No. 2 Lions’ big plays spoil Bulldog homecoming

HAMPTON — The Bulldogs came out with a lot of fire for their homecoming game, but Class 2A No. 2 Clear Lake had other ideas.

After forcing the Lions to go 3-and-out on their opening possession, the visitors returned the favor, benefitted from a recovery on a punt and then made big play after big play to take the lead for good in an eventual 42-0 win on Friday, Sept. 27.

“Big plays,” Bulldog head coach Andy Bruemmer said. “We had chances for tackles, to stop a big play, somebody would run through two or three arm tackles instead of putting their shoulder in and driving their feet, taking their extra step.

“We were trying to arm tackle and that’s just bad fundamentals.”

A fumble recovery by Jordan Severs on a pass completion from Jaylen DeVries to Jagger Schmitt which was knocked free by Wyatt Sutter, had the Bulldogs’ in good field position, but they went backwards and were forced to punt, giving the ball back where the Lions scored again.

“(We were looking to) score,” Bruemmer said. “We were looking to score, just didn’t happen tonight. The last couple of home games, we just haven’t had it.

“We’re going to get it turned around and go back to work on Monday.”

DeVries, a Southern Illinois University commit, was 16-of-29 passing for 305 yards and six touchdowns. His primary target, Nick Danielson, caught seven passes for 114 yards and three of the scores.

The Bulldogs have now faced both the second- and third-ranked teams in the state (Algona and Clear Lake) and Bruemmer says both are worthy of their accolades.

“They’re both very good football teams,” Bruemmer said. “I think we had a shot at both of them, but we didn’t play well enough in either one and that’s my fault, that’s on me. It’s my job to get my kids ready to play and the defense wasn’t really ready.

“Offensively, we’ll figure it out. We have to do it consistently. We were consistent last week (against Clarion-Goldfield), we were good, we blocked the right guys. This week, we have to go over the film and see what we’re doing. We’ll go back and correct it.”

More and more players for the Bulldogs went to the sideline after being dinged up throughout the course of the game to add to those who have been out for at least a few weeks.

“We’ve got a lot of dinged up kids,” Bruemmer said. “It’s the middle of the season, we’re going to have the little “owies.” We’ve got some other injuries that are handled correctly. We don’t want to hurry them back too fast.”

However, on the good news front, the Bulldogs saw the return of senior Matt Waddingham, who saw late action, carrying the ball twice for 11 yards.

“He got medically cleared last week,” Bruemmer said. “When he brought me the slip from the doctor, I went, ‘wow’. Didn’t know that was going to happen.”

Sophomore quarterback Cal Heeren was sacked eight times for negative-65 yards, leaving the Bulldogs with negative-23 total rushing yards and a net of 10 with Heeren’s 33 yards passing.

Next up for the Bulldogs is Forest City on the road this Friday night. The Indians are also 1-4 with their only win also over CGD.

“I’ll design a plan for next week’s practices and get ready for Forest City film,” Bruemmer said.

CL               7     21     14       0        -     42

H-D              0       0       0       0        -       0

FIRST QUARTER

CL– Jackson Loge 33 pass from Jaylen DeVries (Hunter Nielsen kick) 6:40

SECOND QUARTER

CL – Nick Danielson 6 pass from DeVries (kick fail) 9:55

CL– Kody Kearns 60 pass from DeVries (DeVries run) 5:40

CL– Danielson 25 pass from DeVries (Nielsen kick) 0:09

THIRD QUARTER

CL – Kearns 34 pass from DeVries (Nielsen kick) 9:32

CL – Danielson 24 pass from DeVries (Nielsen kick) 5:30

TEAM STATISTICS

                                             CL            H-D

First downs                            12                3

Rushes-yards                   17-29       27-(23)

Passing                               340              33

Comp-att-int                  17-31-0      10-12-0

Punts-avg.                          4-34        9-35.6

Fumbles-lost                         2-1             2-2

Penalties-yards               11-103           4-20

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – CL, Jaylen DeVries 7-30-0, Jaden O’Brien-Green 6-12-0, Nick Danielson 1-3-0, Sam Nelson 2-(4)-0, Kody Kearns 1-(12)-0. H-D, Matt Waddingham 2-11-0, Jordan Severs 1-10-0, Jaycob Martzahn 4-9-0, Malyk Schunk 2-8-0, Max O’Dell 8-4-0, Cal Heeren 10-(65)-0. PASSING – CL, DeVries 16-29-6-305-0, 1-2-0-15-0. H-D, Heeren 10-12-0-33-0. RECEIVING – CL, Nick Danielson 7-115-3, Kearns 3-110-2, Jackson Loge 3-62-1, Jacob Monson 1-15-0, Jagger Schmitt 2-15-0, Mitchell Raber 1-4-0. H-D, Wyatt Sutter 3-13-0, O’Dell 2-8-0, Martzahn 1-6-0, Mario De La Cruz 2-3-0, Waddingham 2-3-0. TACKLES – CL NA. H-D, De La Cruz 4-7-7.5, Martzahn 4-2-5, David Cornejo 2-3-3.5, Kale Folkerts 3-1-3.5, Schunk 3-0-3, Severs 3-0-3, Sutter 3-0-3. TFL – CL, NA. H-D, Folkerts 2, De La Cruz, Connor Donaldson, Logan Walker. SACKS – CL, NA. H-D, Folkerts. FUMBLE RECOVERIES – CL, PJ Feuerbach, Thomas Gansen. H-D, Severs. INTERCEPTIONS – CL, None. H-D, None.