Matt Coss

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Lance Pedersen had very few complaints about how his defense performed for about three quarters Friday night.

The problem for Clear Creek Amana’s football team was it couldn’t generate any offense to help support that defense.

Limited to a season low in points and yards, CCA had its three-game win streak halted by North Scott, 28-7, in a Class 4A District 3 contest at Clipper Field.

“I thought defensively we played really solid and were able to stop the run, but we really struggled offensively tonight,” Pedersen said. “The offense has to have more production.”

CCA (4-3, 2-1 district) mustered only 172 total yards, including just 80 rushing yards on 35 attempts.

Dual-threat quarterback Conlan Poynton, who came in among the state leaders in touchdowns with 19, was held to 36 rushing yards on 19 carries.

“We had a great game plan,” North Scott do-it-all senior Cash Bowe said. “We watched a lot of film and knew a lot of their tendencies. (Poynton) is a great athlete and runs the ball a lot, but we did a great job containing him.”

The Clippers went three-and-out on their first three possession and generated only one first down in the game’s first 19 minutes.

CCA was never inside North Scott’s 30-yard line until its lone scoring drive of the game in the fourth quarter.

“Every once in a while you’re going to get beat physically, but you can’t make those mental mistakes,” Pedersen said. “We had too many of those today to be successful against a very good football team.”

CCA held North Scott (5-2, 2-1) to just one scoring drive in the first half.

In particular, the Clippers bottled up the Lancers’ ground game, handcuffing them to 28 rushing yards before intermission.

“I thought we were tackling aggressively and played good assignment ball that first half,” Pedersen said.

The Lancers seized control after intermission. Quarterback Chase Smith connected with his favorite targets, Carson Lage and Bowe, for 32-, 21- and 15-yard completions on the opening drive of the third quarter.

The last one resulted in a touchdown to Bowe and made it 14-0.

Bowe had his fingerprints all over the win.

The team’s top receiver hauled in 11 receptions for 108 yards and a score, threw a touchdown pass and tallied a rushing score in the fourth quarter.

“I wasn’t expecting to come in and do that this week,” said Bowe, who finished with 185 all-purpose yards and took over at quarterback in the second half after Smith departed with cramps. “Hopefully, Chase is OK and I can stick to receiving touchdowns.”

Bowe hit Lage for a 14-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter to make it 21-0.

“(Bowe) is a very, very good football player,” Pedersen said. “Wherever he’s at on the field, he’s an athlete and does a lot of good things. We knew coming in, we had to figure out where he was on the field.

“We game-planned around him a little bit, but he was still able to get his. He did a great job.”

Cale Berry hauled in a 5-yard touchdown pass from Poynton for CCA’s only score.

It was a pivotal win for North Scott, which was coming off a 28-21 loss to district leader Cedar Rapids Xavier last week.

The Lancers, who played without leading rusher Jerrod Lee and multiple linemen because of injuries, can secure a playoff berth with wins over Clinton and Oskaloosa the next two Fridays.

“Everybody knew the pressure on this game,” Bowe said. “It was our toughest (district) game after Xavier, so we knew it was going to help a lot for the playoffs.”

Now, CCA is in a similar position.

The Clippers travel to Xavier next week and then close the regular season at home against Clinton.

In all likelihood, CCA needs to win both to reach the playoffs.

“It is a huge football game next week,” Pedersen said. “It doesn’t get much tougher than this, but we’re going to have a good week of practice and I know our guys will come out ready.

“Typically, kids are more resilient than us adults. We’ll have our meeting Sunday, watch the film and figure out what we can do better. We’re going to have to because if you go in not ready to play against Xavier, it is going to be a tough battle.”

                                    NS                CCA

First downs                 20                    13

Rushes-yards              30-96               35-80

Comp-Att-Int              18-25-1           17-30-1

Passing yards              218                  92

Total yards                  314                  172

Punts-avg.                   4-39.8              6-33.0

Fumbles-lost               1-0                   0-0

Penalties-yards           11-85               7-60

North Scott                 0  7  7  14 – 28

Clear Creek Amana  0  0  0   7  –  7

Scoring plays

NS – Evan Kruse 6 run (Chase Smith kick)

NS – Cash Bowe 15 pass from Chase Smith (Smith kick)

NS – Carson Lage 14 pass from Bowe (Gehrig Kirst kick)

CCA – Cale Berry 5 pass from Conlan Poynton (Aiden Gross kick)

NS – Bowe 11 run (Kirst kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING — North Scott: Evan Kruse 16-58, Chase Smith 6-26, Cash Bowe 3-15, Will McDermott 3-5, Team 2-(-8). CCA: Conlan Poynton 19-36, Noah Collis 11-31, Ethan Vice 5-13.

PASSING — North Scott: Smith 13-17-1, 156; Bowe 5-8-0, 62. CCA: Poynton 16-31-1, 78; Wyatt Key 1-4-0, 14.

RECEIVING – North Scott: Bowe 11-108, Carson Lage 6-106, Jesse Eller 1-4. CCA: Nick Daniel 4-41, Cale Nash 6-30, Owen Rosenberg 3-13, Cale Berry 3-12, Vice 1-(-4)

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