Published: November 07, 2009 02:02 am      

Clinton's historic football season ends

By Jon Gremmels

Herald Sports Editor

CLINTON — Austin Krick sat on the bench, staring at the backs of his teammates as they stood on the sidelines in front of him. It was far from the way he envisioned his season ending. But, then, the rest of his Clinton High teammates didn’t expect their season to end this way, either.

Krick, Clinton’s standout defensive lineman, was helped off the field in the second quarter with a knee injury and a concussion. Cedar Rapids Xavier scored on the next play, and Krick could only watch helplessly as the Saints defeated the River Kings 28-6 in the Iowa Class 4A football state quarterfinals Friday night at Coan Field.

“It was so frustrating,” Krick, a senior, said. “I felt helpless. I felt I let my teammates down.”

Xavier (10-2) advanced to next Friday’s semifinals at the UNI-Dome, where it gets a rematch with top-rated Iowa City High. The Little Hawks beat Xavier 24-17 in Week 3 of the regular season.

“It feels good, but we can’t lose focus; we’ve got to get ready for City High,” said senior defensive lineman David Ryberg, who led the Saints with six tackles.”

Nobody felt all that great on the Clinton side. The River Kings (11-1) couldn’t generate much offense until a late, 80-yard touchdown drive that prevented a shutout.

“We just could not get anything going,” Clinton coach Lee Camp said. “When we did, we made mistakes.”

Case in point: David Johnson broke off an apparent 45-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter, but it was negated by a holding penalty.

Moments later, the River Kings were denied another potentially big play.

A Clinton punt whizzed past Xavier’s Colin O’Connor, and the River Kings thought it hit him. Adam Young raced in and swooped up the ball and carried it to the Saints’ 15-yard line before getting tackle. But the officials brought the ball back to the Saints’ 29, ruling that it had not been touched and was downed when Young touched it.

“That was a big play,” O’Connor admitted. “If they had recovered, it might have changed the game. It was pretty close.”

Instead, Xavier got the momentum, three plays later.

Facing a third-and-3, Xavier quarterback Joe Sayre hit O’Connor on a simple slant-in designed to pick up the first down. But, when O’Connor slipped the tackle attempt by David Johnson at the Xavier 45, no other defenders were in sight. O’Connor raced toward the end zone, with Johnson chasing before finally catching up and tackling O’Connor at the 1-yard line for a 63-yard gain.

“That was great protection by the line, and I slipped the tackle,” O’Connor said. “They had a really good defense.”

Krick said: “That was a bad play. If we had that play back, I think we would have held.”

Instead, Dylan Martin scored on the next play, and Xavier had a 7-0 lead with 46 seconds left in the first quarter.

Xavier’s defense created the next big play. Tyler Wright raced in from the back side and hit Clinton quarterback Jake Mangler from behind as he rolled to his left. The hit jarred the ball from Mangler’s grip, and Ryberg recovered at the Clinton 30.

Sayre (9-for-15 passing, 221 yards) then hit running back Pat Chizek on third-and-9 for an 18-yard gain to the 1. Krick was injured on the next play, as the Clinton defense held.

“The guy engaged me, went down and cut-blocked me, then my head hit the ground,” Krick said. He limped off and had his left knee wrapped in ice, but the concussion was the more serious blow, and Krick (four tackles) spent the remainder of the night on the sidelines. With defensive right end Wyatt Klooster already missing with the flu, that left the right side of Clinton’s defensive line two starters short.

After that, Clinton just never could get the momentum to start turning in its favor.

“We never seemed to get up and get going,” Camp said.

Xavier’s defense had a lot to do with that. The Saints used their size to contain the outsides, had excellent pursuit and were quite physical.

“We knew they were going to run outside and try to beat us with speed,” Ryberg said. “Our scout team prepared us well, and as a defense, we shut them down.”

Clinton managed just 224 total yards but had just 83 at halftime.

“They had a pretty tough defense,” Clinton senior running back Ty Hatheway said. “We just were not clicking. They kept doing stunts with their linebackers, and we couldn’t do anything on offense.”

Johnson managed 91 yards on 14 carries to finish the season with 1,395 yards rushing. But he never really got going, either. His only double-digit runs came on his first carry and his last — a 36-yard gain that set up Clinton’s lone score. Ryberg said Xavier didn’t concentrate on Johnson, although it did double-team him most of the time he lined up as a receiver.

“We don’t treat any player extra special,” he said. “We just do our job.”

After a scoreless third quarter, Xavier sealed the victory with two fourth-quarter scores. The first came on a 57-yard pass play from Sayre to O’Connor (four catches, 131 yards) on the first play of the period. The Saints made it 28-0 when Sayre and Ryan Sander connected on an 11-yard scoring play with 5:40 remaining. That one completed a nine-play, 85-yard drive after Seth Wagner intercepted a pass by Mangler at the 15.

Clinton eventually did find the end zone, with Mangler and Johnson connecting on a 5-yard touchdown pass.

Despite the loss, Camp said someday the players will relish the outright Mississippi Athletic Conference championship and 11 straight wins for the best season in school history.

“Like I told the kids, I expect it to hurt,” Camp said, “but in the bigger picture, what we accomplished to get to the season and run through the season was a great ride. As time goes on and the pain of the loss ceases, they’ll see how great it is.”



CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER 28, CLINTON 6

Xavier 7 7 0 14 — 28

Clinton 0 0 0 6 — 6

First quarter

CRX — Dylan Martin 1 run (Charlie Bales kick), :45.6

Second quarter

CRX — Martin 2 run (Bales kick), 3:42

Fourth quarter

CRX — Colin O’Connor 57 pass from Joe Sayre (Bales kick), 11:51

CRX — Ryan Sander 14 pass from Sayre (Bales kick), 5:40

C — David Johnson 5 pass from Jake Mangler (kick failed), 1:36

CRX Clint

First downs 12 12

Rushes-yards 42-141 29-137

Passing yards 221 87

Comp.-att.-int. 9-15-2 9-19-2

Punts-avg.4-35.8 5-31.4

Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-2

Penalties-yards 12-87 7-56

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Xavier, Pat Chizek 25-101, Dylan Martin 9-15, Joe Sayre 3-23, Mark Zawada 2-2, Team 2-0. Clinton, David Johnson 14-91, Jake Mangler 10-32, Ty Hatheway 3-7, Mo Walker 2-7.

PASSING — Xavier, Sayre 9-15-2, 221 yards. Clinton, Mangler 9-19-2, 87 yards.

RECEIVING — Xavier, Colin O’Connor 4-131, Chizek 2-59, Martin 2-17, Ryan Sander 1 14. Clinton, Johnson 3-41, Hatheway 3-6, Ryan Cassidy 2-29, Drew Lakin 1-11.

MISSED FIELD GOAL — Xavier, Charlie Bales 23 (blocked), 4:04 3Q.