Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – After four consecutive losses to open the season Clear Creek Amana needed a win.

Whatever the Clippers needed to get that first victory on Friday senior Jackson Stevens was able to provide.

Stevens made key plays throughout the game on offense, defense and special teams as Clear Creek Amana held off Oskaloosa 28-21 in front of a homecoming crowd at Clipper Stadium in Tiffin.

“It feels really good, we definitely needed this win,” Stevens said. “I hope this can bring our team together and helps us get going.”

Stevens did it all on Friday as Clear Creek Amana (1-4) snapped a four-game losing skid and moved to 1-0 in Class 4A, District 3 play. Oskaloosa dropped to 2-3 and 0-1 in district play.

The 5-foot-10, 155-pound Stevens rushed for 276 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries, blocked a punt, intercepted a pass and a had a key sack late in the fourth quarter among a slew of tackles.

“The dude is a football player,” Clear Creek Amana coach Matt Haddy said of Stevens. “For me that’s the best compliment I can give a kid is he is a football player and when we needed him to,  he stepped up and that’s all you can ask for from a senior.”

Every time Clear Creek Amana needed a play on Friday it was Stevens that delivered.

On the second play from scrimmage Stevens jumped in front of a Kayne Boender pass for an interception and returned it 20 yards to the Oskaloosa 15 yard line.

Three plays later Stevens scored the first of his three touchdowns on a 5-yard run to give Clear Creek Amana a 7-0 less than 90 seconds into the game.

“All the film watching and all the preparation comes to that,” Stevens said of the interception. “Knowing the plays and getting the scout lets you make plays.”

After Oskaloosa tied the game at 7-7 at the halftime it was Stevens that jump started the Clippers again.

Stevens ripped off a 73-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage following halftime to give Clear Creek Amana a 14-7 lead it would never give up.

“We knew what we had to do coming out in the second half,” Stevens said. “Our guys up front were great, they knew what they had to do and we cleaned it up a little and made plays.”

Stevens added a 68-yard touchdown run to give the Clippers a 20-7 lead with 3:13 remaining in the third quarter.

Clear Creek Amana went up 28-7 when Arlen Schlemme picked off a pass at the Oskaloosa 20 yard line to set up an 8-yard scoring run by senior tailback Sam Pettinger.

The 205-pound Pettinger added 74 yards rushing on 10 carries also Clear Creek Amana rolled up a season-high 382 yards on the ground.

“I think our mindset was different tonight,” senior offensive lineman Carson Nash said. “We know we can run the ball and we didn’t change anything one bit. We added a tight end here and there but we didn’t change much we just had a different mindset.”

Clear Creek Amana was without three starters on the offensive line on Friday including junior standout Brody Clubb but the reshuffled group made big holes for Stevens and Pettinger as the Clippers averaged nearly 8.5 yards per carry.

“We trusted our o-line,” Nash said. “We had a couple of people out we just knew we had to run the ball and win the game and start off 0-1 in district play.

Oskaloosa scored 14 unanswered points on a pair of touchdown runs by sophomore tailback AJ Walker who finished with 117 yards on 22 carries.

The second touchdown run of the game by Walker, a 7-yarder, cut the lead to 28-21 with 5:38 remaining.

Clear Creek Amana went 3-and-out on its ensuing possession and Oskaloosa took over at its own 45 following a 25 yard punt.

When the Clippers needed a big play on third-and-four near midfield it was who else but Stevens that delivered.

Stevens timed the snap count perfectly and bolted into the backfield to sack Boender for a seven yard loss.

“That’s what good football players do,” Haddy said. “We need more of that and we started to see a little bit tonight where kids were saying ‘I’m not going to let us lose’ and we’ve had that at times the last few years and that’s what Jack did tonight.”

Stevens put the finishing touches on the win with a 12-yard gain on a second-and-13 play that set up a third and short that CCA converted for the game-clinching first down with a Quinton Tran quarterback sneak.

“It starts up front,” Stevens said. “Our guys up front just dominated tonight. They dominated.

                                       CCA                OSK

First downs                16                    15

Rushes-yards             45-382             31-118

Comp-Att-Int            2-8-2               22-32-2

Passing yards            22                    255

Total yards                404                  373

Punts-Avg.                 2-31                 3-23

Fumbles-lost              2-1                   2-0

Penalties-yards         9-89                 5-40

Oskaloosa                              0   7    0    14   –   21

Clear Creek Amana              7   0   21    0    –   28

CCA – Jackson Stevens 5 run (Carson Cecak kick)

OSK – Wyatt Grubb 4 pass from Kayne Boender (Linus Morrison kick)

CCA – Stevens 73 run (Cecak kick)

CCA – Stevens 68 run (Kick blocked)

CCA – Sam Pettinger 8 run (Tran run)

OSK – AJ Walker 2 run (Morrison kick)

OSK – Walker 7 run (Morrison kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Clear Creek Amana: Jackson Stevens 27-276, Sam Pettinger 10-74, Ethan Vice 1-12, Owen Rosenberg 3-20, Quinton Tran 4-(-11). Oskaloosa: AJ Walker 22-117, Wyatt Grubb 3-21, Merek Padgett 1-1, Kayne Boender 3-(-13), Max Roach 1-(-6), Team 1-(-2).

PASSING – Clear Creek Amana: Quinton Tran 2-8-2 22. Oskaloosa: Kayne Boender 22-32-2 255.

RECEIVING – Clear Creek Amana: Owen Rosenberg 1-12, Jackson Stevens 1-12. Oskaloosa: Jaden DeRonde 6-94, Wyatt Grubb 6-78, Max Roach 4-64, Heavon Knox 4-21, AJ Walker 1-3, Trey Parks 1-(-5).

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