High school football: Penalties, turnover sink Black River's upset bid of Clearview

SULLIVAN TWP. — The Black River football team had Clearview on the ropes but couldn't deliver the knockout blow. The Pirates grounded the Clippers' potent offense, but too many mistakes and a costly turnover helped Clearview escape with a 22-14 Lorain County League win Friday evening. "We couldn't seal the win," Black River coach Kyle Clark said. "We had some bonehead mistakes, some penalties that are uncommon with our guys and some penalties that are uncalled for. We kept fighting. That's the No. 1 thing, and I'm very proud of that, but we have to clean things up big time." Clearview (7-1, 4-1) was held to just 196 yards total offense while Black River (4-5, 3-3) ran for 199 yards and piled up 348 total yards. The Pirates shut down Clearview on its first three drives, highlighted by a pair of sacks from end Owen Chapman, each coming on third down. "Our team was just playing well," Chapman said. "The other guys on the line were helping out, playing excellent. I just had a fire under me tonight. The coaches did a good job coaching us all week on playing our pursuit and getting our angles right." The Pirates, however, didn't capitalize until their opening drive of the second quarter. It took them seven plays to go 58 yards, highlighted by a hook and lateral from receiver Alex Woolfrom to tackle Lukas Steinbrenner, who rumbled down the sideline for 4 yards inside the 10-yard line. Jayce Hopek punched it in from 5 yards and Black River took an 8-0 lead after the conversion. "That's something we put in for the linemen," Clark said of the trick play. "It's fun to practice and bring the morale up in practice. Both of our tackles (Chapman the other) can go out there and catch it and run." Penalties and turnovers did in the Pirates. Black River committed nine fouls for 75 yards — many of them negating big gains that could have led to more points — to Clearview's four for 30 yards. The big backbreaker were the turnovers, as Clearview forced two, the biggest being Isaiah Garcia's 38-yard interception return to go up 14-8 in the third quarter. The senior then gave Clearview's offense a spark two drives later when he came up with a crazy 40-yard grab to set the Clippers up 2 yards from the end zone. After a penalty pushed Clearview back 5 yards, Kameron Williams gave Clearview some buffer with a 7-yard touchdown run. Black River mounted a nice scoring drive in the final three minutes but was unable to recover the onside kick. "We've just got to get over that hump," Chapman said. "We've been in every game we've played this week except for Week 1 (vs. state-ranked Hillsdale). If we can just get over that third- and fourth-quarter hump and finish games, then we can be a good team." Contact Chris Sweeney at sports@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X. Clearview 22, Black River 14 CLEARIVEW &emsp;&emsp;0 8 6 8 — 22 BLACK RIVER &emsp;&emsp;0 8 0 6 — 14 Second B — Jayce Hopek 5 run (Seth Gaspari run), 8:20. C — Josiah Longo 54 pass from Cy Christensen (J.G. Hill pass from Christensen), 7:51. Third C — Isaiah Garcia 38 interception return (pass failed), 7:12. Fourth C — Kameron Williams 7 run (Longo pass from Christensen), 8:32. B — Zane Bungard 16 pass from Hunter Varney (run failed), 1:17. &emsp;&emsp;C &emsp;&emsp;B First downs &emsp;&emsp;9 &emsp;&emsp;19 Rushing &emsp;&emsp;23/51 &emsp;&emsp;45/199 Rushing average &emsp;&emsp;2.2 &emsp;&emsp; 4.4 Passes &emsp;&emsp;9/18 &emsp;&emsp; 14/20 Passing yards &emsp;&emsp;145 &emsp;&emsp;149 Total offense &emsp;&emsp;41/196 &emsp;&emsp;65/348 Punting &emsp;&emsp;6/33.8 &emsp;&emsp;4/29.3 Penalties &emsp;&emsp;4/30 &emsp;&emsp;9/75 Fumbles &emsp;&emsp;2/1 &emsp;&emsp;1/1 RUSHING: Clearview — Tristin Ientile 7-24, Hill 5-14, Kameron Williams 4-14, Longo 2-6, Cy Christensen 5-(-7). Black River — Gaspari 19-122, Hopek 14-48, Varney 10-17, Alex Woolfrom 1-10, Bryce Murray 1-2. PASSING: Clearview — Christensen 9-18-145-0. Black River — Varney 14-20-149-1. RECEIVING: Clearview — Longo 1-54, Garcia 2-48, Tyler Chapman 2-22, Devin Jackson 2-14, Hill 2-7. Black River — Bungard 2-40, Austin Pamer 3-35, Bryce Murray 2-28, Alex Woolfrom 3-22, Gaspari 3-20, Lukas Steinbrenner 1-4.