Above: Lucas Walechka puts a bear hug on Lester Prairie’s bruising 190-lb running back.
While the Clipper defense was mostly solid against Lester Prairie, and especially in slowing down the Bulldog’s 190-pound running back, three plays made the difference in Visitors 24, Home 0 at Dave Krenik Field on Friday.
The first one came on the first play of the game when the receiver took the opening kickoff down the sideline and almost to Jocko’s by the time the Clippers caught up with him. With the QB keeper on the PAT, the Bulldogs were quickly up 8-0.
The second one was after Lester Prairie partially blocked a Henry Strobel punt. Taking over at mid field, the Bulldogs scored two plays later on a 50-yard run. With the PAT pass, it was Bulldogs 12, Clippers 0 with 2:47 left in the half.
The third play that went south for the Clippers was when they couldn’t get a punt off a few minutes into the third quarter. Strobel took off on the run, but the Bulldogs tackled him on the Cleveland 20. Three plays later, Lester Prairie scored on a 12-yard run. The PAT run accounted for the last of the game’s scoring.
“Three big plays, and they’re the mistakes we made in practice on the exact plays,” said head coach Erik Hermanson. “That’s what’s frustrating. The scout team scored on those plays too, so it’s something we’ve got to polish up.”
It didn’t help that injured seniors Colin Krenik and Tommy Kennedy were on the sidelines in street clothes, and early in the second half, classmate Kaleb Timlin left the game with a hurt leg.
“The problem is we keep shuffling people around, filling in for people we lose, and it’s players who are inexperienced and aren’t sure what to do,” Hermanson said. “We held them many times, but we put ourselves in a bad situation field-positionwise. Special teams is a place where when you move people around it costs us. We were pinned deep the whole second half and never got to try to run anything because we’re trying to keep Blake (freshman quarterback Blake Lyons) off his back. We’ll learn a lot this week from watching this.”
But on the glass-is-half-full side, Hermanson said the young players stepped up.
“There were quite a few times we had three freshman out there (Lyons, wide receiver and defensive back Kale Kelley and lineman Nick Simonette) along with sophomore Gabe Sullivan, and they’re all playing great, and because of that we can continue to get better and better, and I know we’re not going to give up, and I know we’ll have a successful season.”
The Clippers missed an opportunity on their first possession after Lyons hooked up with Carter Dylla for a 46-yard catch and run that took them to the Bulldog 11. But the next play was a false start, and two snaps later, they turned the ball over on a fumble.
“That has happened a couple of times this year: after we’ve had a big play and before we get to snap it, we jump,” Hermanson said. “We’ve been working so hard on that in practice that I didn’t think it would be a problem, but they’re so fired up, and especially if they’re young, they make that mistake.”
Other than the one fumble, the Clippers didn’t have any turnovers. Lyons completed 11 of 140 pass attempts. Dylla was his favorite receiver with six catches for 108 yards.
Kelley hauled in three Lyons throws for 10 yards. Timlin had one catch for 10 yards, and Fisher Knish had one grab for a dozen yards.
Knish legged 15 carries for 50 yards. Strobel had 10 carries for 24 yards, and Lyons kept the ball 11 times for nine yards.
On the other side of the scrimmage line, Knish had nine tackles. Jacob Anderley had six tackles. Cade Kriha had five tackles. Strobel and Lucas Walechka each had four tackles with one behind the line.
With 23 total penalties, it was an ugly game at times. Ten of them went to the Clippers for 65 yards while 13 infractions were called on Lester Prairie for 140 yards.
The Clippers travel to Wells on Friday. The Rebels will be coming off a 55-0 win over Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons.
Elsewhere in the district, JWP fell 36-0 to Mayer Lutheran, GFW rolled over Medford 44-6, and WEM lost to Blooming Prairie 47-0.
Henry Strobel slides down the scrimmage line.
QB Blake Lyons on the run.
On the pass block are, from L-R, Jacob Anderley, Fisher Knish, Nick Simontte, Wyatt Devens and Lucas Walechka.
Fisher Knish on the carry.
This pass was just out of Carter Dylla’s reach.
Injured senior Jackson Meyer and his parents were first out of the gate for the Parents’ Night lineup.
With his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all at the game, Henry Strobel took Parents’ Night a couple of generations further.