After four days of homecoming festivities in Clintonville, the week came to a climax with the Truckers facing the conference leading Little Chute Mustangs.
The whole week had had built up the excitement for the game, and the Truckers weren’t looking to disappoint.
The Mustangs came out firing right away, throwing deep from the beginning. Early in the first quarter, Little Chute quarterback Mitch Ciske connected with Brett Zdanovec for a 36-yard score. The two-point conversion was successful.
The Truckers, however, were not intimidated. Later in the first, Jake Reiter took the ball up the middle, made a cut, bounced it outside and was headed into the end zone for a 63-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion failed.
The second quarter belonged to the Mustangs, in which they scored 19 unanswered points. Ciske would add another passing score, Rob Reyenebeau ran in for a score of his own, and Lucas Van Duerzen returned an interception for another score. Turner Botz added one extra point, the other two failed.
The score going into the third quarter was 27-6. The third quarter would be full of scoring by both teams, but the Truckers just couldn’t seem to stop the Mustangs deep passing game. After Reiter scored on a 43-yard run for the first score of the second half, Little Chute responded with Ciske passing for three straight touchdowns. Hogen added a touchdown pass of his own to Skyler Lehman. The Mustangs were not phased though, and had two more touchdowns before the end of the quarter, one off a fumble return and the other on a six-yard run.
In the fourth, the Mustangs were up 60-22, which began the use of a running clock. The quarter went without any touchdowns and the final score would remain 60-22.
Reiter ended the game with 133 yards off 11 carries. Hogen racked up 139 yards, Lehman receiving 129 of those. Ciske ended with 299 yards and five touchdowns.
Clintonville’s next game is this Friday at Xavier against the Hawks.