Published October 06, 2008 09:26 am - Footballs were flying all over the place as Clear Creek-Amana upended Oskaloosa 35-33 Friday night.
Smith passes Clippers past Indians
By JIM GRIES
Herald sports editor
TIFFIN
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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.