Raiders escape with 16-14 win over Clarke

MOUNT AYR – Clarke scored the go-ahead touchdown with 1:38 left in Friday’s road contest at Mount Ayr, but the Raiders answered back in the final minute to beat Clarke 16-14 in non-district play.

Nearly half of the game’s points were scored in the final 1:38 of the game.

Both Mount Ayr and Clarke pieced together long, clock-eating drives in the second half, but neither team was able to find paydirt until late in the game.

On fourth-and-7 from the Mount Ayr 16-yard line, Clarke sophomore Chris Carson took a reverse untouched into the end zone to give Clarke its first lead of the game at 14-9 with 1:38 left in the game.

The Clarke score came after a knee injury to spinner back Payton Winship early in the fourth quarter that forced Clarke head coach Duane Mathess to shuffle some of his players after Winship was taken off the field on a stretcher. His Clarke teammates greeted him at the sideline to offer their encouragement, as one Indian player said, “Let’s win it for him.”

“That last touchdown we scored, that was so amazing, the execution by Chris Carson,” Clarke head coach Duane Mathess said. “We put Chris Carson in there (at wingback) and he’s never played the position. I said, ‘Look Chris, we’re going to you and I believe in you, so I need you to believe in yourself.’ He said, ‘I got you, Coach.’”

But Raider junior Kolben Klommhaus answered, returning the kickoff all the way to the Clarke 36-yard line. Quarterback Payton Weehler carried the ball 20 yards on two carries, and then Myles Greene took a pitch to the 6-yard line.

Two plays later, Weehler rolled out to his right and hit junior Dawson Frost on an out route in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown with 31 seconds remaining.

Clarke put together one last scoring opportunity, as Carson returned the ensuing kickoff to the Mount Ayr 48. After moving the ball to the 39-yard line and throwing an incomplete pass, the game ended when John Shields recorded a sack as time expired. Shields finished with seven solo tackles and eight assisted tackles, including four tackles for loss.

“They had the kickoff return that set them up with great field position, but our guys still battled,” Mathess said. “They held them to third down. They held them right there until the final seconds. Chris ... he comes back and almost houses that kickoff return. We didn’t quit and my heart’s full because of it.”

Mount Ayr’s first points of the game came after the Raiders failed to score a touchdown after having first-and-goal from the Clarke 1-yard line.

The first play of Clarke’s ensuing drive resulted in a safety, as Reas Knapp tackled Winship in the end zone for two points.

“Huge point in the ballgame there, and you don’t realize at that time how big that might be,” Mount Ayr co-coach Delwyn Showalter said. “We talk to our guys a lot about there are no small things. There’s never an unimportant play, there’s never a detail that’s too small. It all plays a factor in the outcome.”

Mount Ayr capitalized on the next possession, scoring on a 6-play drive to make the score 9-0. Weehler connected with Frost for a 6-yard touchdown, the first of two scoring connections by the Raider duo.

Clarke got on the board in the second quarter, scoring on an Amani Fry 2-yard touchdown, with Winship converting the 2-point conversion, to cap a 16-play, 75-yard scoring drive.

“It’s just really all you can ask for as a coach is your guys go out and compete at a high level and never quit,” an emotional Mathess said after the game. “My heart kind of breaks a little bit, because I know there’s a couple players on our team that think they cost us the game, and the message to them afterward was one play doesn’t define our season, it doesn’t define this game and it doesn’t define you as a player or a person. I hope they take that message to heart, because some of our guys are carrying themselves off the field and they laid everything on the line.”

UP NEXT — The Raiders improved to 3-1 for the season with the win, heading into this week’s district opener at West Central Valley, which was a 62-12 winner over Nodaway Valley on Friday. Clarke dropped to 2-2 heading into this week’s homecoming game against Saydel.

Mount Ayr 16, Clarke 14

Clarke 0 8 0 6 - 14

MA 9 0 0 7 - 16

1st quarter

MA — Reas Knapp tackles Payton Winship for safety, 4:17

MA — Dawson Frost 6 pass from Payton Weehler (Myles Greene kick), 1:14

2nd quarter

C — Amani Fry 2 run (Winship run), 8:37

4th quarter

C — Chris Carson 16 run (run failed), 1:38

MA — Frost 9 pass from Weehler (Greene kick), :31.3

Individual leaders

Rushing: MA - Payton Weehler 21-129, Keelan Klommhaus 2-43, Myles Greene 5-32, Kolben Klommhaus 4-8, Reas Knapp 2-8, Cole Clymer 1-4. C - Payton Winship 23-56, Amani Fry 10-51, Fani Fry 12-51, Riley Domina 9-46, Chris Carson 2-14.

Passing: MA - Payton Weehler 7-16-0 for 86 yards, Myles Greene 1-4-0 for 10 yards. C - Payton Winship 0-2-1 for 0 yards, Riley Domina 0-1-0 for 0 yards.

Receiving: MA - Kolben Klommhaus 2-50, Dawson Frost 4-30, Cade Clymer 1-10, Cayden Lambert 1-6.

Tackles (solo-assists): MA - John Shields 7-8, Isaac Grose 4-6, Reas Knapp 3-7, Trae Ehlen 3-7, Dawson Swank 6-3, Payton Weehler 1-4, Hunter Haveman 1-4, Dawson Frost 2-2, Kolben Klommhaus 2-2, Nathan Hauge 0-3, Keelan Klommhaus 2-0, Rhett Larson 0-2, Drew Willis 0-2, Noah Shelman 0-2. C - Riley Domina 10-2, Zane Hart 3-5, Coel Reece 3-2, Amani Fry 3-2, Fani Fry 4-1, Payton Winship 4-0, Taven Floyd 3-1, Jacob Smith 0-3, Zethan May 1-2.

Sacks: MA - John Shields 1.

Interceptions: MA - Dawson Frost 1.