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Clear Creek Amana upsets Xavier to force 3-way tie atop district standings
Clippers rally past 4A No. 6 Saints, 28-24, to stay in Class 4A playoff hunt
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CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cardiac Clippers remain alive in Class 4A.
Needing wins in each of its final two games to have a shot at a postseason berth, Clear Creek Amana charged into Saints Field against a Cedar Rapids Xavier team that had gotten the best of it in lopsided fashion in recent years.
Desperation brought out the best in CCA.
“We believed,” first-year CCA Coach Lance Pedersen said after the Clippers upset No. 6 Cedar Rapids Xavier, 28-24, in a District 3 game Friday night. “I don’t think a lot of people coming into this football game thought we had a chance. They were writing us off and our guys believed. They just kept fighting and battling and fighting and battling. I was so dang proud of them.”
The win pushes CCA (5-3, 3-1 District 3) even in the district race with North Scott and Xavier. The Clippers can place a final stamp on their playoff resume with a win in the regular-season finale next Friday at home against Clinton.
“Stay even keel,” CCA junior quarterback Conlan Poynton said. “Don’t get too high. Don’t get too low. Trust one another and play for one another so we can play longer and play into a November run.”
Poynton delivered when his team needed him most. The former tailback threw for 241 yards and a pair of touchdowns, both in the final frame. His 11-yard scoring toss to Cale Berry with 1:02 to go gave his team the lead for good.
“I put trust in my guys,” Poynton said. “We knew that they were coming. They were bringing blitz in that situation, but trust was everything right there. Just slinging it, getting it to my guys, getting it to my playmakers and I knew they would make plays.”
The score capped a CCA rally that started with a 17-7 halftime deficit. Senior Clayton Isham recovered a blocked punt in the end zone to pull the Clippers within a field goal with six minutes left in the third quarter, while senior Owen Rosenberg intercepted a Xavier pass at the goal line late in the frame.
“The quarterback, I had been reading his eyes all game,” Rosenberg said. “All game. He was telling the story, so I just had to read his eyes and then the whole team came together and we just finished it off. It was awesome."
Rosenberg clinched the upset with a second interception in the closing seconds.
Carter Hoffmann ran for 219 yards and a score for Xavier (5-3, 3-1).
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