Clare comes up just short, falls to Ogemaw, 41-34

By BEN MURPHY

Cleaver Sportswriter

The battle between the top two Jack Pine Conference Division 1 football teams lived up to the hype. Clare was hosting Ogemaw Heights in the key league showdown Friday, and while they rallied to tie the game late after facing a two-score deficit, they ultimately came up just short, 41-34 on homecoming night.

“Ogemaw is a great football team across all positions,” head coach Steven Spranger said.

They have the ability to run the ball between the tackles and earn the tough yards, and then they also have the ability to hit the big plays as well. The difference in the game was we took too long to get a handle on their physicality, and we didn't do as good of a job as we have been at limiting their explosive plays.”

The Falcons capped off scoring drives with short touchdown runs in both the first and second quarters, taking a 14-0 lead. The Pioneers got their offense going with a four-yard touchdown pass from Jayden Arthur, who found Jacob Halicek for the score, bringing them within 14-6.

Ogemaw responded with a long 51-yard touchdown pass to put their lead back to 21-6, but it didn’t take long for the Pioneers to answer.

Ryan Louch took the ensuing kickoff, racing the other way, picking up blockers and avoiding would-be tacklers along the way for a 91-yard touchdown. A Dane Kruskamp extra point made it 21-13.

The Ogemaw passing game continued to be hard to stop, as they connected on a 44-yard touchdown toss for a 28-12 lead.

Clare did score before the half ended though, getting Arthur to pitch a two-yard touchdown pass to Conan Weeks, making it 28-19 at the half.

The Falcons scored the only points of the third quarter, getting a one yard scoring plunge to lead 34-19 entering the fourth.

The Pioneers scored on back-to-back offensive possessions to tie the game up. Arthur connected with Halicek for both touchdowns on short passes; resulting in scores of two and 15 yards. Arthur also completed a pass to Louch on the two-point conversion, knotting things up at 34-apiece.

The Falcons unfortunately had one final scoring drive in them. They capped it off with a 14-yard touchdown run with just over a minute remaining, and Clare was unable to answer with points of their own in the final moments.

“While disappointed in the loss, there were still many positives,” Spranger said. “I thought once we got our feet underneath us, and started to handle their physicality, we were fine. I'm proud of the guys for fighting back the entire game and eventually tying it up after being down one-to-two scores all night. That type of constant fight makes a coach extremely proud, and something the guys can be proud of too.”

Arthur finished his night 24-of-38 passing for 200 yards and four touchdowns and he also ran for another 51 yards on five attempts. Louch ran four times for 33 yards, and he also had 10 receptions for 96 yards on top of his special teams touchdown. Aiden Van bonn ran the ball eight times for 33 yards and Weeks finished with five receptions for 32 yards.

On defense, Louch was a force as well, getting 16 combined tackles. Van bonn brought down 14, Joey Bouchey had 13 tackles, Triston Gauthier and Mason Heintz had nine tackles apiece and Chase Randall took down seven. Brendan Burton added six tackles and with five was Ethan Reeves.

Clare (4-1 overall, 2-1 JPC Division 1) will travel to Standish-Sterling (3-2, 2-1) on Friday for another league game. The Panthers are coming off a 33-20 loss to Gladwin last week; while their wins this year have come over Boyne City, Shepherd and Bullock Creek.

“Standish is a very technically sound football team,” Spranger said. “(Their head coach) Marty Malcolm will always have his team ready to play and will have a great game plan for us. As always, our keys to win are explosive plays and turnovers.”