AMANDA — There’s no halftime speech a coach can give that would set their team up for the type of third quarter Amanda-Clearcreek had Friday.
The Aces scored 30 points in the third quarter to go from trailing 19-3 at the half to grabbing a 33-26 win over visiting Circleville.
Things went the Aces’ way from the first play of the second half.
Circleville fumbled the opening kickoff and Tanner Affolter recovered the ball in the endzone. The Aces went for two and Bodie Martin ran it in to make the score 19-11.
“That was as big an adrenaline jump as we could ever get,” AC coach Chet Saum said. “We thought we had some momentum coming out of the second half with what we were doing there at the end of the second quarter. I thought we were going to have a good half, but watching that happened is just an instant jolt of electricity on our team.
“And get a two-point conversion after that … it just gave us a really good boost.”
A three-and-out for the Tigers capped by an 11-yard punt set the Aces up with a short field.
Tommy Stai carried on first down and Martin handled the rock the next six times culminating in a five-yard score. This time Stai ran in the conversion and the score was tied less than five minutes into the half.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve never seen a momentum swing like that,” Circleville coach Steve Evans said. “Obviously, you’ve seen a fumble to start the second half or a kickoff but not one that’s fumbled for a touchdown. And then we did a quick three-and-out and get like a 10, 12-yard punt and they’ve got great field position.
“Things swung so fast.”
After another three-and-out for the Tigers, but with a better punt, the Aces were starting at their own 27.
Martin got the handoff on first down and raced 73 yards to give the Aces the lead. Hayden Dunn’s kicks had it 26-19 AC.
“We blocked it well, but they way over-ran it,” Saum said of the play. “He ran backside of the backside linebacker. He’s a really good back and we blocked it well and got man-on-man. The one we didn’t have accounted for took himself out of the play and just left a big open gap.”
Following Martin’s score, Tigers put a drive together that covered 79 yards in nine plays. Benjamin Rolfe caught a 22-yard pass from Hudson Phalin for a touchdown and Kaden Paxton kicked the PAT to tie the game at 26-26.
It looked like Circleville had AC stopped on the next possession but the Aces faked a punt on fourth down. A flag on the Tigers gave AC new life and Martin grabbed 15 yards on the next play and Stai went 25 yards for the go-ahead score after that with 52 seconds left in the third period.
Circleville failed to get a first down on its next two possessions while the Aces ate up more than eight minutes off the clock their next two.
Circleville’s last chance started at their own 20 with 2:18 on the clock.
The Tigers moved the ball down the field on a drive that featured a 22-yard pass to Drew Thornsley and the eighth play of the drive was a 35-yard pass to Kole Nungester for first-and-goal from the 6.
A procedure penalty pushed them back five yards and then Phalin was sacked for another five-yard loss. With no timeouts, the Tigers hurried to the line and spiked the ball leaving time for one last play.
Phalin tried to find Jack Kline in the corner of the endzone, but he was well covered by Martin and unable to make the right adjustments to bring in the ball.
“Ultimately, we came back and we were able to answer,” Evans said. “We put ourselves in a position to try to tie. But we weren’t going for a tie, we were going for a win if we got the ball in the endzone right there.”
Circleville got out in front in the first quarter with an 11-play drive that saw a 20-yard pass from Phalin to Kline set up a four-yard scoring run from Phalin. The PAT kick failed making it 6-0.
Early in the second quarter, Circleville’s Auri Travis got a piece of an AC punt and Phalin connected with Kole Nungester on the next play for an 18-yard touchdown. The Tigers were unsuccessful going for two and had a 12-0 lead.
Nungester intercepted AC’s Logan Stevens on the next play from scrimmage and Phalin hit Rolfe for a 25-yard score on first down. A Kaden Paxton kick had the Tigers out in front 19-0.
“We were throwing the ball around a little bit, and I think they were expecting us to try to really pound the football,” Evans said of Circleville’s first-half success. “They had the box loaded up and took that away from us. We had a couple injuries that has kind of depleted our offensive line a little bit, so we were throwing it around a little more than what they expected.
“They survived and made it into halftime and were able to make some adjustments. They got all the momentum there and we weren’t able to get it back.”
AC answered with a 14-play that wrapped up with a 35-yard field goal from Dunn.
Circleville’s final possession of the half ended with Martin intercepting Phalin while the Aces were near midfield when time ran out on their last possession of the half.
As they head into the second half of the season, Saum said Friday’s win should really be a boost for his team.
“We’ve still got things to work on for sure, but we just proved what we can do,” he said. “From what we had two years ago with the 0-10 season they had no confidence. Last year, we saw good things and progression from the team. Now they’re seeing what they can do.”
AC finished the night running the ball 49 times for 299 yards. Martin had 164 yards on 23 carries Stai picked up 100 yards on 16 tries.
Steven was 3-18 passing for 17 yards with all of AC’s passing attempts coming in the first half.
Phalin was 27-42 on the night with 286 yards.
Nungester had 10 catches for 112 yards and Kline had nine for 83.
Circleville was limited to 54 yards on the ground.
Amanda-Clearcreek 33, Circleville 26
By Quarters 1 2 3 4 F
Circleville 6 13 7 0 26
Am-Clearcreek 0 3 30 0 33
First Quarter
CV — Hudson Phalin 4 run (kick failed), 4:04.
Second Quarter
CV — Kole Nungester 18 pass from Hudson Phalin (pass failed), 9:18.
CV — Benjamin Rolfe 25 pass from Hudson Phalin (Kaden Paxton kick), 8:56.
AC — Hayden Dunn 35 field goal, 3:48,
Third Quarter
AC — Tanner Affolter recovered fumble in endzone (Bodie Martin run), 11:35.
AC — Bodie Martin 5 run (Tommy Stai run), 7:32.
AC — Bodie Martin 73 run (Hayden Dunn kick), 6:28.
CV — Benjamin Rolfe 22 pass from Hudson Phalin (Kaden Paxton kick), 3:31.
AC — Tommy Stai 25 run (Hayden Dunn kick), 0:52.
TEAM STATISTICS
CV AC
First downs 16 15
Rushing yards 21-54 49-299
Passing yards 286 17
Comp.-Att.-Int 27-42-1 3-8-1
Total yards 340 316
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 2-1
Penalties-Yards 7-50 6-75
Punts-Ave 4-31 5-30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING –Circleville — Drew Thornsley 14-26, Hudson Phalin 7-28. Amanda-Clearcreek — Bodie Martin 23-164, Tommy Stai 16-100, Nick Holland 2-12, Logan Stevens 1-3, Gage Crenshaw 1-2, Tanner Affolter 3-(-19), Boston Fowler 1-20.
PASSING – Circleville— Hudson Phalin 27-42-1-286. Amanda-Clearcreek — Logan Stevens 3-8-1-17.
RECEIVING –Circleville — Kole Nungester 10-112, Jack Kline 9-83, Drew Thornsley 3-26, Brody Brisker 2-14, Benjamin Rolfe 2-47, Jacob Reichelderfer 1-4. Amanda-Clearcreek — Bodie Martin 1-6, Colton Westhoven 1-(-1), Bryton Carruthers 1-12.
