Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Clear Creek Amana nearly overcame a 21-point second-half deficit to Cedar Rapids Washington before falling 27-24 Friday at Clipper Field.

A fairly mundane first half turned completely wacky in the second.

Cedar Rapids Washington led 13-0 at half after two 80-yard touchdown drives.

The Clippers had their chances in the half, reaching the Warrior 22-yard line on their first possession and the 15-yard line later.

But both drives ended with missed field-goal attempts.

“They punched us in the face, and we went in there and we had to battle back from adversity,” Clear Creek Amana linebacker Brody Clubb said. “We came out the more physical team in the second half. Things didn’t go our way, but we had the mentality to be more physical.”

“In the locker room there was no bad feelings,” sophomore quarterback Cale Berry said. “I thought we were ready to go. We wanted to come out in the second half and just pound them. They punched us first, and we wanted to punch them back in the second half.”

Cedar Rapids Washington tacked on a third touchdown on its first possession of the second half. This time the Warriors only had to travel 51 yards.

Watts McBride cut through the defense for a 39-yard score and a 21-0 lead.

Starting quarterback Jackson Schmidt, the team’s leading rusher in a run-heavy offense, was out with an injury after one quarter and Berry, a sophomore, had taken over.

Down 21 points, the Clippers’ chances did not seem good.

Curiously the Warriors tried an onside kick, which rolled out of bounds and gave the Clippers great field position at the Cedar Rapids Washington 47.

Berry directed the offense to the Warrior 4-yard line, and on fourth-and-goal he tossed a touchdown pass to Andrew Schlemme to get the Clippers within 21-7.

On the next possession the fired-up Clipper defense put so much pressure on quarterback Malik Epps-Keller that he just heaved the ball over the middle.

Clear Creek Amana’s Trace Robertson snatched it and returned it to the Wash 29.

A jet sweep to Marcus Lang on fourth-and-two at the 21 gave the Clippers their second touchdown and a mere 7-point deficit.

The momentum had swung.

“We got the ball moving,” Clubb said. “Obviously our quarterback, Jackson, got hurt, but Cale, our backup, played a hell of a game, stepped up and did his job.”

“I thought we were getting ourselves into a rhythm and playing how we wanted to play and more with the game plan we thought we’d have coming in,” Clear Creek Amana coach Matt Haddy said.

Clear Creek Amana trailed by only seven points and 3 minutes remained in the third quarter.

Penalties left Wash with a second-and-18 on its own 13-yard line.

But Epps-Keller rescued his team with a perfect bomb to a streaking Montarious Beard for an 87-yard TD and a 27-14 lead with 1:42 left in the third quarter. E

Epps-Keller threw three interceptions in the game, but that one pass was perfection.

“I thought our defense played great,” Haddy said. “We gave up that one big play in the second half. We made a couple adjustments after those two drives they had in the first half. They gave us a chance, they kept us in the football game, which is all you can ask.”

Again the Clippers fought back.

Berry directed an 80-yard drive that reached the Washington 4-yard line.

On fourth and three Berry gained enough for the first down at the 1.

But four successive runs were stopped by the Warriors inches from the goal.

The Clipper defense scored a safety on the ensuing play when McBride was stuffed by the interior of the CCA line.

Two points was nice but six or seven might have been the difference in the game.

“If I had handed off to Sam (Pettinger) and we would have scored that touchdown it would have been a different game,” Berry said.

At 27-16 the Clippers needed two scores and only 7:57 remained.

Washington kicked off to Clear Creek Amana twice as the game went off the rails with multiple penalties by both teams.

Neither team had any rhythm.

The Clippers started at the Cedar Rapids Washington 45 and managed one first down, but on third down at the 30, Washington’s Leighton Charters intercepted a pass to end the threat with 5:20 to play.

Again the Clipper defense came to the rescue forcing a Warrior punt.

The Clippers blocked the punt and recovered at the Wash 30 with 3:28 left.

“We practice special teams every day,” Clubb said. “Our motto is special teams win games, so we tried for that. Our defense played a hell of a game today.”

This time the Clippers cashed in their chance, scoring on a 3-yard run by Berry after he accounted for all but three yards of the drive.

Berry then hit Lang for the 2-point conversion, and CCA was within 27-24 with 2:10 left.

Cedar Rapids Washington recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

In the second half, CCA intercepted two passes, blocked a punt and recorded a safety.

It scored 24 points in the final 18 minutes of the game.

Cedar Rapids Washington contributed 13 penalties for 110 yards, but the empty trips into the red zone were the difference.

McBride led all rushers with 145 yards in 17 carries.

Epps-Keller passed for 177 yards but had the three interceptions.

Berry ran for 72 yards and passed for another 67. Pettinger rushed for 62 yards. Clear Creek Amana’s other interception was in the first half by Asher Roehler.

“Our defense really helped us this game,” Berry said. “We had a bad first half on offense, but we came out and did our job in the second half. Maybe if we do our jobs in both halves we can get that win.”

CCA is 3-3 and plays host to Cedar Rapids Xavier next Friday.

Haddy said it was unlikely Schmidt would be back for that game.

Cedar Rapids Washington improved to 3-3 and halted a three-game losing streak.

“For us it’s about how we respond,” Haddy said. “This was a big one for us in terms of the district standings and postseaon. But we still have a lot of stuff to play for. We still control a lot of things. Our goal isn’t much different than it is all the time.”

CRW                CCA 

First downs                 15                   13

Rushes-yards             32-167             47-180

Comp-Att-Int             10-19-3           6-15-1

Passing yards            177                  63

Total yards                344                  243

Fumbles-lost              0-0                   1-0

Penalties-yards         13-110             6-60

CR Washington             7  6  14   0  –  27

Clear Creek Amana     0  0  14  10  – 24

CRW – Watts McBride 11 run (Zach Novak kick)

CRW – McBride 10 run (run failed)

CRW – McBride 39 run (McBride run)

CCA – Andrew Schlemme 4 pass from Cale Berry (Max Carlson kick)

CCA – Marcus Lang 21 run (Carlson kick)

CRW – Montarious Beard 87 pass from Malik Epps-Keller (run failed)

CCA – Safety McBride tackled in end zone

CCA – Berry 3 run (Lang pass from Berry)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – CRW: Watts McBride 17-145, Malik Epps-Keller 8-21, Alex Taylor 6-7, Team 1-(-6). CCA: Cale Berry 23-72, Sam Pettinger 13-62, Marcus Lang 4-33, Jackson Schmidt 6-24, team 1-(-4).

PASSING – CRW: Malik Epps-Keller 10-19-3 177. CCA: Berry 5-9-1 67, Schmidt 1-6-0 (-4)

RECEIVING – CRW: Montarious Beard 1-87, Brock Davis 5-37, McBride 2-21, Brisahn Fields 1-12. CCA: Lang 2-47, Reece Hoffman 1-9, Pettinger 1-6, Andrew Schlemme 1-4, Brody Clubb 1-(-4).

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