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Clar's 210 yards key 27-20 Greencastle victory
The Greencastle Tiger Cubs mixed strong play from their offensive and defensive lines with a healthy dose of Devin Clar to open their football season with a 27-20 win over the Crawfordsville Athenians.
Clar rushed for 210 yards on 28 carries as Greencastle dominated the line of scrimmage in the non-conference high school football game on Friday night, overcoming the big play Athenians.
The host Tiger Cubs ran 18 more plays than the Athenians and churned out 270 yards on the ground during the game. They limited Crawfordsville to just 96 rushing yards on 33 attempts.
"The offensive line and defensive line played really well pretty much the whole game," Greencastle coach Mike Meyer said.
Neither team could get it going on its first possession of the game, but Greencastle finally began a drive late in the first quarter that stretched into the second quarter with Clar scoring from three yards out. Ben Webb added the PAT for a 7-0 lead.
The Athenians began to move the ball and picked up two first downs, but fumbled the ball away, with Devon Young recovering for Greencastle to end the Crawfordsville threat.
Five plays later Clar scored again, this time from 16 yards out. Webb again tacked on the PAT and the Tiger Cubs had a 14-0 lead.
"He (Clar) really played well and played hard," Meyer said. "He is pretty sore and tired right now, but he played really well."
D'Yonta Bounds returned the Greencastle kickoff back almost to mid-field and Crawfordsville found a little offensive rhythm with a nine-play, 55-yard drive with Caden Jones bulling into the end zone from six yards out and Jason Albrecht added the PAT to cut the lead to 14-7.
Greencastle responded with its own 55-yard drive and Jackie Scanland hauled in a five-yard pass from quarterback Nick Costin to extend the lead to 21-7 after another Webb PAT.
Greencastle almost added more points late in the half. Crawfordsville fumbled the ball on what appeared to be the last play of the half. Gavin Bollman recovered the ball as time expired, but the officials put 0.4 seconds back on the clock and Webb just missed a 45-yard field goal attempt to end the half.
"It wasn't a perfect game, but it was a win. I'm really happy," Meyer said.
Crawfordsville opened the second half with one of two long touchdowns. After a Tiger Cub penalty on the kickoff moved the kick back to the 35-yard line, Bounds took the second kick at his 15-yard line and 85 yards later had cut the lead 21-13. The Tiger Cubs blocked the PAT to maintain an eight-point advantage.
Greencastle bounced back and put together a 14-play, 72-yard drive but on third and goal from the one-yard line, a bad snap led to a fumble and Crawfordsville recovered the ball, ending the Tiger Cub threat. Two plays later, Trent Johnson found Daulton Bridgewater for an 86-yard catch and run touchdown to cut the lead to 21-19. The Athenians converted the two-point try, but a holding penalty nullified the conversion and Crawfordsville chose to kick and cut the lead to 21-20.
Greencastle appeared to put the game away with another long, grind-it-out drive. The Tiger Cubs used a 14-play, 79-yard drive to go ahead 27-20 with just 6:25 to play. The Tiger Cubs ran most of the plays without Clar on the field due to leg cramps.
Derek Ummel took over as the main running back and Costin used his legs and arm on the drive. He capped the drive with a six-yard TD run. The PAT was blocked and Greencastle led 27-20.
"Derek Ummel played real well, Nick Costin made some clutch plays for us," Meyer said.
Crawfordsville wouldn't quit. The Athenians drove the ball down to the Tiger Cub six-yard line, but a strong defensive line surge stopped them short on fourth down and two, and the Tiger Cubs finished their opener with a win.
Crawfordsville 0 7 13 0 -- 20
Greencastle 0 21 0 6 -- 27
GHS -- Clar, 3 run (Webb kick) 7-0 Q2 11:51
GHS -- Clar, 16 run (Webb kick) 14-0 Q2 6:02
CHS -- Jones, 6 run (Albrecht kick) 14-7 Q2 2:34
GHS -- Scanland, 5 pass from Costin (Webb kick) 21-7 Q2 6:02
CHS -- Bounds, 85 kickoff return (kick blocked) 21-14 Q3 11:47
CHS -- Bridgewater, 86 pass from Johnson (Albrecht kick) 21-20 Q3 3:47
GHS -- Costin, 6 run (kick blocked) 27-20 Q43 6:25
C G
First Downs 10 19
Rushes-yards 33-96 47-270
Passing-yards 173 67
Comp-Att-Int 6-10-0 5-14-0
Total Offense 43-269 61-337
Punts-Avg 1-30.0 2-32.5
Fumbles-lost 4-2 3-1
Penalties-yards 7-77 7-50
Individual Statistics
Rushing -- Crawfordsville: Trent Johnson 10-64, Daulton Bridgewater 3-15, LaHarren Saulsberry 14-11, Caden Jones 3-7, Stephen Latre 2-1, Gage Gerdes 1-(-2). Greencastle: Devin Clar 28-210, Nick Costin 12-36, Derek Ummel 6-19, Tanner Sanders 1-5.
Passing -- Crawfordsville: Johnson 6-10-0 173. Greencastle: Costin 5-14-0 67.
Receiving -- Crawfordsville: Bridgewater 5-145, Saunders 1-28. Greencastle: Matthews 2-17, Sanders 1-15, Scanland 2-25