Patriot FB Crushes Gators, Loses in Shut-Out to Jags to End Regular Season
Launch the media gallery 1 playerBy: Aiden Miller, senior, and Carter Brabec, freshman
On October 8, 2021, the Clarkson/Leigh Patriots travelled up to Wisner to face the Wisner-Pilger Gators. The Patriots boasted a 4-2 record before this game, and they were ready to feed their insatiable hunger for winning.
And win they did, in easy fashion, 60-34. Senior quarterback Eli Hays rushed for 102 yards and threw for another 96. Junior Kyle Kasik also rushed for 145 yards. This game was a nice win to prepare us for the upcoming game against the Jaguars, and left the Pats’ record 5-2. The next week of Friday night lights, October 15, brought up the Howells-Dodge Jaguars, in a match that proved to not be as easy as the one against the Gators. This game was the final game of the regular season before the playoffs and was held in Clarkson.
Junior Mason Whitmore said, I thought we played a very hard, physical game. We knew coming into this game that we were going to have to play our best football.”
The Patriots started the night off well. In the first quarter, they held the powerful offense of the Jags to only 6 points. But the Patriots couldn’t find the end zone themselves.
Down 6, the Patriots put up another amazing defensive stand, holding the Jags to 0 points in the second quarter, making the score 0-6 at halftime against the top-ranked Jaguar team.
We played with them through the first half, but then in the second half we knew they weren't going to lie down for us,” Whitmore said. “They caught us all off guard and we just didn't play as good coming into the second half.”
The Jaguars scored two touchdowns in the third quarter by putting together some good drives that the Patriots were unsuccessful in stopping. The Patriots themselves still couldn’t find the end zone. The fourth quarter was much of the same, as the Jags scored one more touchdown and two-point conversion to make the final score 0-30 in favor of the Jaguars.
“Howells-Dodge is a tough team,” Patriot Head Coach Jim Clarkson said. “I thought we held up very well against them, controlling the first half and holding down their power offense. In the end, they made more plays than us. We also missed a couple opportunities to score, and against a good team, that will get you beat.”
Game Stats vs. Wisner-Pilger:
Final
Clarkson-Leigh 60
Wisner/Pilger 34
Player Stats:
(rushing yds, passing yds, receiving yds, tackles, assisted tackles)
Kanyon Held - 16, 0, 0, 1, 3; Mason Whitmore - 0, 0, 0, 3, 1; Carter Hanel - 24, 0, 90, 4, 0; Mitchel Beeson - 0, 0, 0, 2, 0; Eli Hays - 102, 96, 0, 1, 1; Drew Beeson - 0, 0, 0, 7, 3;
Dylan Higby - 65, 0, 6, 3, 1; Cooper Vance - 0, 0, 0, 0, 2; Kyle Kasik - 145, 0, 0, 1, 3; Jackson Koehn - 0, 0, 0, 0, 1; Garret Stodola - 0, 0, 0, 1, 0; Dalton Zulkoski - 0, 0, 0, 0, 1;
Game Stats vs. Howells-Dodge:
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Clarkson-Leigh 0 0 0 0 0
Howells-Dodge 6 0 16 8 30
Player Stats:
(rushing yds, passing yds, receiving yds, tackles, assisted tackles)
Eli Hays - 51, 11, 0, 0, 0; Kanyon Held - 0, 0, 0, 2, 1; Mason Whitmore - 0, 0, 0, 0, 2; Carter Hanel - 20, 0, 11, 1, 3; Mitchel Beeson - 0, 0, 0, 3, 3 ; Kyle Kasik - 61, 0, 0, 2, 0; Trey Steffensmier - -2, 0, 0, 0, 0; Drew Beeson - 0, 0, 0, 4, 6; Dylan Higby - 16, 0, 0, 2, 4; Jase Indra - 4, 0, 0, 0, 0; Garret Stodola - 20, 0, 0, 0, 1; Isaac Baumert - 20, 0, 0, 0, 0; Cooper Vance - 0, 0, 0, 1, 2;