CLINTON — When Ty Hatheway stumbled on his way to the end zone with the opening kickoff, it was only a blip, a momentary delay in the inevitable. The message still seemed clear. Anyway, Jake Mangler removed any doubts just two plays later.
It was another mismatch for the third-ranked Clinton River Kings.
Clinton won its first postseason game since 1975, beating Cedar Rapids Prairie 42-13 in the Class 4A substate round Wednesday night at Coan Field. Although it is not recognized as a playoff game because the field was expanded to 32 teams last year, that matters little to the team. They care more about winning their 10th game of the season, a first in the program’s history.
As they have in most of their 10 victories, they left little doubt about the outcome early on.
As soon as they kicked off and I saw everybody cracking people, I knew it was going to be a fun night right from the get-go,” Hatheway said.
“We love it when people kick deep to us,” Clinton coach Lee Camp said. “We’re extra excited when we can get the ball to start off with a determined attitude. They came out of the blocks ready to get after it, and it showed on the kickoff, and it wasn’t a lot of plays before we were in the end zone. I thought that was real key to getting us started, just the way that offense burst out of the gates.”
Hatheway, a senior running back, almost gave the River Kings the lead before an offensive play was run. He took the opening kickoff, found a seam and raced through the Prairie coverage. But, as he crossed midfield — with nothing ahead of him but the rugged turf and an open end zone — he stumbled and fell at the Prairie 46-yard line.
“There must have been a long blade of grass in his way,” senior quarterback Jake Mangler joked, “but it gave us great field position, and that was big early.
Hatheway said: “I started reading a couple of blocks, and as I cut up the field I saw the end zone. I went to switch the ball over, and I was switching my feet over, too, and kind of tripped over my feet after I saw the open grass. I just got caught up in the moment, I guess, and lost my feet and fell. I was pretty mad. I was always giving Mo (Walker) stuff about missing that touchdown down at Brady Street that he did when he tripped up when he had grass in front of him, and now it happened to me.”
It did little to deter Clinton. Two plays later, Mangler took the snap and ran left, got a nice block on the outside by Ryan Cassidy as he turned the corner and raced 40 yards for the first touchdown.
“That’s a big play early in the game, and that’s what we needed,” Mangler said. “We got great blocking from the line and great blocking from the receivers downfield. It just opened up and I had to run where the defense wasn’t.”
Less than a minute into the game the River Kings were celebrating a 7-0 lead. They had no plans to stop there, though. By the time the first quarter was done, the River Kings had piled up 152 yards of rushing and enjoyed a 28-0 lead. Two more scores in the second quarter and they knew there would be a continuous clock in the second half.
By the half, Clinton had piled up 307 total yards and had spread the ball around, getting touchdown runs of 40 and 55 yards by David Johnson, 40 and 11 by Mangler, 32 by Walker and 2 by Hatheway.
“If they want to adjust the defense to stop David, we’ve shown that we’ve got some other people,” Camp said. “It doesn’t matter whose number we call, we expect to get things done. Again, the offensive line did a tremendous job.”
The defense wasn’t too shabby, either. The River Kings limited Prairie to 20 yards in the first half and without a first down.
“We watched game film and focused on their offense so much that I think our defense knew every play that they ran at us,” senior Adam Young said.
As efficient as the Kings were in the first half, though, the second half was not so pretty. Johnson, who rushed for 101 yards on seven carries, fumbled away the ball on Clinton’s second play, and it set a tone for the final 24 minutes. Although the night was over for the first-team offense, the second team lost three more fumbles.
The Hawks (3-7) started to take advantage. They finally gave their sparse crowd something to cheer about by converting their first first down on a fourth-and-1 midway through the third quarter.
And as the Clinton fumbles continued, the Hawks started taking advantage. Backup running back Josh Rundall scored on runs of 53 and 27 yards to cut the deficit to 42-13 and eliminate the continuous clock.
“I was a little disappointed. I don’t care who we put in, we expect the same production, and we expect the same effort out of everybody,” Camp said. “Maybe we got looking ahead, or maybe we took it easy, but it’s a good learning lesson. Once you let up, it’s hard to grab that back.”
Having seen enough, Camp re-inserted his first-string offense after another Clinton fumble gave Prairie the ball at Clinton’s 9-yard line. Prairie went backward from there, eventually missing a 36-yard field goal. The Hawks got one more chance, starting their final drive at Clinton’s 27, but again the defense moved them backward, stopping them for no gain on a fourth-and-13 from the 13.
“Clinton has an awful good football team and will do real well the rest of the tournament,” Prairie coach Craig Jelinek said.
Clinton will have the chance to record an official playoff win Monday, when it hosts Cedar Falls in a 7 p.m. game at Coan Field. Cedar Falls beat Davenport Assumption 23-3 on Monday. Tickets for Monday’s game will go on sale Friday at Clinton High School.
“This was a big game. Obviously, we’re 1-0 and we’ve got to go 1-0 next Monday, too,” Mangler said.
CLINTON 42, CEDAR RAPIDS PRAIRIE 13
Prairie 0 0 0 13 — 13
Clinton 28 14 0 0 — 42
First quarter
C — Jake Mangler 40 run (Ben Parker kick), 11:01
C — Mo Walker 32 run (Parker kick), 7:33
C — David Johnson 40 run (Parker kick), 4:06
C — Mangler 11 run (Parker kick), 0:57
Second quarter
C — Johnson 55 run (Parker kick), 10:44
C — Ty Hatheway 2 run (Parker kick), 3:01
Fourth quarter
P — Josh Rundall 53 run (Austin Reutzel kick),11:51
P — Rundall 27 run (kick failed), 9:25
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: — Prairie, Josh Rundall 15-90, Trevor Burgess 10-17, Chaz Boots 1-7, Jacob VanWinkle 1-1, Adam Nelson 1-minus-1. Clinton, David Johnson 7-101, Jake Mangler 5-67, Moo Walker 8-56, Ty Hatheway 5-33, Aaron Brown 5-10, Tyler Morehead2-minus-7, Matt Morrow 3-minus-5.
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