Clarke ‘took a bat to a beehive’ against PCM

Clarke football battled from start to finish against Class 2A No. 1 PCM (7-0) in a 70-21 contest Friday night.

The win ended the Mustangs’ 2020 season at the top spot in Class 2A District 8. Clarke (1-5) finished in ffith place, ahead of Chariton (0-6).

Entering Friday, PCM had outscored opponents 340-25 through six games and had shut out the last four opponents, not allowing any points against district opponents.

Clarke’s 14 points in the second quarter shell shocked PCM. The Indians head coach Jerrod Gaskill said the team “took a bat to a beehive” by scoring on the Mustangs. Entering Friday, Clarke had 55 points all season, 35 coming in its lone win over Chariton Sept. 18.

The Indians’ run game couldn’t find any momentum against PCM’s defensive line.

“They’re so big up front, that’s the thing,” Gaskill said. “They’re so big, you can’t teach size, so trying to get anything up front (didn’t work). Then, they don’t blitz, so they just rely on their ahtletes in the middle, so running just was not there. We tried to get guys on the edge, and it worked for us a little bit.”

Seeing the struggles against the bigger, strong PCM defensive line, Gaskill abandoned the run game, utilizing veteran quarterback Zethann May.

Midway through the second quarter, trailing 28-0 after PCM opened the game by scoring on its first four possessions, the Mustangs missed a field goal to give Clarke the ball in its own territory.

May connected with Tanner Fry for a 28-yard pass, and Chris Carson caught a five-yard pass to get the offense moving. After a timeout and four-yard pass to Fry, May pump-faked to the far side of the field and made a pass back to the near side to find Jayden Giza 10 yards from the closest defender and score the first district points of the season against PCM.

Riding the momentum, Gaskill called for an onside kick, surprising PCM as the Indians converted to get the ball back near the 50-yard line.

“When you play a team like that, you have to pull out all the plays in the playbook,” Gaskill said. “... We just said hey, ‘we’ve been practicing this onside almost all season.’ So we said, ‘hey let’s just throw it out against a team like this,’ and it worked to perfection. Josue (Torres) is awesome.”

A late hit on May and pass interference on third down against Fry kept the drive alive for Clarke.

A sack on first down and missed connection with Kamis Bulis in the end zone on a pass batted away put the Indians at 3rd-and-long.

With one more chance at the end zone, May made his second touchdown pass in as many drives, finding Bulis in the end zone for a touchdown. Another penalty against PCM on a two-point conversion pushed things closer to the end zone for Clarke. Carson found his way into the end zone to cut PCM’s lead to 28-14 with 3:24 left in the first half.

PCM responded with a four play drive ending with a 17-yard touchdown run from Sage Burns to quiet the Clarke crowd and go up 35-14.

The Indians went three-and-out in response before Torres intercepted a pass with 27.4 seconds left on a Hail Mary. PCM took the ball right back with an interception of its own from May.

To end the half, Fry intercepted a pass with room to run, cutting back to the near side of the field before snaking his way to far side. With only a few Mustangs to beat, he was tripped up near midfield to end the half.

“I just liked how our guys competed. I think they were kind of star struck when they came in,” Gaskill said. “It’s PCM, No. 1 team in the state, how big, fast they are. We were a little timid at first, until all of a sudden we realized they bleed like we do, and we had a little momentum going there in that first half.”

Mustangs too much

PCM poured things on in the second half, not wasting any time from the kickoff.

Burns scored quickly before the PCM defense forced a three-and-out. On the first play of the ensuing drive, the Mustangs killed any momentum Clarke had, with Jacob Van Winkle rushing for a 50-yard touchdown on the first play of the drive to go up 49-14 and start the running clock.

“They came out in the second half, and they were just bigger, stronger, faster than us,” Gaskill said. “It’s just too hard to compete against a team like that.”

From there, Clarke’s offensive and defensive lines started to tire, playing both ways. PCM kept the first team in until late in the fourth quarter, continuing to add to its lead, being one of the first times this season the starters played into the final frame.

Clarke never stopped fighting against top-ranked PCM.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Indians found success on offense. May connected with Giza again, this time for a 30-yard touchdown pass, scoring more points against PCM than any team this year and the most since Newton scored 18 in Week 1.