Amboy-LaMoille takes control in second half to beat Aquin in 8-man football first-round playoff game

FREEPORT – Every eye in the stadium followed the ball as Tucker Lindenmeyer lofted a pass toward the south end zone.

When it landed in Brennan Blaine’s hands for a tiebreaking touchdown, it gave Amboy-LaMoille all the momentum it would need in a 52-28 win over Aquin in the first round of the 8-man playoffs Saturday afternoon.

The play that seemingly turned the tide came with 8 seconds left in the first half and the score tied 16-16. Aquin had just tied it with an 11-play scoring drive, and was going to receive the second-half kickoff.

But the Clippers (6-4) took over at the Aquin 49-yard line with 1:21 left in the half and got a pass form Lindenmeyer to Blaine, then a Lindenmeyer run for a first down, before another first down on a pass from Lindenmeyer to Kye Koch. Following an incomplete pass, Amboy called timeout with 8 seconds left before the break.

On the final play of the half, Lindenmeyer rolled out, backpedaled to keep the play alive against the Aquin pass rush, and lofted a pass to the left corner of the end zone.

“That just came down to the time on the clock; it’s either a pick and halftime or a touchdown,” Lindenmeyer said. “I just had to throw it up, and Brennan made the play for me. That’s all there was to it, and it was big. We got the momentum on our side and it carried over.”

Blaine had two Aquin defenders on him, one in front of him and one to his left. But he out-leaped both of them and came down in the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown catch and a 22-16 halftime lead.

“I knew it was a 50-50 play, and we had to score a touchdown or we were going into halftime tied,” Blaine said. “Tucker made a great throw, and all I had to do was go up and catch it.”

Even though Aquin (6-4) scored on its first possession of the second half to tie the game 22-22, the momentum the Clippers seized with the Hail Mary touchdown pass to end the first half still lingered.

“The momentum of that last play in the first half, that was huge. We had two guys in the spot, and No. 85 [Blaine] just made a play over us,” Aquin coach Broc Kundert said. “It is what it is, but that killed us momentum-wise. Even when we got the ball and scored right away [in the second half], we just couldn’t get it back.”

The first time Amboy touched the ball in the second half, it drove 47 yards in nine running plays to retake the lead. Joe Quest carried the ball the last four plays of the series, including a 1-yard touchdown run for a 28-22 lead.

The Clippers got the ball back when Lindenmeyer recovered an Aquin fumble five plays later, then he sprinted 64 yards for a score two plays after that for a 36-22 lead.

The Bulldogs closed out the third quarter with a 10-play scoring drive, as Aiden Wolfe crashed in from 2 yards out to cut the deficit to 36-28 on the first play of the fourth quarter.

But Amboy again had the answer. This time, Lindenmeyer flipped a pop pass to Blaine running across the formation, and Blaine hit the edge and outran the Aquin defense for a 51-yard touchdown just 10 seconds later for a 44-28 lead.

“I owe that one all to the line,” Blaine said. “They made some great blocks, and all I had to do was run to the end zone. That was a great play by them.”

With the two-score lead, the Clippers leaned on the offensive line in the fourth quarter. After Levi McKinley intercepted an Aquin pass at the Amboy 5-yard line to stop the next Bulldogs drive, the Clippers took seven minutes off the clock with an 11-play, 40-yard drive before punting the ball from near midfield and pinning Aquin inside its own 20.

“That’s all the line,” Blaine said. “A back’s only as good as the line in front of him, and our guys came to play the second half.”

“We had the momentum going into the second half, and we knew we just had to ground and pound the ball with the lead and keep the clock running,” Quest added. “After we scored a couple more times, we just had to drive the nail in the coffin.”

The final exclamation point came on Aquin’s next series. After the Bulldogs had driven down to the Amboy 14-yard line, a first-down pass was intercepted by Jordan Gulley, and the Clippers senior returned it 92 yards for the final touchdown.

“I knew going into the fourth quarter that it was our game, we had it in the bag,” Lindenmeyer said. “We just stuck to our ground-and-pound, Amboy Clipper football, and then made some big plays and got it done.”

Amboy finished with 278 yards rushing and 132 passing, with Lindenmeyer running for 190 yards and three TDs in addition to his 132 yards on 7-for-11 passing. Dylan Daniels ran for 36 yards, and Quest added 27 yards on the ground. Blaine finished with five catches for 113 yards and the two TDs.

“Our line did a good job in the second half,” coach Scott Payne said. “We went to the spread to open up some more holes for Tucker to run through. Once we got up two scores, the kids’ confidence just went really high.”

Defensively, the Clippers gave up just 64 yards on the ground in the second half, after Aquin rushed for 131 yards before the break.

“It was all about gang-tackling and everybody running to the ball,” Quest said. “If someone got open, we were all trying to chase them down and tackle, just not give up any big plays once we had the lead.”

Clay Luedeking finished the game with 91 yards for Aquin, while Evan Broge ran for 87 yards and a touchdown. Wolfe ran for 17 yards and a touchdown, and also finished 19-for-32 passing for 262 yards and three scores, with Broge catching seven passes for 93 yards. Ollie Arndt caught eight passes for 77 yards and both scoring strikes.

“They got turnovers and we didn’t, and they took advantage,” Kundert said. “Their QB run killed us, athletes in space killed us. We’ve just got to get better, get faster.”

Aquin got on the scoreboard first, forcing the Clippers into a three-and-out on the game’s opening possession and driving 51 yards in seven plays, finishing it with a Wolfe-to-Arndt scoring strike from 9 yards out.

Amboy answered with a long drive, set up by Gulley’s 35-yard kickoff return to the Amboy 40. The Clippers went 60 yards in 11 plays, including a recovery of their own fumbled pitch and a fourth-and-5 conversion pass from Lindenmeyer to Blaine during the drive, and Lindenmeyer ran in from 4 yards to tie the score 8-8.

Aquin then drove inside the Amboy 5-yard line before turning it over on downs when the Clippers got a fourth-down stop inside the 2, and after the teams traded empty possessions, Amboy took a 16-8 lead when Lindenmeyer sprinted in from 57 yards on a first-and-15 play where he ran to his left, then cut back to the right all the way across the field before outrunning the Aquin defense.

Amboy advances to the second round next week, where it will host Milledgeville in a rematch of a Week 2 game that saw the Missiles top the Clippers 24-12. Milledgeville defeated Bushnell-Prairie City 64-8 in Saturday’s first round.