Hand it to the 20 hardy boys on the Cedar Valley Christian 8-man football team: They never give up.

After 22 straight lopsided losses, they won the first game in school history last Friday, 30-20, over Harmony at Farmington. That win had even their parents jumping on the field with joy.

Agony followed ecstasy Friday at home on the LaSalle Field, however, as Clarksville scored on the second play of the game and was hardly touched while taking a 59-6 halftime lead.

“Don’t just roll over and die,” Cedar Valley Christian Coach Ed Betsworth exhorted his young charges from the sidelines at one point. “Go out and get ’em.”

And so they did.

The spunky Huskies scored three touchdowns in a row in the second half, slowed down the continuous clock and ended up losing by a more respectable score of 67-26 to an unbeaten Indians squad that figures to be one of the favorites in its division this year.

“Give them a lot of credit,” said a gracious Clarksville Coach Chris Arians, who played his jayvee team the whole second half. “Their program is really on the up and up.”

Betsworth agrees, but he’s hardly satisfied.

“We know we can compete with other teams. But we’re still growing," he said. "We know we need to sept it up.”

He was elated with the way his boys bounced right back from the 35-yard TD scamper by Clarksville speedster Zach Sommerfelt barely 30 seconds into the game.

Gutsy CVC senior quarterback Kenan Ulmer marched his Huskies right down the field and hit stringbean receiver Tom Scroggs on a 5-yard pass to tie the match 6-6.

“Now that’s the team I know we can be,” Betswoth said. “We blocked well, we threw and ran well and we moved the ball.”

Ulmer, who said he gained a world of confidence over the summer competing 7-on-7 with bigger Matro schools, finished the game 12-of-13 passing for 139 yards before getting being dinged late in the fourth quarter.

“I got my bell rung a little bit,” he said. “But I’ll be back and ready to go.”

Fresh from their historic victory a week ago, Ulmer said his team came out “pumped up and super, super excited.” But their confidence and momentum soon waned when Clarksville’s dynamic backfield duo of Sommersfelt and quarterback Trevor Fenneman seemed to score at will whenever they carried the ball.

“They’re bigger and more physical than we are,” Betswoth said. “And they stuck it to us. And I think they kinda got into our heads.”

He said he challenged his downtrodden troops at halftime and they responded.

“I told my team,” said Ulmer, “when we walked out that it was zero-zero again. We were re-energized and feelin’ good. And we won the second half.”

He scored twice himself on runs from 11 yards out and threw a 38-Yard bomb to Collin Heeren for another score.

“They’re a good team, and they kept coming at us in the first half,” Betsworth said of the visiting Indians. “But our kids didn’t quit. That first half was a wake-up call. And they showed what they can do.”

Linebacker and substitute signal caller Eric Gustafson was presented the team’s lunch bucket award for his hard play. He had 15 tackles, 12 in the scond half.

“We kinda got down in the first half,” he said afterward. “But Coach gave us a pep talk, and our defense got a lot better. We kept playing hard.”

As the 11-girl Cedar Valley Christian cheerleaders put it, “Huskies spirit never quits.”

 

LARKSVILLE 67, CEDAR VALLEY CHRISTIAN 26

 

CLK CVC

First downs             10 12

Rushes-yards 29-369 30-minus 1

Passing yards 10 172

Comp-att-int 1-3-0 14-19-1

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1.

Punts-avg. 0 4-42

Penalties-yards 6-35 7-45

 

Clarksville 20  39 0   8 – 67

Cedar Valley   6   0 12  8 – 26

 

Scoring plays

CLK – Zach Sommerfelt 35 run. Run failed.

CVC – Tom Scroggs 5 pass from Kenan Ulmer. Kick failed.

CLK – Trevor Fenneman 4 run. Run failed.

CLK – Fenneman 70 run. Sommerfelt 2-point conversion.

CLK – Sommerfelt 12 run. Sommerfelt 2-point conversion.

CLK – Skyler Popheim fumble recovery in end zone. Adam Lovrien 2-point

conversion.

CLK – Safety.

CLK - Fenneman 25 run. Sommerfelt kick.

CLK – Sommerfelt 14 run. Sommerfelt kick.

CLK – Carter Kelm 10 pass from Fenneman. Sommerfelt kick.

CVC – Collin Heeren 38 pass from Kenan Ulmer. Kick failed.

CVC – Ulmer 11 run. Pass failed.

CVC – Ulmer 11 run. Ulmer 2-point conversion.

CLK – Dylan Jacobs 58 run. Dakota Garretson 2-point conversion.

 

Individual statistics

 

Rushing

Clarksville – Zach Sommerfelt  14-126, Trevor Fenneman 8-130, Dylan Jacobs 3-113.

Cedar Valley Christian  –  Apollo Betsworth 8-27.

 

Passing

Clarksville – Fenneman 1-1-10-0.

Cedar Valley Christian  – Ulmer 12-13-139-0, Eric Gustafson 2-5-33-1.

 

Receiving

Clarksville – Carter Kelm 1-10.

Cedar Valley Christian  – Tom Scroggs 3-47, Collin Heeren 3-62.

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