Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports  

NORTH LIBERTY – It might be easy to say Clear Creek Amana’s football team pulled a rabbit out of its hat Friday night.

Then again this game was more like chasing that white rabbit down the hole to Wonderland.

Clipper senior Gage Freeman seemingly came out of nowhere to catch a perfect strike from quarterback Ben Swails for the winning touchdown.

It came on a fourth-and-16 at the Clipper 40-yard line with only 2 minutes, 14 seconds left in the game.

The Clippers prevailed 31-30, and if they were smart they hustled back across I-380 before the rabbit reversed course.

“I think we’ve found about every way to win football games with how we won at Marion, blocking a punt and getting a fourth-down stop, and then this tonight. Fourth-and-16 and make a big play,” CCA coach Matt Haddy said. “Our kids stayed with it, and they find a way.”

The stunning result doesn’t take away from an incredibly productive night by Liberty running back Darius Willis-Newell.

Willis-Newell rushed for 306 yards on 45 carries and scored four touchdowns behind a dominant offensive line of Peyton Kurtz, Will Quast-Villafana, Zach Gallagher, Carter Webb and Max Beckman.

“I think our offense took a tremendous step forward,” Liberty High coach James Harris said. “Darius is a really good football player.”

Liberty rushed for 351 yards while CCA had 62.

“Defensively we played amazing in the first half and then we let them make plays,” Harris said. “They threw the ball more effectively. (Harrison Rosenberg) did a nice job.”

Rosenberg caught five passes for 129 yards, and Swails finished with 248 passing yards.

The winning play was called a “trips right slant rail,” and it was put in just this week to try to take advantage of Liberty’s coverage.

Three receivers are on the right and slant to the left, creating the impression that the play is going in that direction.

Freeman is isolated on a linebacker and goes right and down the sideline.

“I trust him as a playmaker to go make a play,” Swails said.

Freeman thought he could beat the linebacker down the field.

He emerged from the gaggle of bodies in the middle of the field and raced down the sideline as Swails eluded the rush and threw a perfect pass.

CCA fans erupted. It was the first time CCA had a lead.

“You don’t have a ton of plays for fourth-and-16 in the playbook,” Haddy cracked. “Our offensive line gave Ben an opportunity to throw. He made a good throw, and Gage ran a good route. We ran it one other time in the game and they covered Gage up.’

As happened most of the second half, Liberty responded, moving from its 34 to the Clipper 24 in two plays.

But on the third play, Willis-Newell, on his 45^th carry, fumbled, and Clipper Tommy Morlan recovered.

It appeared Liberty was ready to retake the lead on the quick-response drive and might have but for Morlan’s recovery.

CCA gave up an intentional safety with 2.5 seconds left and that was the end.

The Clippers already had one of these heart-pounding victories, a 36-35 decision at Marion in which they erased a 12-point lead with nine minutes to play.

But this is the backyard brawl between neighboring schools.

“This is better,” Swails said. “This is a rivalry of ours; it always has been,”

                                    CCA               ICL

First downs                 13                       25

Rushing-yards             20-62               57-359

Comp-Att-Int              13-24-0           9-15-0

Passing-yards              248                  107

Punts-avg.                   4-30                 3-42

Fumbles-lost               2-1                   2-1

Penalties-yards           3-15                 7-60

CCA                          0  7  17  7  –  31

Liberty High          7  7  14  2  –  30

ICL – Darius Willis-Newell 1 run (Emerson Bennett kick)

ICL – Willis-Newell 32 run (Bennett kick)

CCA – Harrison Rosenberg 14 pass from Ben Swails (Grant Kruse kick)

CCA – Kruse 37 field goal

ICL – Willis-Newell 9 run (Bennett kick)

CCA – Rosenberg 41 pass from Swails (Kruse kick)

ICL – Willis-Newell 6 run (Bennett kick)

CCA – Swails 61 run (Kruse kick)

CCA – Gage Freeman 60 pass from Swails (Kruse kick)

ICL – Safety when Swails ran out of end zone

Individual statistics

RUSHING – CCA: Ben Swails 7-46, Gage Freeman 7-24, Xavier Williams 3-12, team 3-(-20); Liberty: Darius Willis-Newell 45-306, Luke Meyers 7-41, Trey Gregoire 1-3.

PASSING – CCA: Swails 13-24-0 248; Liberty: Tye Hughes 9-15-0 107.

RECEIVING – CCA: Harrison Rosenberg 5-129, Gage Freeman 2-75, Jackson Schmidt 1-13, Blaine Stockman 2-12, Reece Hoffman 1-12, Jack Stevens 1-3. Liberty: Ja’Quez Hall 3-43, Christian Barney 1-30, Meyers 2-21, Griffin Kraft 3-13.

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