Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports 

TIFFIN – Just a scant four weeks ago the Clear Creek Amana football team opened the season at home with what might charitably be called a belly flop.

But that 42-20 loss to Mount Pleasant served as more than just a temporary embarrassment. It focused the Clippers on the task at hand each week.

The result:  three consecutive convincing victories, the latest a 47-7 Homecoming drubbing of winless Marion.

“We’ve come very far actually. We came out that first game, and we were all talk and no walk,” junior running back Cole Pfister said. “We thought we had it in the bag before we even started. We didn’t show up to play ball.”

“We kind of got humbled by Mount Pleasant,” junior running back Alex Figueroa said. “We thought we were the big dogs, you know. It was a great learning experience.”

Marion came in 0-3, but the Indians hadn’t exactly lost to the local Pop Warner football club. They lost to two top-six ranked teams in 3A and on the road at perennial contender West Delaware.

“We expected it to be a hard-fought game,” Clipper junior T.J. Bollers said.

The Clippers spotted the Indians a 7-3 lead midway through the first quarter and then took over behind the physical play of their offensive and defensive lines and some quick, darting runs by a bevy of running backs.

“That first good run it was like, ‘Yeah, we can play,” Figueroa said. “Our O-line was hyped up. We were just all ready to play.”

CCA took the lead for good on an 80-yard touchdown drive in answer to Marion’s only score. Pfister ran 48 yards for the TD after a great cutback in traffic.

“All the credit goes to my O-line there,” he said. “They block, and they just keep going up field. One kid ran a block for 20 yards; that’s all it is.”

“Oh yeah I definitely did (feel the momentum switch),” junior lineman Aaron Feinberg said. “We scored that first touchdown and it’s homecoming. We were just trying to win.”

“After that first quarter our kids really got into a rhythm and it was really fun to watch them play,” Clipper coach Gabe Bakker said.

Early in the second quarter the Clippers took over on their own 20 after a Marion field-goal attempt went wide.

Figueroa took the handoff and ran 80 yards down the sideline to the end zone.

“I just ran up the middle and I had good blocks and a big hole,” Figueroa said.

Earlier in the game Figueroa, who rushed for 178 yards on only nine carries, had another breakaway run but was hauled down from behind by Marion’s Connor Whalen to save a touchdown.

The Clippers settled for a JJ Denny field goal.

“I was mad because I started looking back on that first run, and I thought it can’t happen again,” Figueroa said. “I was just like ‘I gotta run. I can’t get caught.’”

That was just the start of the onslaught. Denny intercepted a Marion pass at the 41-yard line and returned it to the 8, leading to a 25-yard Denny field goal and a 19-7 lead.

Then defensive end T.J. Bollers came up with the play of the game.

Marion bobbled the kickoff out of bounds on its own 10-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage Bollers broke through the line and messed up the timing of the option pitch and recovered the ball in the end zone for a TD.

“I can’t tell you about that because honestly it was so fast I have no idea what happened,” Bollers said. “My guy, he was kind of late to get off (the line) and I saw the ball get snapped, so I just shoved him into the ball. And the ball just bounced so I picked it up, and I turned around to see what the call was going to be. He called it a touchdown. I was like running around the end zone because I have no idea what to do because nobody saw the play and everyone was completely silent.”

That score gave CCA a 26-7 lead.

“We just rolled from there,” Pfister said.

CCA scored two touchdowns in the final 1:58 of the first half to salt the game away.

A fine punt return by Gage Freeman set the Clippers up at the Marion 27.

On the first play from scrimmage Pfister caught a screen pass from Ryan Navara and was escorted down the left side of the field into the end zone for a 33-7 lead.

“It ain’t me; it’s all the other players around me,” Pfister said.

After a fumble recovery on the Marion 38 with 1:02 left, CCA drove in for the score with Freeman crashing in from 1 yard out for a 40-7 halftime lead.

The Clippers rushed for 339 yards on 36 carries.

Navara and Ben Swails completed 8-of-16 passes for 88 yards with no interceptions.

The Clippers (3-1) intercepted three passes and recovered four fumbles and held Marion to 102 yards on the ground.

Marion’s biggest pass play came on a halfback pass of 41 yards and the Indians finished with 79 passing yards.

“I think this is our most complete game so far,” Bakker said.

Clear Creek Amana plays at Liberty High next Friday in its district opener.

                                      Marion              CCA

First downs                    11                     16

Rushing-yards            37-102             36-339

Comp-att-int                 6-20-3               8-16-0

Passing-yards                79                      88

Punts-avg.                     4-41                  3-25

Fumbles-lost                  6-4                    3-1

Penalties-yards             8-60                   3-15

Marion                           7    0    0  0  –   7

Clear Creek Amana  10  30   7  0  –  47

CCA – JJ Denny 36 field goal

MAR – Isaac Cechota 16 run (Jaffer Murphy kick)

CCA – Cole Pfister 48 run (Denny kick)

CCA – Alex Figueroa 80 run (Kick failed)

CCA – Denny 25 field goal

CCA – TJ Bollers fumble recovery in end zone (Denny kick)

CCA – Pfister 27 pass from Ryan Navara (Denny kick)

CCA – Gage Freeman 1 run (Denny kick)

CCA – Harrison Cory 29 run (Denny kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – MAR: Isaac Cechota 7-50, Wyatt Cannon 7-42, Max Lovell 13-22, Dane Carstensen 5-3, Keenan Diers 1-0, team 4-(-15). CCA: Alex Figueroa 9-178, Cole Pfister 8-62, Gage Freeman 8-52, Harrison Cory 2-26, Andrew Swails 1-25, Ben Swails 1-7, Lukas Tenhagen 1-6, Tom Johnson 1-2, Ryan Navara 2-0, team 3-(-19).

PASSING – MAR: Lucas Unsen 1-2-0-41, Dane Carstensen 5-9-1-38, Wyatt Cannon 0-9-2-0; CCA: Ryan Navara 5-13-0-63, Ben Swails 3-3-0-25.

RECEIVING – MAR: Connor Whalen 4-80, Isaac Cechota 2-(-1). CCA: Cole Pfister 1-27, Harrison Cory 2-23, Harrison Rosenberg 2-21, Tom Johnson 1-9, T.J. Bollers 1-6, Riley Wolfe 1-2.

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