CLARKSTON – Tenth-ranked Oxford answered a touchdown by No. 6 Clarkston with one of its own in the final five minutes and had a chance to go and win it, but ultimately the Wolves held on to win 31-28 in Friday’s battle of OAA Red unbeatens.
Oxford’s defense was able to force Clarkston to punt to get the ball back with 33 seconds left at its own 28-yard line, but without any timeouts remaining and forced to start at its own 28-yard line, the opposing pass rush was effective and the Wildcats turned it over on downs on the game’s penultimate play.
“We didn’t come here to make a game of it or (to just) keep it close,” Wildcats head coach Trevor Potts said. “Our kids have done everything they’re supposed to do and they play the right way. It’s just disappointing when the outcome isn’t what you want.”
The legs of Clarkston quarterback Alex Waszczenko and fellow senior Ty Duffy were key to the hosts’ final scoring drive that ended with the former taking it 16 yards himself into the end zone to make it 31-21 with 4:50 left.
But it took just 43 seconds for the Wildcats to get back within three points. Oxford sophomore quarterback Michael King rifled a perfect spiral to Greyson Boyle for a 49-yard gain, and on the next play threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Brody Casper.
Photo gallery from No. 6 Clarkston vs. No. 10 Oxford in OAA Red football action
Still, Clarkston milked enough clock with its corresponding drive, which proved beneficial in the end.
“Obviously going into it, we knew this one meant a lot,” Waszczenko said. “We knew they were going to come with everything they had and knew how big this game was. We don’t know how it’s going to shape up the rest of the season, but we’re very grateful to get this one. They’re a very good football team. This is our first game this year where we’ve had to face a lot of adversity so a lot of credit to our guys and this group with what they’ve done, just super blessed.”
Clarkston’s Wendell Childs Jr. attempts to tackle Oxford’s Brody Casper (11) as he makes a leaping catch during Friday’s game. Casper finished with a touchdown reception and Childs Jr. returned an interception for a score in the Wolves’ 31-28 home win over the Wildcats. (BRYAN EVERSON – MediaNews Group)
Field position proved to be pivotal in several instances in favor of the Wolves, beginning with their first drive that started at the 50-yard line and resulted in a 38-yard field goal by Julien Mohr that opened the scoring five minutes in. Later on, Clarkston would turn it over on downs after a dropped pass on fourth-and-goal at the 3-yard line ended their first drive coming out of intermission. However, Oxford, pinned against its own end zone, couldn’t manufacture anything, then Malachi Switzer ran the punt back to the Wildcats’ 21-yard line. Two plays later, a 16-yard pass to Hunter Kauth and a 3-yard rushing TD by Ty Duffy made it 17-14 Clarkston with 3:45 left in the third.
In a game that had four lead changes, the Wolves wouldn’t trail again.
“Our defense coming up with the three-and-out and getting field position set us up for that next touchdown, and that to me is complementary football,” Wolves head coach Justin Pintar said. “You hear the guys in the NFL talk about it all the time, but if you’re able to move the ball and at a minimum put them in bad field position, then your defense can set you up for good field position, that’s huge.”
Clarkston would make it a two-possession lead when Wendell Childs Jr. ran an interception back about 45 yards to the house with a second left in the third quarter.
“It was certainly not the end of the game, but that felt like it was a big moment in the game when he was able to do that,” Pintar said.
“Just watching their film, I knew it was coming, and I just anticipated the pass and got the pick,” Childs Jr. said of the return.
To its credit, Oxford didn’t take much time to again cut the lead to a field. The visitors got most of their yards on the 78-yard drive from a 59-yard reception by Chris Pullman. Keedan Pociask gained 13 of the remaining yards on a pair of runs before Preston Wilder eventually punched it in from two yards out with 9:34 left in the game.
Both defenses bent, but didn’t break until later in the opening half. The Wildcats got all the way down to Clarkston’s 22-yard line on their second drive, then got pushed back to third-and-14 when Brayden O’Kane’s interception killed the momentum. Clarkston then marched to about midfield, converted third-and-long on a 21-yard pass to Drew French, and approached the red zone, but the Wildcats stopped a pass to Childs Jr. just short on fourth-and-2.
Oxford took advantage of that defensive stop. King completed a 29-yard pass to Casper on third-and-13, then hit a wide-open Pullman down the middle at about the 30-yard line, and Pullman went the rest of the way untouched on a 55-yard catch-and-run TD that made it 7-3 with 5:20 left in the half.
A facemask penalty against the Wildcats tacked on after a big first down by Mick Mahaffy quickly gave Clarkston the ball at Oxford’s 28-yard line. Waszczenko’s keeper the next play gained 17 yards, and Clarkston retook the lead on a 1-yard run by Duffy with 2:59 to go in the second quarter.
Oxford would make it 14-10 thanks to another big completion over the middle, this time in the form of a 42-yard pass by King to Boyle, and Pociask took it the final four yards the next play with 57 seconds on the clock. That four-point lead would hold going into the lockers after a last-second field-goal attempt by the Wolves dinged off the crossbar.
“We’ve got to clean up (missed assignment leading to big passes) if we want to go on a big playoff run, but overall, I thought they competed and battled,” Pintar said.
Clarkston improves to 5-0 overall and now stands atop the Red Division standings at 2-0.
“We talk about it, you can enjoy it for 24 hours, then it’s back to business,” Pintar said. “And I know how this league is and I’ve been around long enough to see games where you just kind of shake your head and you’re like ‘that doesn’t make sense,’ because there’s a lot of talent, you know? (We play) West Bloomfield next week and I don’t know exactly what happened last week (to them against Adams), but they’ve got a lot of talent and if you don’t take them serious, they have the weapons to make you pay. And then Lake Orion’s right after that, and we know what that rivalry is like. So it’s one day, one game at a time. We’ll enjoy this, but it’s a lot of unfinished business.”
The Wildcats to 4-1 on the season and now sit tied for second in the division at 2-1 with Adams, who Oxford will host next week.
“If we had come out with a big win, we’d have wiped the page and gone back to work on Sunday,” Potts said. “We’ll do the same thing after a loss and we’ll set our sights on the Highlanders.”