OC Claims Outright District Crown With Win

​The Clearwater/Orchard football team was not in the sharing mood Thursday afternoon as the Cyclones clinched their first outright district title as a consolidated program with a 52-14 victory over Chambers/ Wheeler Central/Ewing at Clearwater.

"It feels great because we've been putting in so much work the past few years," spoke OC senior Jacob Long. "It feels great to finally have something accomplished that hasn't been done for a while."

OC was able to overcome sloppy play to capture its sixth-straight win to end the regular season.

"We came out really aggressive today," stated OC mentor Jeff Shabram. "In some of our games, it feels like we get penalized for being aggressive and we have to clean up this penalty business here. It's something to work on definitely."

It was all Cyclones to start, scoring on their first six drives of the contest.

Long had a big first half, finding the end zone five times and accumulating 150 yards of offense in the first 24 minutes of play.

"It doesn't matter who is doing well as long as we're playing as a team," Long said. "As long as we're playing as a team, we're going to go pretty far. I think we're one of the better teams out there if we play together and if we're clicking."

The Renegades broke through in their opening drive of the third quarter with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Cole Duba to Justice Metschke. 

Houston Marino scored the Cyclones' final touchdown on a three-yard run.

On the final play of the game, Xavier Hobbs scrambled for a six-yard score for CWC/E to end the contest.

Despite committing numerous penalties and racking up 50 yards in penalties, OC was able to cruise to the win.

"We got behind the sticks with some penalties and had some long yardage situations, but they responded," Shabram noted.

Metschke led the Renegades with seven receptions for 115 yards and a TD. Duba completed 13 passes for more than 150 yards passing and a score.

Long led the Cyclones offense with 100 yards on the ground, three rushing touchdowns, 74 yards receiving and two receiving touchdowns. Kester completed seven passes for 103 yards, threw for two touchdowns and added 60 yards rushing and a score.

Clay Thiele led the defensive effort with three sacks, a forced fumble and five tackles. Long collected nine tackles, Ryan Wilhelm recorded two sacks and Zach King recovered a fumble.

Clearwater/Orchard (7-1) hosts Brady Thursday, at Orchard, at 5 p.m.

"We need to clean a lot of things up, but I think we're peaking at the right time," Shabram concluded. "Hopefully we can keep this thing going through the postseason."

CWC/E  0  0  8  6  -  14
OC  24  22  0  6  -  52
Clearwater/Orchard - Passing: Chris Kester 7-13-0 103 yards. Austin Pokorny 0-1-0 0 yards
Rushing: Jacob Long 8-100. Chris Kester 10-38. Eli Macke 10-38. Houston Marino 6-25. Tyler Bellar 1-7. Tommie Peed 1-3. Mason Hoke 1-0. Austin Pokorny 3-(-6).
Receiving: Jacob Long 4-74. Blake Hoke 1-13. Clay Thiele 1-13. Eli Macke 1-3.