Fliers teach Pirates

27-13

By SCOTT BLACK

Enterprise sports writer

clydenews@bizwoh.rr.com

Call it arrogance or the desperation of an undefeated team or whatever else you may like, but Perkins thumbed their nose at the Fliers' defense last Friday.

It may have cost them their undefeated season as Clyde prevailed 27-13 to put themselves in the Sandusky Bay Conference driver's seat.

The win puts the Fliers at 5-3 for the season and to 5-0 in the SBC while Perkins falls to 7-1 and 4-1.

With the win over Perkins, the Fliers need to beat Oak Harbor on the road this Friday to earn a share of the SBC title. They would then need to beat Edison the following week in order to win the SBC outright or if they lose to Edison, they would have to share it with Perkins and Edison.

With 4:23 left in the game Friday night at Bishop Stadium, the Fliers were leading 20-13 and Perkins had the ball at their own 24 yard line first and 10.

Three straight incomplete passes brought up a fourth and 10 for the Pirates. Logic says that you should punt the ball on fourth down and long, especially on your own 24 with over four minutes to play. Then let your defense get you the ball back to try and tie the game up. Logic did not prevail and neither did the Pirates as Flier Kyle Smetzler sacked Perkins quarterback Spencer Bryant.

The Fliers got the ball at the Perkins 18.

On the next play, Kade Kramer made the Pirates pay for their failed attempt with an 18-yard touchdown run to put the Fliers up 27-13 with Jordan Colson's kick and 4:04 remaining in the game.

Kramer had a spectacular night going over 200 yards rushing with three touchdowns.

This week, the Fliers, who have struggled with Oak Harbor over the years, need to avoid having a let down leading up to the Edison game on Oct. 30. Oak Harbor has struggled this season after an opening 14-0 win over Springfield. The Rockets then lost to Genoa 51-0, Eastwood 41-14 and to Perkins 35-7 before defeating Margaretta 33-21. The Rockets then went on another three game skid with losses to Port Clinton 25-14, Edison 33-13 and to Huron 20-7 to stand at 2-7 for the season and 1-4 in the SBC.

As for the Perkins game on Oct. 16, it was a different looking Clyde team.

"We told the kids that when we beat Huron in overtime, we could see the team coming together as a group for the first time this year," Flier Coach Marc Gibson said.

"We were coming closer and closer, and we were starting to play as a team. We told them that, that win was the defining point of our season," he added.

"It allowed us to get to this point in our season which is playing for a conference championship. It's not that I'm not putting a lot of stock in our first three games, because obviously we want to win them," Gibson commented.

"But they don't mean anything when it comes to playing for a conference championship, and that's what we had to convince our kids of. We had a great week of practice," he said about the week before facing the undefeated Pirates.

"We were physical tonight, and the kids understood what we wanted to do and stuck to the game plan. The offensive and defensive lines just had a phenomenal game. Kade had a great game for us, but it was because the offensive line came through," Gibson pointed out.

"Defensively we took the running game away from their winged-T offense and when you do that they become one dimensional. We imposed our will against them so to speak."

The Fliers wanted to force Perkins into throwing situation to take them out of their comfort zone of running the ball. On the game's opening drive, Perkins looked as if they could live with that situation as they moved 70 yards down the field throwing for four first downs on long situations with the last being a seven-yard touchdown pass from Bryant to Kyle Finn on a third and seven play to lead 7-0.

The Fliers retaliated by driving down the field to the Perkins' six-yard line, but Flier quarterback Gabe Gilbert was sacked moving the ball back to the 15. Front there, Colson kicked a 32-yard field goal to make the score 7-3.

The score was still 7-3 late in the first half when Perkins drove to the Flier one. Clyde's Mac Wilkerson then intercepted a Bryant pass and returned the ball to the Perkins 41 with 15 seconds remaining. Gilbert then completed a long pass to the Pirate three to Colson, but the officials ruled Colson out of bounds to end the half at 7-3 Perkins.

Wilkerson's interception was huge, because it prevented Perkins from going up 14-3 at the half with momentum.

The Fliers opened the second half with a three-play touchdown drive that ended with a 44-yard run by Kramer. Colson's kick made it 10-7 Clyde. The Flier defense then forced Perkins to go three and out on their first possession of the half and the offense drove 69 yards for another score on a 3-yard run by Kramer. Colson's kick put Clyde up 17-7 with 3:01 to play in the third quarter.

"I think we went into the game and realized that they were not as good as everybody has perceived them to be," Kramer said. "The coaches came in at halftime and told us to shove it down their throats, and we did. It certainly was a good time for me to get a big night against a good team. We all had a good game and we played Clyde football, and that's what it's all about. Everybody had kind of wrote us off going into this game, but we stuck together," Kramer added.

"I'm just glad I was able to help my team out."

Perkins then put together a 77-yard drive that ended with a six-yard touchdown pass from Bryant to Tony Henderly. Perkins, however, missed the crucial extra point to keep Clyde up 17-13 with 10:04 to play.

The Fliers got the ball back and drove right down the field to the Pirates' six-yard line where the drive stalled but still ended with a 23-yard Colson field goal to put Clyde up 20-13 with 4:45 to play.

It stayed that way until Perkins took the gamble of the game, and Kramer put it out of reach.

"The offensive line really came together tonight and played well," center Jordan Brown said. "We played together as a unit, and that's what we need to do from here on out. Everyone stepped up tonight. We got together and talked about what we wanted to do, because when you play together you can beat anyone. There's no better feeling in the world for an offensive lineman than to see that pile moving forward."

PER 7 0 0 6 13

CLY 3 0 14 10 27

First Quarter

PER - Kyle Finn 7 pass from Spencer Bryant (JJ Gasteier kick) 6:40

First Quarter

CLY - Jordan Colson 32 field goal 1:07

Third Quarter

CLY - Kade Kramer 44 run (Jordan Colson kick) 10:48

Third Quarter

CLY - Kade Kramer 3 run (Jordan Colson kick) 3:01

Fourth Quarter

PER - Tony Henderly 6 pass from Spencer Bryant (kick fail) 10:04

Fourth Quarter

CLY - Jordan Colson 23 field goal 4:45

Fourth Quarter

CLY - Kade Kramer 18 run (Jordan Colson kick) 4:04

PER C

First Downs 18 17

Rushes -Yards 32- 65 37-224

Passing Yards 162 48

Com-Att 15-of-27 9-of-5

Passes Int 2 1

Punts-Yds 3 -96 2-45

Fumble-lost 1-0 0-0 Penalties -Yds 3-30 4-26

Individual Stats

Rushing:

Clyde, Kramer 223, Gilbert (-4), Flores 5

PER - Bryant 43, Hohler 22, Turner 1, Finn 1, Caponi (-2)

Passing :

Clyde, Gilbert 5-of-9 - 48, 0 -1

PER, Bryant 15-of-27 - 162, 2 - 2

Receptions:

Clyde - Flores 2-23, Rex 1-5, Smetzler 1-11, Colson 1-9

PER - Caponi 6-95, Henderly 4-35, Finn 3-47, Turner 1 (-5), Hohler 1 (-10)