Bowling Green senior running back Ja’ceous Shannon is nearly pulled down but drags a Clay defender with him instead. (Lee Welch | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Bryce Hudik
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
OREGON — Clay held on to best Bowling Green, 24-22, after jumping out to an early 14-0 lead on Friday at Clay Memorial Stadium.
Both teams were 3-2 overall coming in, making it a key league matchup, but Clay senior quarterback Mason Heintschel made several key plays to will his team in the Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division opener for both teams.
“He’s our guy, a once in a lifetime player and probably the best we’ve ever had here at Clay High School and we’re just so fortunate to have him,” said Clay coach John Galyas.
Without Heintschel, Clay likely does not win this football game, but he got off to a hot start. It helped that Clay defenseman Landon Eversman sacked the Bowling Green quarterback forcing a fumble which Eversman also recovered.
This handed Heintschel the ball in great field position, and he wasted no time, throwing a back shoulder 11-yard dime to receiver Troy Hazuda for the first score.
On their next drive, the Pittsburgh University-bound Heintschel made a few improbable plays to drive his squad down the field. Spinning out of a sack he threw a long pass to get them to midfield.
Then on fourth and 11 he slipped out of the pocket and ran for the first down conversion. He’s elusive and the BG defense was having a tough time corralling him early on. Eversman finished the drive with a 14-yard touchdown run with 9:42 left until half.
At this point, it appeared a blowout was inevitable, but Bowling Green was not to be subdued. On their next drive, senior running back Ja’ceous Shannon split the Eagles’ defense up the right side for a 43-yard house call. A successful two-point try ran in by Jamison Horst made it 14-8.
Clay took the ball and Heintschel, trying to make something out of nothing, was hit on the sideline by BG defensive back Carter Earl, who popped the ball free and pounced on it before it rolled out of bounds.
BG senior back Jackson Shafer added a rushing touchdown of his own from 14 yards out, making it 15 unanswered points to put the Bobcats ahead by one with 3:36 left until halftime.
“We knew we could play with them, we just had to settle down a little bit,” said Bowling Green coach Shawn Kiss. “Once we settled down and got into our gameplan I thought we took over.”
The lead in hand, Bowling Green had to halt Heintschel and the Eagles with just three minutes until the break. Two separate misplaced balls from Heintschel were dropped by Bowling Green defenders and BG was unable to take advantage of the ill-advised passes.
Clay scored with a minute left as Heintschel spun out of a sack and threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Brayden Schultz in the back of the end zone, putting the Eagles ahead 21-15 at the break.
“We have to make those plays,” said Kiss. “But I’m proud of our kids, they played their tails off and a few of those plays just didn’t go our way.”
With the wind whipping at 40 miles-per-hour gusts, in the second half Clay drove into Bobcat territory but was halted and came away with a 39-yard field goal booted by Hammer Good to lead 24-15 after three quarters.
Bowling Green was able to score on their next drive when Shannon notched his second rushing touchdown of the game on a seven-yard sweep play.
With seven minutes left in the game Clay took over hoping to salt the game away. Faced with a third down and 14 it looked as though BG was going to come up with the stop they needed but a crucial pass interference call gave the Eagles a first down.
With just a minute left, Heintschel ran up the gut for a game sealing first down. The Eagles bled out the remaining clock and escaped with the win.
Kiss said the pass interference call had only so much to do with the loss, say, “we can’t point fingers at anybody else but ourselves. We just must come out and play and control what we can.”
“I thought we played well tonight but it’s just tough to let that one go. Two points (for a win) to that good team. It stinks but hats off to them. They played well,” Kiss added.
Shannon carded 114 yards on the ground on 16 tries and two touchdowns. Shafer added 46 yards and a touchdown while quarterback turned running back Jamison Horst put up 98 yards of his own on the ground.
BG quarterback Grant Gillispie threw just two passes but completed them both, one to Shafer for five yards and one to Aiden Rohleder for 13 yards.
Bowling Green sinks to 3-3 on the year and plays again next Friday when they take on Cardinal Division foe Sylvania Southview at Bobcat Stadium.
