Norton 28 Clyde 13

High School Football

Division III Region 10 Playoffs
Home Team: Clyde Fliers
Visiting Team: Norton Panthers
Venue: Bishop Stadium (Clyde, Ohio)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: Brandi, MB

Norwalk 41 Clyde 40 (OT)

High School Football
Home Team: Clyde Fliers
Visiting Team: Norwalk Truckers
Venue: Bishop Stadium (Clyde, Ohio)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.*
Fellow Attendees: None

*Brandi and I came to Clyde to visit her dad. Her family lives about two blocks from the stadium, close enough to vaguely hear the PA announcer inside the house. After we ate, I wandered over to the stadium and found a seat just in time for the third quarter kickoff. The score at the time was 21-17 Clyde.

This is the kind of night that was made for high school football, with a chill in the air but otherwise perfectly pleasant. This was a game with big playoff implications, and with Brandi being a Flier alumna, I feel some small connection to the town/team, so I was glad I got to catch some of it.

I'm not entirely sure how Clyde managed to hang in as well as they did in this game. I can't really pinpoint anything they do well. They can't tackle and take poor routes of pursuit; the offensive line is shaky in the run game; pass protection seemed okay but the quarterback is indecisive; the offense seems overly complicated for a high school team. A lot of that may have just been the matchup—Norwalk only has one loss on the season, and they looked pretty good. And yet the Fliers just seemed to make a play when they needed one.

(Another point seemingly against them: this is the sort of thing that's hard to tell when you just see one half of one game, but the fans in the stands sure don't seem to like the coach. Then again, I don't think I've ever been to a high school game where the fans in the stands did seem to like the coach.)

I started off sitting on the west end, near the student section, then moved to the east (and the older folks) when overtime moved the action down there. Strange as it may seem, the experience by the students was much more low-key. They were content to just stand around and cheer. The adults shake their cowbells and yell at the kids like they're pro players. It's bizarre. The high point came when Norwalk scored their TD in overtime, and a kid from Clyde ended up being injured on the play. A bunch of fans around me started yelling about "lack of class" when Norwalk's players celebrated their touchdown instead of immediately taking a knee for the injured player, and there was some not-so-good-natured yelling back and forth across the field between the two fanbases, all while the kid was still being tended to on the field. It was amazing.

Finally the player was helped off the field and the game resumed, with Norwalk kicking the extra point to go up 41-34. Clyde then took over and made their bumbling way toward the goal line and eventually scored. I was not in favor of the decision to go for 2; I guess here I'm voting with the fans and against the coach. Given the way the game had gone, they didn't seem terribly overmatched, and it didn't seem like the kicker was going to have any issue, so I think in that situation you tie the game and take your chances in a second overtime. But they didn't, and the QB got stuffed on a run toward the endzone, and that was the ballgame.

It would have been awesome if they had managed to pull it out, but this was probably the most fun I've had at a high school game that didn't involve the Troy Trojans, so I'm just glad I was there.

UPDATE 12/7/19: After this game, the Clyde Fliers won their next six games and won the Division IV state championship in Ohio. I find this hilarious.

Clyde 32 Eastwood 22

High School Football
Home Team: Clyde Fliers
Visiting Team: Eastwood Eagles
Venue: Robert J. Bishop, Jr. Stadium (Piqua, OH)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: Brandi, Steve, Mary Beth

Obviously, this was not the Troy game. The Trojans played in Cincinnati this evening; instead of heading south for that game, Brandi and I made the trek north for this game instead. Clyde is her alma mater, and they invited the cheerleading alumni to come cheer at the game. It was pretty cool to see her in her cheerleader mode, and I think she had a pretty good time, so it was worth it.

We got lucky to get the game in. There were some storms in the area that caused quite a few other games to be suspended. We did get rained on a little bit before the game started, but after that the only weather issue we had to deal with was the sheer mugginess of the evening.

And it turned out to be a pretty good game. The ol' alma mater prevailed, which is always nice. Of course, Brandi wasn't there to see it--her cheerleading duties over at halftime, she and Mary Beth left about midway through the third quarter to escape the humidity. Steve and I stuck it out, as the outcome wasn't certain until close to the end. It looked in the second quarter like it was going to turn in the shootout, as both teams traded quick-strike scores to close the half. But Clyde's defense really tightened up in the second half, and they added a TD late in the fourth quarter to salt it away.

I was pretty impressed with Clyde overall. Good team. Their quarterback was really solid. He made some good throws, scrambled some to get out of trouble, and did everything he needed to do. He also serves as the team's kicker, and I told Brandi, if I was a college scout I would have offered him a scholarship to kick for my team based solely on what I saw in this one game. Big leg. He did miss a long field goal, but it was long enough, just wide, and the fact that they even tried it says a lot to me. I was also impressed by the way their defense played in the second half, really controlling Eastwood's offense after getting burned by a couple of long runs in the first half.

Next week we're back to our regularly scheduled Trojan programming. Just like Week 1, I'll be at Troy Memorial Stadium as the 2-0 Miamisburg Vikings roll into town, and the Trojans will look to get into the win column for the first time.