Trojans lose first game of the season, 56-6
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The early buzz around the Rock Valley Conference before the season was that Clinton may be a football team to keep an eye on.
Looks like those predictions were dead on target.
For the second straight week, the Cougars exploded offensively, this time in a 56-6 victory over East Troy Sept. 16 to hand the Trojans their first loss of the year.
East Troy fell to 3-1 and into a five-way tie at the top of the RVC with Clinton, Beloit Turner, Evansville-Albany and Jefferson.
“Clinton had very good overall team speed,” East Troy coach Jeff Crandall said. “(They had) multiple, very fast players, which can be difficult to contain.”
The Cougars, who rushed for 615 yards on 44 attempts, had three players surpass 100 yards.
Payton Pope led the way with 17 carries for 168 yards, including a 74-yard touchdown. Teammate Zach Krause, who rushed just seven times for 157 yards, had touchdown runs of 54, 58 and 24 yards, while Tyler Halsted finished with six carries for 103 yards and two touchdowns.
“Clinton was able to block the edge well and get us out of alignment (defensively),” Crandall said. “They then had the speed to finish the play.”
Clinton led 38-6 at halftime. East Troy’s only score of the night came on a 2-yard touchdown run by Owen Goedland before halftime.
The Cougars closed out the scoring with 18 points in the second half.
East Troy rushed for 139 yards on six carries, led by Goedland’s 82 on 20 attempts.
Sophomore quarterback Jake Dessart completed six of 18 passing attempts for 62 yards. Dylan Jaskscht led the receiving corps with three catches for 35 yards.
Clinton’s speed on offense carried over to the Cougars’ defense, Crandall said, and made life difficult all night.
“They have speed all over the field, which did slow us down defensively,” he said.
Even with the loss, Crandall said his message to the team afterward was to stay the course.
There’s still plenty of football to be played, and with the logjam at the top of the RVC standings, the crown is there for the taking.
“We talked about how we need to continue to work hard to improve every day,” Crandall said. “We talked about how we can still accomplish all our goals, and we need to get back to work.”
East Troy returns to action tonight when it hosts a winless Whitewater team at 7 p.m. The Whippets fell to 0-4 last week with a 39-6 loss to Edgerton.
What Whitewater does won’t be the focus tonight, however.
It’s time to get back to the basics.
“We are focusing on improving our fundamentals this week,” Crandall said.
