Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – The Gabe Bakker era at Clear Creek Amana got off to a sputtering start Friday before an overflow crowd at Clipper Field.

Mount Pleasant used a couple first-half touchdowns to take the lead and neither team scored in the second half as the Panthers won 14-7.

The uneven game, from the Clippers’ perspective, was no doubt disappointing but was also understandable given a new coach, a new offensive system that included a no-huddle offense, a new quarterback from a different school, and a host of brand new starters on both sides of the ball.

“There were definitely a lot of penalties,” Clipper senior Cade Gallagher said. “Penalties shot us in the knee a lot. Really what the problem is is practice. I don’t think we’ve been working as hard as we should have been. We kind of came in expecting to be good and expecting to win the game. We have to work harder than we have the past two weeks.”

Befitting an inaugural game for so many people, it was a mixed bag.

The Clippers committed nine penalties that made it nearly impossible to keep scoring drives alive. Yet they committed no turnovers.

“They were twisting around on D-line, confusing our O-line,” Gallagher said. “We need to look for people to block instead of expecting somebody to be there to block. The blame goes on the whole team, but that one good drive is what I know we’re capable of.”

 “We were very fortunate tonight; we played a lot of kids on defense,” Panther coach Shawn Striegel said. “But to only give them seven points is a pretty good night on defense.”

Twice the Clipper defense thwarted Mount Pleasant scoring drives with interceptions in the end zone by Jordan Wolfe and Dylan Sheely. Yet the Panthers also dropped two passes that likely would have resulted in touchdowns.

“We definitely have some things to clean up there,” Striegel said. “But Clear Creek was doing a nice job of disguising and moving things around.”

As it was, Panther quarterback Zach Beason had a nice night with 14 completions in 22 attempts for 181 yards. Big tight end Kieran Kohorst was particularly hard to defend, catching four passes for 80 yards. His big offensive line gave Beason plenty of time to look for receivers down field.

“Their quarterback and their receivers are good players,” Bakker said. “We knew that coming in. They hit a couple big plays in that first half when we had them in third and long.”

The Panthers drove 80 yards after the opening kickoff to score and take a 7-0 lead. The Clippers’ ensuing possession was crippled by penalties. The Panthers then quickly moved into Clipper territory at the 21, but a Beason pass was intercepted by Wolfe in the end zone.

The Clippers responded with an impressive 80-yard touchdown drive of their own, converting a fourth-down-and-8 opportunity at the Panther 17 on a swing pass from Ethan Postler to Matt Brimeyer. Brimeyer took a pitch and ran it in for the tie with 12 seconds left in the first quarter.

While the momentum seemed to have switched sides, Mount Pleasant mounted an 83-yard drive for the go-ahead touchdown with two Beason passes of 26 and 24 yards to Kohorst being keys.

Gallagher said the focus at halftime was an appeal to team pride.

“Our approach was to not be disrespected on our home field,” he said. “We were letting them push us around, run all over us, hit us harder than we were hitting them. We talked about keeping a legacy on this field.”

The Clippers opened the second half with a 12-play drive that got as far as the Panther 31 but was halted by a fumble and two incomplete passes.

“They were blitzing a lot up the middle,” Postler said. “There were just communication problems. It’s the first game. We have a new head coach. I’m a new quarterback. We’ll get it together.”

Their best chance to tie the game came in the fourth quarter. A 33-yard run by Brimeyer around the left end set the Clippers up on the Mount Pleasant 29. But the drive was stopped when a slant pass to T.J. Bollers on fourth-and-8 was just inches short of the first down with 7:06 left.

“We had some good drives going offensively and then we’d get a negative play on a penalty or a substitution issue,” Bakker said. “We need to get these out of our system, and our kids will be ready to come back.

 “Our defense kept us in the ballgame in the second half. Our offense didn’t do enough to put points on the board.”

“We both made some mistakes,” Striegel said. “I think the mental errors really played out in the end because we were two very evenly matched teams.”

                               MP                    CCA

First downs            16                      13

Rushing-yards        38-108               33-150           

Comp-att-int            14-22-2              12-23-0

Passing-yards         181                    69

Punts-avg.               2-51                  6-43

Fumbles-lost            1-0                    1-0

Penalties-yards        1-5                    9-95

Mount Pleasant         7   7   0   0   –  14

Clear Creek Amana   7   0   0   0   –   7

MP – Zach Beason 6 pass to No. 27 (David Blancas kick)

CCA – Matt Brimeyer 7 run (Mitch Evans kick)

MP – Beason 1 run (Blancas kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – MP: Brody McGhghy 20-74, Zach Beason 13-20, Levi Puig 3-12, Caleb Potts 1-3, Keegan Rich 1-(-1). CCA: Matt Brimeyer 12-81, Trever Stockman 6-40, Cade Gallagher 10-36, Andrew Rohret 1-4, David Jensen 1-0, Ethan Postler 3-(-11).

PASSING – MP: Zach Beason 14-22-2-181. CCA: Ethan Postler 12-23-0-69.

RECEIVING – MP: Kieren Kohorst 4-80, Brody McGhghy 5-70, Jordan Magnani 2-19, Keegan Rich 1-8, Chase Lamm 1-7, No. 27 1-6. CCA: T.J. Bollers 4-29, Matt Brimeyer 3-28, Trever Stockman 1-8, Cade Gallagher 1-8, Jordan Wolfe 1-5, Mitch Evans 1-4, Tanner Cochran 1-1.