Fliers fall

Enterprise sports writer

clydenews@bizwoh.rr.com

Friday was not a good day for football if you were a Flier fan.

The weather was terrible, the drive over was long, and the Fliers lost a football game they should have won and maybe their starting quarterback again to boot.

Oak Harbor, which until Friday, had only managed two wins all season broke the Fliers' five-game winning streak with a 24-19 win.

The Fliers, who had no problem stopping the Perkins ground game last week, let the Rockets run all over them to the tune of 276 yards rushing. Jake Scott of Oak Harbor led all rushers with 180 yards and Jordan Cannett added another 76.

With the loss, the Fliers fall to 5-4 on the season and to 5-1 in the Sandusky Bay Conference. Oak Harbor goes to 3-6 and to 2-4 in the SBC.

The Fliers hopes of winning another SBC title now rests with them having to travel to Edison this coming Friday night and defeating the 8-1 Chargers on the road.

A win will give the Fliers a piece of the SBC title and guarantees they will have a winning record.

It will not be easy.

The Chargers have defeated Norwalk 35-19, Monroeville 42-28, Wellington 44-6, Huron 24-14, Port Clinton 50-9, Oak Harbor 33-13, Margaretta 28-20 and SMCC 47-14. They lost to Perkins in week six 20-13.

"Our opponent was very fired up and focused tonight," Flier Coach Marc Gibson said. "They wanted to play the spoiler's role. This was their Super Bowl.

"When you're 2-6 and playing the defending league champions, who are undefeated in the league this is what you have to play for," he said.

"They were playing to knock us off, and they had a great game plan. They ran the ball hard when they had to, and they scored when they had to. They made plays. They converted on third and long at least four times. Both teams wanted to win, but they wanted to win a little more than we did.

"Next week we will still be playing for a conference championship," Gibson commented.

"We didn't want it to come down to this, but it did. You don't always get things the way that you want them. If it was too easy it wouldn't be worth anything.

"I expect them to go out and have a great week of practice. Whoever wins next week is going to have a piece of the championship, and it is still within our grasp. It's going to come down to who wants it the most."

Oak Harbor fumble on the third play of the game and Austin McHugh recovered for the Fliers at the Rocket 25. The Fliers then drove to the Oak Harbor four-yard line where the drive stalled and Jordan Colson came in and kicked a 21-yard field goal.

It marked the first of three different times that Flier drives were stalled and a field goal had to be tried costing the Fliers a potential 21 points.

Oak Harbor didn't let the fumble or the field goal bother them as they drove 80 yards down the field to score on their next possession with a 22-yard pass from Steve Young to Josh Warnke to go up 7-3.

One play into the second quarter the Fliers scored on a one-yard run by Kade Kramer. Colson's kick made it 10-7 Clyde with 11:54 remaining in the first half. Kramer had an excellent game gaining 159 yards on the ground with a touchdown and was also on the receiving end of a touchdown pass.

Scott put Oak Harbor up 14-10 with a two-yard touchdown run with 5:22 remaining in the first half. It looked like the Fliers might fall into deeper trouble when Gabe Gilbert was intercepted by Scott on the Fliers' first play after the touchdown, but Scott turned around and fumble the ball back to Clyde four plays later.

Bennett Brown recovered it for the Fliers at the Clyde 43. The Fliers then drove to the Oak Harbor 20 where the drive stalled and a 37-yard field goal was wide and the first half ended 14-10 Oak Harbor.

The Fliers started with the ball in the third quarter and put together a long time consuming 14-play drive that stalled at the Oak Harbor 15 where Colson kicked a 32-yard field goal to pull the Fliers to within one at 14-13.

Oak Harbor then put together a long drive of their own that put the game into the fourth quarter where Myles Backus kicked a 35-yard field goal that skimmed the cross bar to put Oak Harbor up 17-13 with 9:58 to play in the game.

The Rockets had knocked Flier quarterback Gabe Gilbert from the game with an injury on the Fliers previous series and then forced new quarterback Ryan Meyer to go three and out after the field goal. The Rockets only took two plays to score after the punt on a long run by Scott and a 24-yard touchdown run by Nick Priesman to go up 24-13 with 7:28 remaining in the game.

The Fliers pulled to within 24-19 with 1:21 remaining in the game on a 77-yard drive that ended with a five-yard touchdown pass from Meyer to Kramer, but the 2-point conversion failed. Oak Harbor then recovered the Fliers onside kick and were able to run out the clock.

"Ryan Meyer did a fantastic job when he came into the game," Gibson said.

"We made the change, because Gabe couldn't do some of the things we needed him to do because of the injury. Ryan doesn't get a lot of varsity snaps and to come in cold like he did and led us to a score shows what kind of player he is."

CLY 3 7 3 6 19

OH 7 7 0 10 24

First Quarter

CLY - Jordan Colson 21 field goal 7:31

First Quarter

OH - Josh Warnke 22 pass from Steve Young (Myles Backus kick) 4:01

Second Quarter

CLY - Kade Kramer 2 run (Jordan Colson kick) 11:54

Second Quarter

OH - Jake Scott 2 run (Myles Backus kick) 5:22

Third Quarter

CLY - Jordan Colson 32 field goal 4:35

Fourth Quarter

OH - Myles Backus 35 field goal 9:58

Fourth Quarter

OH - Jordan Cannet 24 run (Myles Backus kick) 7:28

Fourth Quarter

CLY - Kade Kramer 5 pass from Ryan Meyer (2pt fail) 1:21

OH C

First Downs 13 16

Rushes -Yards 41- 235 38-183

Passing Yards 53 105

Com-Att 3-of-7 10-of-21

Passes Int 0 1

Punts-Yds 1 -43 2-86

Fumble-lost 3-2 0-0

Penalties:Yards 1-5 5-49

Individual Stats

Rushing - Clyde, Kramer 159, Gilbert 2, Flores 11

OH - Scott 180, Cannett 76, Klippenstein 8, Young (-26), Burkett (-3)

Passing - Clyde, Gilbert 4-of-10 - 39, 0 -1, Meyer 6-of-11 - 66, 1 - 0

OH, Young 3-of-7 - 53, 1 - 0

Receptions - Clyde - Kramer 3-29, Rex 3-31, Smetzler 2-25, Colson 1-16, Flores 1-4

OH - Everett 1-25, Warnke 1-22, Priesman 1-6