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October 9, 2013

Page 15

Tipton-North Cedar History: Tipton leads series 13 Wins, 5 Losses

Tipton 28, North Cedar 14 North Cedar 18, Tipton 15 Tipton 20, North Cedar 15 Tipton 29, North Cedar 0 Tipton 40, North Cedar 6 Tipton 21, Tipton 14 Tipton 42, North Cedar 32 Tipton 27, North Cedar 6 Tipton 33, North Cedar 19 North Cedar 17, Tipton 6 Tipton 28, North Cedar 0 Tipton 35, North Cedar 0 Tipton 40, North Cedar 30 North Cedar 33, Tipton 12 North Cedar 35, Tipton 0 North Cedar 35, Tipton 21 Tipton 77, North Cedar 18 Tipton 46, North Cedar 45 (OT)

Tipton-NC Football From Page 13. Knights 10-yard line where their drive stalled out. There, Askild Haagensen kicked a 27-yard field goal to give Tipton a 16-6 lead with 8:24 left in the first quarter. North Cedar responded to the flurry of Tipton points with a run of 26 straight points of their own, showing off their new offensive attack that has been causing teams fits all season. The Knights came into the game averaging 40 points a game. With 4:58 left in the first quarter Jayden Johnson found Trever Greene for a 16-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline to put the score at 16-6. The next three Tipton drives all stalled and the ensuing North Cedar drives resulted in touchdowns, putting North Cedar up 26-16. All three touchdowns came from the rushing attempts of Derrick Gray who scored on touchdown runs of 42, 4 and 80 to help give North Cedar the lead. Grays 4-yard run with 6:41 left before halftime gave the Knights their first lead in the game. Tipton grabbed some momentum back before halftime when they scored a touchdown with 14 seconds left on an Alex Wiley 15-yard touchdown pass to Josh Smith to put the score at 26-23 at halftime. North Cedar struck first in the second half. After a big Dalton Yutesler return of 21 yards, setting the Knights up 1-10 at their 24, North Cedar used a 7-play, 76-yard drive ending on Johnsons second touchdown pass of the game, a 17-yard strike to Blake Proesch to put the Knights up 33-23. Tipton had trouble getting back into the game with points, having two drives stall and gaining only 15 yards on 8 plays. North Cedar took advantage of the Tigers struggles, scoring again with 1:02 left in the third quarter when Johnson tossed his third touchdown pass of the game, this one to Derrick Gray to put the Knights up 39-23. The Knights seemed to have all the momentum going their way as on the kickoff, the Knights pinned the Tigers down at their own 15. Tipton finally said, enough is enough and quarterback Alex Wiley passed 23 yards to Josh Smith on a 2nd and 16 play to the Tigers 39. On the next play, Wiley and Chandler Harden connected for a 61-yard touchdown pass with 36 seconds left in the quarter to pull Tipton to within 39-31. In the fourth quarter, each team had two possessions before Tipton put together a 12-play, 80-yard scoring drive to tie the game. The Tigers scored the tying touchdown with 1:13 left in the game on a Wiley to Josh Smith touchdown pass of 27 yards, but, a holding penalty on Tipton wiped that out and after an incomplete pass, Tipton faced a 4th and 21 at the North Cedar 27 with about a minute remaining in the football game. The play was designed to get get the ball into the playmakers hands and thats what happened. Wiley rolled out to the right and saw Taylor Axberg on the sidelines. However, so did two Knight defenders one in front and one in back. The Knight in front jumped early as the ball approached Axberg and was on his way down when Axberg snagged the ball out of the air. The back defender missed the tackle leaving Axberg with a clear path to the endzone, one he happily made, crossing the goal line with 58 seconds left in the game to put the score at 39-37. Tipton then gave the football to Chandler Harden who bulled into the endzone for the two-point conversion run to tie the score at 39. North Cedar had a chance to get into position to score, but a penalty wiped out a pass play to the red zone late. Tipton won the toss and deferred in overtime and North Cedar wasted little time, scoring as Jayden Johnson scored from one-yard out to give North Cedar a 45-39 lead.

Big Plays Early, PAT Kick Late Is The Difference

Tiptons Chandler Harden (13), left, gets ready to pounce on the loose football, also being chased by North Cedars Jayden Johnson (16). Photo by Darren Miller. When the play happend: Early in the first quarter, on the Knights first offensive possession. What the result was: A Tipton touchdown. This play followed Tiptons opening drive touchdown, putting Tipton up 13-0 with only :36 gone by in the first quarter. What this did: Momentum clearly was with Tipton and the boost gave the Tigers belief that they could play with the Knights all night.

Taylor Axberg sprints to the endzone in the 4th quarter to score the game tying touchdown. Photo by Darren Miller. When the play happend: 0:58 left in the football game. What the result was: A Tipton touchdown, late, on 4th and 21. Axberg had two defenders to deal with and snagged out of the air what seemed like a pass that was shielded by a North Cedar defender. What this did: Tied the game at 39 and swung momentum back to Tipton and got the Tiger crowd into a frenzy heading into the overtime period.

The Knights however, missed the PAT. Tipton took its turn and four plays later, Harden scored from 4-yards out to tie the score at 45. Then placekicker Askild Haagensen drilled the PAT kick and led the ensuring celebration march to midfield as the Tigers pulled out the 46-45 win. It humbles us, said North Cedar coach Charlie Feller. If it had to happen, its good that it happened now. Its homecoming, its tipton week and the most press that we have all season and then it has potential to rain and you have young men that are 16 and 17 years old kids. For all the adversity we faced, for the way that we stayed in the game and kept playing, I am happy about that, he said. I think that they are going to make corrections and its heartbreaking that it happened at homecoming and its unfortunate that the seniors havent beaten Tipton but I have confidence in our coaches and our players to bounce back for this. Wins and losses happen, said Feller. The game was a statistical dead heat. Tipton had 20 first downs while North Cedar had 21. The Tigers had 491 yards of total offense with 295 yards rushing and 196 passing while North Cedar had 460 yards of total offense with 284 rushing yards and 176 passing yards. Chandler Harden rushed for 200 yards on 32 carries and had two rushing touchdowns. He is closing in on Tiptons single season rushing record (1,440), set by Craig Kreman in the fall of 2004. Harden led the Tigers in receiving yards in the game with 95 on two receptions including a 61-yard touchdown. Harden was one of three different Tipton receivers that caught a touchdown in the game. Taylor Axberg had three catches for 44 yards and a touchdown and Josh Smith caught three passes for 43 yards and a touchdown. Alex Wiley threw for a season high 196 yards on 9-of-19 completions with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Wiley also rushed for 45 yards on eight carries. Derrick Gray rushed for a game high 242 yards on 27 carries and scored three times. He averaged 9.0 yards a carry. Jayden Johnson passed for 176 yards on 18-of-27 completions with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Johnson also rushed for 63 yards on 20 carries and scored one touchdown. Jacob Hay caught a team high seven passes for 67 yards. Blake Proesch caught three passes for 48 yards and a touchdown. Trever Greene and Derrick Gray each had two receptions including a touchdown for each. Defensively, Tipton was led in tackles by Austin Howe with 12, Josh Smith with 10, Chandler Harden with 9 and Clay Keller with 8. Harden added three tackles for loss and one sack and a fumble recovery. Adam Poduska had 11 tackles for North Cedar while Hunter Smith had 10. Jacob Hay had 9 tackles while Blake Proesch and Grant Pruess each had 8. Both teams have big games the next two weeks as each are very much in the playoff chase out of district 5. North Cedar fell to 5-1 with the Tipton loss being their first of the season. The Knights (5-1, 3-1) will host West Branch in their final non-district game this season. The Knights are 2-0 in non-district games with wins over North Linn and Northeast Goose Lake. Tipton improved to 4-2 overall and 3-0 in district play. The Tigers rebounded from a tough 21-14 loss a week ago at Mid-Prairie. The Tigers will return home this week to play Clayton Ridge (5-1 overall). The Tigers then travel to Maquoketa Valley on October 18 before returning to Tipton for the regular season finale on Friday, October 25.

Scott Stueland (55) and an unidentified Tiger, block North Cedars Anthony Scheer (50) on a runnng play Friday night. Photo by Darren Miller.

Clay Keller (21) is brought down by Andrew Fields (54) and an unidentified North Cedar player on one of his carries Friday. Jacob Hay (11) looks to close in on the play. Photo by Darren Miller.

North Cedars Grant Pruess (9) wraps up Tiptons Josh Smith in the open field after one of Smiths three receptions in the Tigers game at North Cedar last Friday. Smith had 43 receiving yards and a touchdown in the overtime win. Photo by Darren Miller.

Tiptons Asklid Haagensen kicks the PAT after Tiptons overtime touchdown as PAT holder Alex Wiley, right, waits to see the destination of the ball. Photo by Darren Miller. When the play happend: In overtime, after Tipton scored the game tying touchdown, a Chandler Harden 4-yard run. What the result was: Celebration. The kick gave Tipton a one-point, 46-45 win and a win in a game that they had to win. What this did: Realalistically kept the Tigers in the chase for the district 5 title. With games against Clayton Ridge and Maquoketa Valley coming up, the Tigers control their own destiney.

Tipton senior running back Chandler Harden is closing in on the school record for most rushing yards in a season. That mark of 1,440 set in 2004 by Craig Kreman is in jepordy. Here is Hardens numbers so far:

Game 8/30 Wilton 9/6 @ NE Goose Lake 9/13 Durant 9/20 Bellevue 9/27 @ Mid-Prairie 10/4 @ North Cedar Totals

Att. 25 25 24 10 22 32 138

Yds. 249 214 200 152 89 200

TDs 2 5 2 2 0 2

1,100 13

Tiptons Josh Smith (33), Cole Murphy (8) and Caleb Schnekloth (80) bring down North Cedars Dalton Yutesler (22) on a kickoff return attempt during the Tigers 46-45 overtime win Friday. Photo by Darren Miller.