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Tigers denied first win in 20-13 setback to Aces

By Jordan Holland 7 min read

Somebody was coming out of Don Drumm Stadium with their first win Friday night.

Unfortunately for Marietta, it was Amanda-Clearcreek which left town with the victory as the Aces held on for a 20-13 triumph.

Both schools entered the contest with identical 0-5 records, but the Aces came out scorching and found the end zone on each of their first three drives. The Tigers clawed back to get within six at halftime, but neither defense relented in a scoreless second half as Amanda-Clearcreek escaped on the smiling side of the scoreboard.

"We knew Clearcreek’s a tradition program," said Marietta head coach Mike Kupfner. "We knew they were going to come to play, and they did. We had our chances. Obviously, you know, some calls here or there, blah blah blah -- we’re never going to blame the officials, but definitely some instances there that hurt us a little bit late. I was really, really proud of our guys. I’m still hurting for them to come up short there, but still got several games left in the season. Got to continue to grind."

The two teams combined for a total of 15 penalties and 144 yards. Marietta's Trenton McVey and Amanda-Clearcreek's Branson Fowler both were ejected in the fourth quarter after a pair of personal foul calls.

With McVey out, Braydon Frye stepped in at quarterback on the Tigers' final drive, needing a touchdown. He completed an 8-yard pass to Ryker Gibeaut, but his next attempt was intercepted by Kehlan Watterson. The Aces went to kneel out the clock, but a late hit on the final play drew multiple flags on the Tigers. Amanda-Clearcreek head coach Eddie Johnson opted to send his team straight to the locker room rather than do a postgame handshake line.

"Hate to see that game end the way it did, but it’s just better for both teams to go the opposite way, and that way, nobody gets in trouble," said Johnson, who picked up his first varsity football coaching victory. "Once again, kids are kids. I don’t want anybody getting hurt and getting penalized for something that shouldn’t have happened. I have the utmost respect for Marietta and their coaching staff."

Kupfner added, "It got pretty testy there at the end. Obviously, it’s football. It’s an emotional game, so I mean, I have no ill-will feelings or any hard feelings versus them. It’s just a hard fought game, which we knew it was going to be, and I think the scoreboard kind of shows that it was a hard fought game."

Aces quarterback Conrad Carpenter ran for a 1-yard touchdown on the game's opening drive and threw a 17-yard TD pass to Evan Kern on the second, staking ACHS to a 13-0 lead.

Marietta drove the ball to midfield on its ensuing possession before a pass interference and a facemask pushed the ball into the red zone. Daymeon Gulley's 4-yard run on third-and-four moved the chains, and Zach Carver punched it into the end zone from 3 yards out to cut it to 13-6 with 7:35 left in the half.

The Tiger defense was looking to keep momentum and get off the field on third-and-six from the Aces' own 31, but Carpenter completed a deep pass to Nick Holland. Holland was wrapped up near the Marietta 30, but kept his balance and dragged defenders across the goal line for a 69-yard touchdown.

Undeterred, Marietta's offense punched right back with its longest play of the game, a 33-yard touchdown run by Frye with 3:20 left in the half to make it 20-13.

Amanda-Clearcreek threatened to score again just before halftime, but on four straight plays, McVey broke up two passes, made a tackle short of the sticks and finally picked off Carpenter in the end zone to keep the deficit at seven.

"That’s a credit to Trent, and we used that at halftime a little bit," Kupfner said. "We keep telling guys 'One play at a time.' He got called for interference earlier, and then he comes back and makes four straight plays. That’s a credit to him and his mentality there a little bit. We’re going to try to appeal that (ejection). I don’t think that he was necessarily doing anything that warranted an ejection, so hopefully we can get him back for next week (versus Williamstown)."

Marietta punted on its first possession of the third, and then both teams traded turnovers-on-downs. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Carver was stopped short of the sticks on a fourth-and-1 carry at midfield.

The Tigers later had another turnover-on-downs on a dropped fourth-down pass at the 50-yard line. They'd get the ball back after stopping the Aces in the red zone, but with no timeouts and their starting QB out of the game, Marietta was unable to drive the length of the field.

"That was the best we played all year defensively," Johnson said. "We were lucky enough to play a team (Hamilton Township) last week that ran a similar offense, so we kind of had two weeks to prepare for it. Marietta does some really nice things, and their kids are really good, and we just happened to have the ball go our way a couple times which helped us out."

Frye led the Tiger rushing attack with 53 yards on 13 carries. Gulley added 34 yards on eight attempts.

"Just a good high school football game, and we just came up a little bit short," Kupfner said. "It’s a good learning experience for a lot of our young guys. Proud of our older guys. We're trying to continue to grind and get them a few wins. Growing as a program, you got to take some lumps sometimes."

Carpenter finished 14 for 20 through the air for 245 yards. Holland had five receptions for 114 yards.

"This is the first game we didn't lose the turnover battle," Johnson said. "Our defense really stepped up there in the second half to really help us out. Offensively, we got to do a better job late in the game to put the game away, but hats off to Marietta and their coaches. Their players played great all night. That’s a heck of a football team and they're going to have a lot of success in the future. Probably one of the best football teams in the state of Ohio that have the record they have. That’s a really good football team."

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@mariettatimes.com.

At Don Drumm Stadium

Amanda-Clearcreek 20, Marietta 13

A (1-5) 13 7 0 0 -- 20

M (0-6) 0 13 0 0 -- 13

A: Conrad Carpenter 1 run, kick blocked, 6:48 1st

A: Evan Kern 17 pass from Carpenter, Colin Trego kick, 1:22 1st

M: Zach Carver 3 run, kick blocked, 7:35 2nd

A: Nick Holland 69 pass from Carpenter, Trego kick, 6:01 2nd

M: Braydon Frye 33 run, Kingston McMahon kick, 3:20 2nd

Team stats

Amanda-Clearcreek: First downs: 13; Rushes-yards: 31-54; Passing yards: 245; Total yards: 299; Passing: 14-20-1; Fumbles-lost: 1-0; Penalties-yards: 8-73; Punts-average: 1-44

Marietta: First downs: 9; Rushes-yards: 36-135; Passing yards: 25; Total yards: 160; Passing: 3-6-1; Fumbles-lost: 2-0; Penalties-yards: 7-71; Punts-average: 2-30

Individual stats

Amanda-Clearcreek: Rushing: Conrad Carpenter 11-39, TD; Karsin Amann 13-19; Carter Madison 2-6; Silas Hoffman 2-1; TEAM 3-(-9); Passing: Carpenter 14-20-1, 245 yards, TD; Receiving: Nick Holland 5-114, TD; Branson Fowler 3-42; Talon Affolter 2-32; Evan Kern 1-17, TD; Amann 1-16; Madison 1-15; Tyson Davis 1-7

Marietta: Rushing: Braydon Frye 13-53, TD; Daymeon Gulley 8-34; Trenton McVey 5-26; Zach Carver 8-24, TD; Nick McGill 1-4; TEAM 1-(-6); Passing: McVey 2-3-0, 17 yards; Frye 1-3-1, 8 yards; Receiving: Gulley 2-17; Ryker Gibeaut 1-8

Next games: Logan Elm at Amanda-Clearcreek; Williamstown at Marietta

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