Published: October 29, 2009 07:01 am      

It''s all Preston in postseason opener

By Erik Smith

For the Herald

PRESTON — Preston coach Kevin Behr has been preaching to his football team about peaking at the right time of the season.

The Trojans sure seemed to be in peak form Wednesday night, scoring a season-high 73 points in a shutout victory over visiting Clarksville in an Iowa eight-player substate game.

“It feels real good,” Behr said of getting his first postseason win as Preston head coach, after his first season ended in a substate loss in 2008. “But we definitely don’t want to stop. We stressed to the kids that we had a real great season at 9-0 — but we didn’t want to finish 9-1.”

Quarterback Jason Feddersen took matters into his own hands to make sure that didn’t happen. The sophomore capped the Trojans’ first two drives with touchdown runs and found Luke Assenmacher on a 14-yard scoring strike to give Preston a 21-0 first-quarter lead.

“We were clicking pretty good,” said Feddersen, who added a third rushing touchdown and another scoring pass. “It was good play-calling.”

Behr has been pleased with the play of his young signal-caller.

“He’s playing awfully good right now,” the coach said. “For a 15-year-old sophomore kid, he’s been so coachable all year and just getting better and better.”

Senior Luke Assenmacher scored four touchdowns, including three on the ground, to match his regular-season total. Austin Hughes added a touchdown run, David Jacobs scored on a 24-yard pass and Shawn Assenmacher rounded out the scoring with a 74-yard interception return.

Preston’s defense was just as impressive, intercepting six passes and allowing a total of 79 yards to the Indians (3-7).

“It was a pretty good performance,” Behr said. “We want to continue to play better and better.”

Next up for Preston (10-0) is a first-round home game Monday against Northeast Hamilton (10-1), a 40-0 winner over Lansing Kee, a team Preston beat 7-6 in the regular season.



PRESTON 73, CLARKSVILLE 0

Scoring by quarters

Clarksville 0 0 0 0 — 0

Preston 28 17 21 7 — 73

First quarter

P — Jason Feddersen 5 run (Thomas Kirsten kick), 6:46

P — Feddersen 3 run (Kirsten kick), 4:55

P — Luke Assenmacher 14 pass from Feddersen (Kirsten kick), 2:53

P — Austin Hughes 4 run (Kirsten kick), 0:14

Second quarter

P — Feddersen 9 run (Kirsten kick), 10:19

P — Kirsten 35 field goal, 7:49

P — Assenmacher 4 run (Kirsten kick), 3:24

Third quarter

P — David Jacobs 24 pass from Feddersen (Kirsten kick), 8:27

P — Assenmacher 3 run (Kirsten kick), 4:27

P — Assenmacher 1 run (Kirsten kick), 2:11

Fourth quarter

P — Shawn Assenmacher 74 interception return (Kirsten kick), 4:02

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Preston, Feddersen 12-81, Kyle Feller 17-66, L. Assenmacher 8-45, Hughes 4-32, Blake Tebbe 1-(-3); Clarksville, Caleb Ciavarelli 14-40, Dalton Ciavarelli 12-29, Tyler Kraft 4-6, Bryce Jacobs 2-(-12), Jake Bergman 6-(-17).

PASSING — Preston, Feddersen 6-11-0-125, Joel Geier 0-1-0-0; Clarksville, Bergman 1-13-5-10, Jacobs 2-3-1-23.

RECEIVING — Preston, Hughes 2-42, Feller 1-26, Jacobs 1-24, S. Assenmacher 1-19, L. Assenmacher 1-14; Clarksville, Tanner Fenneman 1-16, C. Ciavarelli 1-10, Blake Rottink 1-7.