Football: Amboy completes unbeaten regular season, beats Polo

AMBOY – It’s been a long time coming for the Amboy football program, having achieved a feat not seen in 37 years.

Last season’s 8-man runner-up heads to the postseason with an unbeaten record and plenty of momentum on top of it all after pummeling previously once-beaten Polo 52-6 Friday evening at The Harbor.

Big takeaways on defense helped put the Clippers ahead by 32 points by the halfway mark of the third quarter, as 22 of those points came off turnovers. Brennan Blaine scooped up a Polo fumble in the first quarter and ran it back 42 yards for his team’s second touchdown, and the Clippers’ fourth and fifth scores both came on drives after two defensive stops from Troy Anderson – one from a strip and fumble recovery and another on his second interception.

“Being a senior on the last night under Friday night lights, this win is an awesome feeling,” said Anderson, an Ohio High School senior playing as part of the Clippers’ co-op along with LaMoille. “We know we have to go 1-0 next week, that’s how the second season starts, and we’re ready. We’ll come in every day working as hard as possible and focus on going 1-0 every week. We can’t get ahead of ourselves, and just keep going.”

The Clippers held the Marcos (7-2) to a season-low six points and bottled up much of Polo’s rushing game. Brock Soltow and Delo Fernandez combined for just 99 yards on 29 carries, and neither had a rush of more than eight yards; both Marcos seniors came into Friday averaging 10 yards per carry.

“We wanted to limit the big plays,” Anderson said. “They have made a lot of big plays, and we wanted to limit them and make them grind it out for every yard.”

Soltow reached 1,000 rushing yards for the season after Friday.

“To shut a player like Soltow down, that’s one of the greatest accomplishments we could have had,” Blaine said. “He’s been a good player for the past three years, so this was really good on our part.”

Landon Whelchel’s 4-yard run put the Clippers on the board with three minutes to go in the first quarter before Blaine made it a 14-0 game with his fumble recovery off a Marcos rushing play.

“He took the handoff, and the next thing I knew it was in my hands,” Blaine said. “I just took off.”

Soltow connected with Noah Dewey for a 28-yard touchdown completion with 7:47 to play in the second quarter, but that’s all the Marcos could muster on offense. Short rushing touchdowns from Blaine and Quinn Leffelman put the Clippers up 30-6 at halftime. Leffelman and Whelchel handled most of the Clippers’ rushing duties, combining for 231 yards on 36 plays as both hit triple-digit yardage.

“We had too many turnovers,” Marcos coach Ted Alston said. “That first quarter, we were moving the ball pretty well when these things were happening. The turnovers hurt us and we couldn’t stop their running game, they were too physical for us up front. They’re a great team, they played physical and played tough and took it to us.”

Blaine’s second touchdown of the game came not long after Anderson forced a turnover by getting his hands on a bobbled ball from a Marcos receiver not long after having possession.

“I was tackling him, and there was the ball, it kind of popped out,” Anderson said. “I was able to get on top of it.”

Blaine scored his third and final touchdown with a 34-yard run four minutes into the second half, and Whelchel added one more early in the fourth quarter. Ed Fry’s 38-yard touchdown left the game clock running for the final five minutes after putting Amboy up by more than 40 points.

“We did a lot of preparing all week,” Blaine said. “Polo’s a great team, and we knew this was big for us being Senior Night, and this being our last night home game here ever. We came into this game really fired up and really prepared.”

Polo, a two-time 8-man state champion, heads to the postseason once more, but on a sour note after Friday’s loss.

“We always tell the kids that life’s not always going to be perfect, you got to deal with the negatives and obviously we had a negative night,” Alston said. “Hopefully we’ll respond positively, and learn from this and get better. If not, then it won’t be a very long playoff run for us. Knowing this team, though, they’ve had adversity in the past and they’ve been pretty good at responding.”

Amboy last achieved an unbeaten regular season in 1986, the last of four straight occasions which included the 2A state championship win in 1984. The Clippers are one of two unbeaten teams in the 8-man ranks as of Friday evening – the other, St. Thomas More of Champaign, plays Martinsville on Saturday afternoon.

“Our defense did a good job at getting turnovers,” Clippers coach Scott Payne said. “That was the big key. Troy Anderson had a great game at defensive back with two interceptions and the stripped fumble [recovery]. When your defense can come out and play like that, it’s a great thing to see.

“The kids are excited to finish the way they did.”

Pairings for the 8-man state playoffs will be released Saturday. Go to twitter.com/illinois8man for more information.