BY KELLY IRWIN
Special to The Clarkston News
The Clarkston Wolves freshman football team continued their climb, Sept. 27 with a home victory over the Bloomfield Lahser Knights 35-14.
Fullback Justin Baetz scored the Wolves? first touchdown on 2nd down and two at 7:53 in the first quarter, with the extra point made by Brian Benway.
Lahser had a smaller team but a very capable quarterback in Bobby Brandon. He made good use of his fullback Paul Jones and runningback Nick Emery who upped the score to 7-7 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Benway had a 45-yard punt that placed the Knights at their five-yard line. When they couldn’t get their down, Pike blocked the punt for a safety to end the half 9-7.
After some smart half-time strategizing, the Wolves opened the second half with a perfect onside kick by Benway, recovered by Connor Morris.
Morris later ran in a touchdown followed by a Benway extra point to give the Wolves some breathing space.
Clarkston’s defense had some organization problems and gave up a lot of yards in the first half, but eventually wore down the Knights in the second half. This included two successive quarterback sacks by Justin Baetz early in the third quarter.
The Knights quickly proved they were not ready to give up the battle when Bobby Brandon passed to Nick Emery for a 47-yard touchdown with extra point by Michael Henderson.
This didn’t faze the Wolves, as a 35-yard pass by quarterback Matt Rogers to wide receiver Chris Canada scored a touchdown with 18 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Wolves set about to finish off the Knights in the fourth quarter with two touchdowns. Runningbacks Tyler Fultz took a 16-yard pass in, and then Brian Burger has a 53-yard run.
Their season record now stands at 5-1 with the next two games on the road, including their archrival Lake Orion Dragons.