Devilish Dominance
Home
Devilish Dominance
Clakson makes itself at home on Power Field
| Clarkson
| HTRS
| First downs
| 19
| 8
| by rushing
| 18
| 2
| by passing
| 1
| 5
| by penalty
| 0
| 1
| Rushing
| 44-330
| 28-79
| Rushing lost
| 11
| 19
| Rushing total
| 319
| 60
| Passing
| 2-5-0
| 12-20-1
| Passing yds
| 27
| 104
| Total offense
| 49-346
| 48-164
| Kickoffs-ave.
| 7-47.9
| 1-40.0
| Punts-ave.
| 2-38.5
| 7-25.4
| Punt ret.-yds
| 0-0
| 1-6
| Kick ret.-yds
| 1-13
| 0-0
| Int. ret.-yds
| 1-20
| 0-0
| Fumbles-lost
| 11-2
| 1-1
| Penalties-yds
| 5-50
| 2-20
|
By Jason Schock
Humboldt-Table Rock-Steinaur finally met its match last night in the Class D1 state playoff quarterfinals in Humboldt, as Clarkson turned Power Field into their own stomping grounds in a 46-0 victory.
The Titans, 10-0 and the top seed in the east bracket, found themselves physically outmanned up front - the evidence of the mismatch came int he rushing statistics. Clarkson gained 319 on the ground, despite a whopping 11 fumbles (just two lost). HTRS gained 60 rushing yards, 38 of which came on two Aric Schnacker carries to open the second half. At halftime, Clarkson had rolled up 227 yards rushing to HTRS' 11. Of the Titans' 28 rushing plays, 12 failed to gain any yardage.
"We knew they were a good football team," Clarkson Coach Jim Clarkson, presumably of Clarkson, said. "But we thought we had a size advantage on them, and we thought we could manipulate that, take advantage of it."
With the victory, Clarkson improves to 9-2 and advances to Saturday's semifinal at 10-1 Humphrey St. Francis. The Flyers, a 51-8 winner at Nebraska City Lourdes, defeated Clarkson 30-28 Oct. 12 in Humphrey. The Red Devils' other loss was to Dodge (8-6), a Class D2 semifinalist.
For HTRS, the best season in school history comes to a close, but not without promise for the future. The Titans are a young team, with a lot of strong players returning, including sophomore quarterback Lance Hanzlicek, juniors Jared Freeman, Skiler Ramsey, Branch Tomek and Tanner Sharpe, as well as sophomore Schuyler Allen and Schnacker, who's just a freshman. With those players, HTRS will try to build on a 2007 dream season. Humboldt last saw such success in football during the 1988 state championship run; Table Rock in 1995, when it ended FC Sacred Heart's 87-game winning streak and advanced to the state semifinals.
2007 was a good year. The Titans beat rival FCSH in Falls City Sept. 14 and also claimed blowout wins over playoff teams Freeman and Johnson-Brock.
Playing their final high school games were J.D. Bursovsky, Greg Huppert, Andrew Rogge, Dustin Smith and Jacob Ninchelser. Senior Marshal Freeman, a 6-2, 205-pound back, was having an all-state-caliber season before suffering a season-ending injury Sept. 28 at Pawnee City.
HTRS needed Freeman's brawn Monday - and then some, probably. Clarkson is a very large 8-man football team. Everyone up front goes more than 190 and seniors Steven Paprocki (261) and Jonathan Bos (230), and juniors Ty Wedekind (225) and Nathan Urbanek (215) are the biggest and most physical. 185-pound quarterback Eric Brabec was a load, too. He scored on touchdown runs of six and four yards in the first half - each came on third-and-goal plays - and of 11 and four yards in the third quarter. Brabec (10 carries, 54 yards), finishing the scoring with a 17-yard pass to senior Corbin Hamernik with 3:01 to play in the third period.
Senior Brandon Dinslage (10 carries, game-high 104 yards) opened the scoring with a 23-yard TD run halfway into the first quarter.
Though HTRS had little success on the ground, Hanzlicek was solid through the air, completing 12 passes for 104 yards. He was picked off once. Sharpe and Schnacker each caught four passes to lead the Titan receivers.
Defensively, Ramsey made 17 tackles and recovered a fumble. Smith made 11 tackles and Huppert, eight. Ramsey, Smith and Bursovsky each recorded sacks.
(from Fall City Journal, 11/6/07)
|
