Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Lance Pedersen knows what it takes to win playoff football games, or in the case of Clear Creek Amana on Friday night to win games that clinch playoff spots.

First on the top of that list is limiting mistakes.

The Clippers made too many miscues on Friday and Pella pounced on nearly every single one.

Pella bolted to a 14-0 lead less than five minutes into the game and rolled to a 35-7 win over Clear Creek Amana in a key Class 4A, District 4 contest at Clipper Field in Tiffin.

“We all know Pella is a great football team and you have to play your best football to beat a great football team,” Pedersen said. “We didn’t get that done tonight and give them a lot of credit for how they played, they played really well and they have great athletes and they really did a great job.”

Senior quarterback Griffin Simpson threw for 191 yards and four touchdowns as Pella improved to 5-3 on the season including 3-1 in District 4 play and locked up the runner-up district finish and spot in the 4A playoffs.

Clear Creek Amana dropped to 5-3 with its second consecutive loss and will need a win in its regular season finale next Friday at Oskaloosa (0-8) to have a chance to secure a playoff spot as an RPI additional qualifier.

The Clippers were 11^th in the 4A RPI ratings this week.

“We just didn’t do enough things to put us in position to have success today,” Pedersen said. “That’s a downer for us, it’s one of the first time we’ve had that in a while and hopefully our guys can regroup and bounce back and have a great week nine.”

Clear Creek Amana threw three interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown, had a punt blocked, committed six turnovers and was sacked six times.

Pella played a big role in many of those Clipper mistakes.

Five different Pella players recorded a sack, including Iowa commit, Kyler VanMaanen.

Three different Dutch had an interception including Quintin Scott who returned a pick 19 yards for a touchdown to give Pella a 14-0 lead with 7:26 left in the opening quarter.

“You can’t shoot yourself in the foot,” Pedersen said. “Against good teams you can’t have turnovers, against good teams you have to make sure you play solid football and we didn’t get that done tonight but I know this group of guys, this group of seniors I know they are going to bring us back and we’ll have our best football game next Friday.”

Clear Creek Amana went three-and-out on the game’s opening possession.

A false start penalty turned a third-and-two into third-and-seven and junior quarterback Texton Bollers was sacked by William Schuknecht on third down.

On Pella’s third play from scrimmage Simpson found 6-foot-5 senior Logan VanDenBroek for the first of his two touchdown catches, a 33-yarder that gave the Dutch a 7-0 lead less than four minutes into the game.

On the second play of the ensuing Clipper possession Scott picked off a Bollers pass and raced 19 yards for a touchdown.

A Schuknecht interception set up a Max Stelpflug 29-yard touchdown pass from Simpson to make the score 21-0 and Simpson hit VanDenBroek for a 9-yard strike that put the Dutch up 28-0 at the half.

“We just had too many assignment errors tonight and you can’t have those in week eight,” Pedersen said. “That is something that we have to look at, that is something we have to get better at.”

The leading passer in 4A this season, Bollers completed 11-of-28 passes for 187 yards with Noah Evans catching three passes for 67 yards.

Pella limited Clear Creek Amana to 50 rushing yards while holding an opponent to seven points or fewer for the fourth time this season and third time in three district games.

“I think the biggest thing is they just are really solid up front,” Pedersen said. “They have great athletes, they throw a lot of different looks at you and they get off the football in a hurry and they are attacking all the time.”

                                       CCA                PEL

First downs                9                      10

Rushes-yards             22-50               25-99

Comp-Att-Int            11-28-3           12-21-0

Passing yards             187                  218

Total yards                237                  317

Punts-Avg.                 5-24.8              3-36.3

Fumbles-lost              0-0                   1-1

Penalties-yard           6-40                 7-61                    

Pella                                       14  14  7  0  –  35

Clear Creek Amana          0    0   0  7  –   7 

PEL – Logan VanDenBroek 33 pass from Griffin Simpson (Brody VanZee kick)

PEL – Quintin Scott 19 interception return (VanZee kick)

PEL – Max Stelpflug 29 pass from Simpson (VanZee kick)

PEL – VanDenBroek 9 pass from Simpson (VanZee kick)

PEL – Aidyn Halverson 25 pass from Simpson (VanZee kick)

CCA – Cal Robertson 70 run (Aiden Gross kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – CCA: Cal Robertson 5-72, Ian Kelley 7-10, Texton Bollers 10-(-29), Team 1-(-3). PEL: Riker Branderhorst 15-84, William Schuknecht 3-6, Griffin Simpson 5-(-6), Jesse Chapman 4-2, Tyler Thorson 1-(-8).

PASSING – CCA: Texton Bollers 11-28-3 187. PEL: Griffin Simpson 11-19-0 191, Tyler Thorson 1-2-0 27.

RECEIVING – CCA: Noah Evans 3-67, Brady Hilsman 2-47, Armanie McIntosh-Clemons 2-13, Myles Howell 1-28, Nolan Dao 1-17, Jonah Drake 1-10, Ian Kelley 1-5. PEL: Logan VanDenBroek 6-98, Max Stelpflug 2-80, Aidyn Halverson 1-25, Henry Allen 1-10, Riker Branderhorst 1-7, William Schuknecht 1-4.

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