WESTFIELD TWP. — The golden opportunity was presented, but the Cloverleaf football team was forced to settle for the consolation prize of a silver lining.
First-year coach Justin Vorhies stressed the positives Friday following a closer-than-it-appeared 40-19 loss to Norton in Portage Trail Conference Metro Division play. The Panthers (2-3, 1-1) were without standout tailback Nick Farmer (broken leg).
While the Colts (1-4, 0-2) lost their 23rd straight league game and 11th consecutive at home, they scored two unanswered touchdowns and trailed 23-13 with 15 minutes left before two special teams blunders led to their doom.
“At halftime, we decided this was going to make or break our season here, you know?” said running back Tate Surrarrer, who scored two touchdowns. “We’re going to sit down and let them score all over us or we’re going to come out in the second half and put up a fight.”
The latter happened after the Panthers’ Quinn Ivy grabbed his own muffed punt, started right, broke a few tackles, went back left, broke a few more tackles and rumbled down the sideline 67 yards for a SportsCenter-quality touchdown.
The score was 23-0 with 10:01 left in the third quarter and the Colts were dangerously close to another running clock, but instead made the game interesting.
A 28-yard kickoff return and diving 34-yard reception by Austin Greer set up Cloverleaf’s first non-running-clock touchdown in more than a calendar year, as Surrarrer rumbled in from 6 yards to make it 23-6.
Greer then recovered a Norton fumble on fourth-and-1 near midfield, leading to a 49-yard reception by Nick Soika that set up a 2-yard TD by Greer out of the power-I formation.
In a matter of 4:40, the Colts were trailing by less than two scores.
“The big thing is they never quit,” Vorhies said. “They kept fighting, and that’s a huge step in the right direction.”
The good feelings were dashed as quickly as they arrived.
Norton, which saw tailbacks Cole Edgell (22 carries, 144 yards, 2 TDs) and Ivy (16, 78) combine for 222 yards in Farmer’s absence, took a pooch kickoff to the Cloverleaf 25. Quarterback Noah Jones (66 rushing yards, 82 passing yards, 2 total TDs) then hit a wide-open Dylan Jenkin in the end zone for a 19-yard score on fourth down.
The Colts lost a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, setting up Brandon Woehler’s second field goal that made the score 32-13. Another lost Cloverleaf fumble allowed Norton to push the ante to 40-13 eight minutes later before Surrarrer tacked on a score with 1:47 left.
“It’s tough — no doubt, it’s tough,” Vorhies said of the drastic momentum swing. “That’s that lack of execution. We don’t stay in our (kickoff) lanes, we don’t swarm to the ball. It’s those things we’re constantly working on.
“We’re not that far away from having it turn over in the right direction.”
Despite losing to a Panthers team that was 1-9 last season, the Colts found positives offensively after entering the night with 24 points on the season. They also had yet to have a play from scrimmage cover more than 27 yards.
Cloverleaf not only scored three touchdowns in a game for the first time since 2013, Russel Gretsinger had passing strikes of 34, 49 and 35 yards en route to a career-high 135 total. The Colts added a season-high 131 yards on the ground, but were just 3-for-10 on third down and committed three turnovers.
“We finally moved the ball,” Surrarrer said. “We’ve been struggling to move the ball all season, actually, and today we did a really good job. Now we’ve got to look forward to next week (at undefeated Woodridge).”
Norton 40, Cloverleaf 19
NORTON 6 11 12 11 — 40
CLOVERLEAF 0 0 13 6 — 19
First
N — Cole Edgell 9 run (run failed), 0:56.
Second
N — Noah Jones 5 run (Edgell run), 9:22.
N — Brandon Woehler 31 field goal, 0:25.
Third
N — Quinn Ivy 67 punt return (kick failed), 10:01.
C — Tate Surrarrer 6 run (kick failed), 8:10.
C — Austin Greer 2 run (Travis Hissom kick), 5:21.
N — Dylan Jenkin 19 pass from Jones (run failed), 2:03.
Fourth
N — Woehler 30 field goal, 10:35.
N — Edgell 5 run (Edgell run), 2:31.
C — Surrarrer 5 run (run failed), 1:47.