Bulldogs blanked in home football opener

BOYCEVILLE — What a difference a week can make.

Just seven days after Boyceville senior quarterback Bryce Boda delivered a record-setting performance, with nine touchdowns (seven passing and two more rushing) on the road against Chequamegon, he was scrambling to just complete a pass in last Friday’s home opener against Clear Lake.

 Boda had trouble getting his passes over and through the Warriors defensive front let alone finding any open receivers especially in the first half.

 The result was a 38-0 whitewashing at the hands of an experienced and senior-laden Warriors’ squad on Evenson Field August 25.

Boda had more than a half dozen of his throws knocked down and when he was able to escape the pocket Boda’s target were nearly impossible to locate in the time allotted him.

With the passing game grounded so was Boyceville’s offense which netted a negative two yards and zero first downs in the entire first half of action. 

“Going into the game we knew we were going to see a bulk of cover 2,” stated first-year Boyceville head coach Jordan Anderson. “We worked on our cover 2 passing concepts in  practice and just could not execute and find the open receivers.”

“Clear Lake has an amazing group of defensive linemen who threw our timing off,” added Anderson.

While Boyceville’s offense was stuck in neutral, Clear Lake found plenty of success moving the football.

The Warriors punched in a trio of touchdowns and then the corresponding two-point conversions in the first 24 minutes of play to hold a 24-0 advantage at halftime.

Marshall Cain put Clear Lake’s first points on board with a 13-yard scoring run at 3:34. Nick Sempf ran in the conversion for an early 8-0 Warriors lead.

Clear Lake would triple that tally in the second frame as quarterback Cal Rosen scored from four yards out at 9:51. Daymond Bad Horse carried the conversion into the end zone. Then with 1:32 left in the half, Nick Sempf took the pigskin and rushed it to pay dirt from six yards away. The two-point conversion was again good as Bad Horse made good on his second conversion run.

Things looked up for Boyceville as the second half began.

The Bulldogs took the opening second-half boot and moved from its 35 to the Warriors 36. But after 29 yards and their first two first downs, the Bulldogs drive stalled after a penalty call and died on a fourth and 16 as a Boda pass attempt fell incomplete.

The Bulldogs put together two more promising second half drives but could not get past the midfield stripe.

“When we mounted a long drive to open the second half and were knocking on the door to score we had a costly penalty that set us back from scoring and Clear Lake took control from there,” stated Coach Anderson.

Clear Lake, on the other hand, tacked on two more touchdowns – one in each the third and fourth quarters to earn the 38-0 shutout. 

Clear Lake out gained Boyceville 335 yards to 114 and 21 first downs to five. The Bulldogs had 101 yards passing and just 13 yards rushing.

Boda finished 12-of-35 passing for 101 yards and an interception.  The senior QB was also the Bulldogs top rusher with 18 yards.

The Bulldogs will stay in non-conference play when they host Gilman this Friday, September 1.

CLEAR LAKE 38, BOYCEVILLE 0
Boyceville………..0     0     0     0 — 0
Clear Lake……….8     16   8     6 — 38

First quarter
CL – M. Cain 13-yd. run (N. Sempf run), 3:34.

Second quarter
CL – C. Rosen 4-yd. run (D. Bad Horse run), 9:51.
CL – N. Sempf 6-yd. run (D. Bad Horse run), 1:32.

Third quarter
CL – N. Sempf 1-yd. run (G. Colbeth run), 0:37.

Fourth quarter
CL – G. Colbeth 3-yd. run (C. Rosen run), 9:50.