Clear Creek-Amana met on the gridiron for the first time ever.
The Clippers’ Blaze Smith threw for 362 yards and five touchdowns while the Indians’ Jon Eveland passed for 318 yards and two scores as Clear Creek-Amana squeaked out a wild 35-33 victory.
The win puts the Clippers in third place in the district at 3-1 and their overall record at 4-2 while the Indians fall to 2-4 and 2-2.
Clear Creek-Amana used its quick-striking offense to score all of its points while having the ball for just a little more than 15 minutes. Smith, the second-leading passer in the district, had touchdown tosses of 60, 30, 39, 48 and 14 yards among his 20 of 31 passing numbers. Two of the scores went to Josh Showalter, who had eight receptions for 163 yards.
Eveland completed 20 of his 36 pass attempts with most going to Wiebe Goodyk, who hauled in a dozen passes for 214 yards. Both of Eveland’s TD passes went to Andrew Reed as he caught six passes for 64 yards.
The fireworks didn’t get ignited until the Clippers’ second possession after Oskaloosa’s Matt Bowie punted just 10 yards to the Clear Creek-Amana 40.
The Indians’ Jake Niedermann sacked Smith for a 6-yard loss on the first play before Smith got those yards back on a completion to Zack West. On the following play, Smith found Showalter behind the Oskaloosa defense for a 60-yard TD at the 5:52 mark and a 7-0 lead after Lucas Rohret booted the PAT.
The Indians needed to answer and they did on the ensuing possession after Jordan Van Wyk returned the kickoff 16 yards to the Oskaloosa 34.
They went the 66 yards in eight plays with the big play being a 46-yard pass play from Eveland to Goodyk that placed the ball at the Clippers’ 9. Three plays later, Austin Blanchard blasted in from a yard out with 2:42 remaining in the opening quarter to tie the game at 7 following Reed’s PAT.
Oskaloosa forced Clear Creek-Amana into a three-and-out the next time the Clippers had the ball. The Indians held the Clippers to one yard and two incomplete passes and Oskaloosa got the ball back at its 46-yard line.
Eveland connected with Goodyk for a 29-yard gain to the Clear Creek-Amana 25 for one of Oskaloosa’s 26 first downs it had in the game. Three plays later, Jordan Van Wyk ran in from 12 yards out to put Oskaloosa in front 13-7 with 51 seconds left in the opening quarter.
While Smith was providing the Clippers with most of the offense, senior Alex Novak created havoc from his defensive end spot.
The 6-foot-8, 210-pound Novak was seemingly in the Oskaloosa backfield the entire first half. He recorded five sacks and had six solo tackles among the nine total tackles he had.
Novak sacked Eveland four times on consecutive possessions in the second quarter and the Clippers scored twice following those possessions.
The first score came after Novak tackled Eveland for a 10-yard loss to turn the ball over on downs at the Clear Creek-Amana 38. Smith threw 23 yards to Showalter then the junior quarterback ran for nine yards to set up the duo’s second touchdown of the game — a 30-yard completion at the 6:48 mark of the period. Rohret booted the PAT to put the Clippers ahead for good at 14-13.
On its next possession, Oskaloosa had the ball for 10 plays, but went just 28 yards before Novak sacked Eveland for the fourth time in the first half. The final play of the drive was a sack of Eveland on fourth down and the Clippers gained control of the ball at their 38.
Smith accounted for all 62 yards on three completions with the final 39 yards to Josh Rohret with about 2 minutes to go in the opening half and a 21-13 lead at intermission.
“We just didn’t respond very well blocking-wise and that hurt us offensively,” Oskaloosa coach Darrell Schumacher said. “We’ve got to do a better job offensively blocking. We’ve got to stop people. We’ve got to do a lot of different things better. That’s the key. We just didn’t adjust very well.”
Clear Creek-Amana couldn’t move the ball on the first possession of the second half and the Indians got the ball at their 33.
Disaster almost struck the Indians as Novak sacked Eveland for the fifth time and the Oskaloosa junior quarterback fumbled on the Indians 47. Fortunately for the Indians, senior offensive lineman Alex Sirovy pounced on the ball to keep Oskaloosa’s offense on the field. Van Wyk ran for 9 yards and Eveland threw 16 yards to Goodyk to get the ball past midfield. A run by Van Wyk for 14 yards set up Blanchard’s second TD run of the game, this time from 3 yards out with 6:20 to go in the period to make it 21-19. Van Wyk tried to run in the 2-point conversion, but was stopped short of the end zone.
The Clippers added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter and both times, Oskaloosa responded with scores of their own to get back in the game.
After Smith found Zack West for a 49-yard touchdown to cap off a 3-play, 80-yard drive that lasted all but 51 seconds early in the final quarter, the Indians put together a scoring drive of their own.
Oskaloosa moved the ball from its 42 to the Clippers’ 12 thanks to 17 yards in two Clear Creek-Amana penalties. Van Wyk was tackled for a 2-yard loss and fumbled on the play. Matt Bowie recovered the fumble at the 14. Clear Creek-Amana was whistled for its second pass interference penalty to place the ball at the 8 and two plays later, Eveland passed 7 yards to Reed for the touchdown. Reed kicked the PAT to make it a 28-26 contest.
The Clippers answered right back as Smith used his arm and his legs to score an insurance touchdown. Smith ran 22 yards for a first down then culminated the 8-play drive with a 14-yard touchdown toss to Travis Dimmer with 3:36 remaining and a 35-26 lead.
The Indians got the game’s final touchdown as the Eveland-Reed connection came through on an 8-yard scoring pass with 1:42 to go and a two-point Clipper lead.
The Clippers got its 15th and final first down on a 10-yard run by Smith and they ran out the clock for the win.
“In the second half, they didn’t do anything different, we just played better and our kids sucked it up and played harder,” Schumacher said. “They did the job. We’ve got to make sure we stop people.
“As a total team, we’ve got to do a better job. As a coaching staff and as a football team, we’ve got to do a better job of putting them in the right spots and making sure we can play hard.”
Oskaloosa returns home this week for a game against Fairfield, which lost to Keokuk 28-0 last week.
Clear Creek-Amana 35, Oskaloosa 33
Oskaloosa 13 0 6 14 — 33
CC-A 7 14 0 14 — 35
Scoring Summary
CC-A — Josh Showalter 60 pass from Blaze Smith (Lucas Rohret kick), 5:52
O — Austin Blanchard 1 run (Andrew Reed kick), 2:42
O — Jordan Van Wyk 12 run (KIck failed), :51
CC-A — Showalter 30 pass from Smith (Rohret kick), 6:48
CC-A — Josh Rohret 39 pass from Smith (L. Rohret kick), 2:09
O — Blanchard 3 run (Run failed), 6:20
CC-A — Zack West 48 pass from Smith (L Rohret kick), 10:55
O — Reed 7 pass from Jon Eveland (Reed kick), 7:17
CC-A — Travis Dimmer 14 pass from Smith (L. Rohret kick), 3:36
O — Reed 8 pass from Eveland (Reed kick), 1:54
Team Statistics
O CC-A
First downs 26 15
Rushes-yards 56-168 15-47
Passing yards 318 362
Total yards 486 409
Comp-Att-Int 20-36-2 20-31-1
Punts 3-27.3 4-24.0
Penalties-yards 6-60 6-40
Fumbles-lost 2-0 0-0
Time/possession 32:23 15:37
Individual Statistics
Rushing — Oskaloosa, Austin Blanchard 21-95, Jordan Van Wyk 20-79, Tye Sparks 6-15. Clear Creek-Amana, Blaze Smith 12-48.
Passing — Oskaloosa, Jon Eveland 20-36-318-2. Clear Creek-Amana, Smith 20-31-362-1.
Receiving — Oskaloosa, Wiebe Goodyk 12-214, Andrew Reed 6-64, Van Wyk 21, Matt Bowie 1-19. Clear Creek-Amana, Josh Showalter 8-163, Travis Dimmer 5-68, Zack West 2-54, Josh Rohret 2-44, Ted Hergert 2-18, Mike Lewis 1-15.
Tackles — Oskaloosa, Drew Ruggles 9, Reed 5, Kyle Ford 5, Ben Bricker 4, Quentin VandeStroet 4. Clear Creek-Amana, Will Stockman 18, West 13, Garett Prusha 11, Alex Novak 9, Anthony Hutchinson 8 .
Sacks — Oskaloosa, Bowie, Jak Niedermann. Clear Creek-Amana, Novak 5.
Interceptions — Oskaloosa, Goodyk. Clear Creek-Amana, Stockman 2.
