Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – The question has been asked in Tiffin quite a few times over the last three seasons.

“Is this the biggest game in Clear Creek Amana football history?”

That inquiry was made often during a 6-0 start for the Clippers in 2016.

The question came back this fall as Clear Creek Amana began to string wins together to open the season and it was offered up to players and coaches again last week before a meeting with perennial power Davenport Assumption.

“This is the biggest game for Clear Creek Amana since when?”

The questions can stop now.

The biggest game in Clear Creek Amana football is Friday at 7:15 p.m. when fourth-ranked North Scott (6-1) comes to Clipper Stadium with the Class 3A District 5 title up for grabs and everyone knows it.

Except the Clippers.

“It’s a big game but all our games are big that’s kind of the way we look at it,” junior left tackle Eric Zierke said. “I never think too much about all that other stuff, how big it is. It’s big because we want to win each week.”

The comments from Zierke exude the refreshingly humble attitude for sixth-ranked Clear Creek Amana (7-0), a workman like team that reflects that attitude of their second-year head coach Gabe Bakker.

In the wake of a top-10 matchup with a perennial power that will likely decide a district championship, automatic playoff berth and an opening-round home game the Clippers spoke only of improving.

“We just try to work hard on what we are doing and get better every day,” junior outside linebacker Zane Cunningham said. “It doesn’t matter who we are playing or how big the game is or anything like that we are looking at ourselves first and controlling what we can do.”

It isn’t as if Clear Creek Amana hasn’t had big games in recent history.

A home win over West Delaware got the Clippers to 6-0 in 2016.

This season there was a thrilling last second road win at Marion in week four followed by back-to-back district blowouts of Liberty High and Clinton.

Last week’s rain-soaked 17-7 win over Davenport Assumption gave Clear Creek Amana it’s first 7-0 start in program history.

None of those are what Bakker saw as the turning point for his program which has gone from three-wins a year ago to one of the biggest surprises in the state this fall.

Bakker points towards the season opener at Mount Pleasant as a watershed moment for his team.

“We didn’t do much the first half and when we kind of got it going in the second half our guys were coming off the field with a different look in their eyes,” Bakker said. “It was something I hadn’t seen from them before.”
Clear Creek Amana rattled off 26 unanswered points in that 26-7 week one win at Mount Pleasant and hasn’t stopped since.

The Clippers have had just one game decided by less than 10 points, a 17-15 road win over Marion and have allowed seven points or fewer in six games.

“We are built on defense and that’s kind of how we like it,” Cunningham said. “We take a lot of pride in playing defense.”

The Clippers will need to be at their best on Friday.

North Scott brings a six-game winning streak to Clipper Field and is battle tested against some of the best teams in Eastern Iowa.

The Lancers opened the season with a 28-7 loss at 4A seventh-ranked two two-time defending runner-up West High.

North Scott has run the table since with wins over 4A Pleasant Valley (3-4) and Davenport Central (4-3) and 3A No. 10 Western Dubuque.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us because they are an extremely good football team,” Bakker said. “They are physical and well-coached. They do a lot of things really well.”

There is no doubt about it, this game is a big one, as big as any regular season game they’ve ever played at Clear Creek Amana.

As Zierke points out next week’s game is big as well and so is the one after that. The longer the season goes the bigger the games get and that’s the way the Clippers want it.

“They are all big games, they really are,” Zierke said. “Playing games that mean a lot at this time of year is what you want.”

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