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CLINTON — Yes, there was a “beatdown” here Friday night. But the Xavier Saints weren’t the “victims.”
Eighth-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier sparkled again defensively and humbled No. 3 Clinton, 28-6, in a Class 4A football quarterfinal Friday night at Coan Field.
Key word — humbled.
“We try to stay humble,” said Xavier Coach Duane Schulte, failing to hide a smirk. “And we tried … to avoid … a beatdown.”
A post on the Clinton football Web site this week congratulated the River Kings on their previous win. It also offered a prediction:
“Next beatdown victim: Xavier Saints.”
Bad idea.
“I didn’t see it personally, but just about the whole team did,” said David Ryberg, a defensive dynamo all night. “It kind of added gasoline to the fire. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to come out and play.”
Colin O’Connor read the post. “We were more concerned about doing our jobs and firing off the ball,” he said.
Xavier (10-2) won its ninth straight game and advances to face No. 1 Iowa City High in a semifinal Friday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. City High (12-0) beat Cedar Rapids Washington, 35-14, Friday night.
Joe Sayre passed for 210 yards and two touchdowns, Pat Chizek ran for 101 yards and Dylan Martin scored on a pair of short runs.
But this win was about defense first and foremost.
Xavier outgained the River Kings (11-1) by a 357-231 margin, with 80 of Clinton’s yards coming on a touchdown drive against the Saints’ second-teamers on the final possession of the game.
“Our defensive coaches said all week that the team that wins the game is going to be the team that is most physically and mentally tough,” Ryberg said.
A sequence late in the first quarter turned the momentum in Xavier’s corner. O’Connor originally was ruled to have muffed a low punt at the Xavier 30. After a lengthy conversation by the officials, it was ruled that O’Connor did not touch it.
“I didn’t,” he said. “It bounced over my shoulder.”
Xavier retained possession, and three plays later, O’Connor caught a slant pass from Joe Sayre, split two defenders and ran 64 yards to the Clinton 1. Martin scored on the next play to put the Saints in front.
The Saints’ defense set up the second touchdown. Tyler Wright sacked Clinton quarterback Jake Mangler, Ryberg recovered the fumble, and the Saints were in business at the River Kings 31.
Seven plays later, Martin scored on a 2-yard run and it was 14-0.
In the fourth quarter, Sayre found O’Connor all alone for a 54-yard TD pass, then connected with Ryan Sander for a 13-yard score.
Victory was secure. The beatdown — a humble beatdown — was complete.
Comments: (319) 368-8857 or jeff.linder@gazcomm.com
20 Responses to Xavier muscles past #3 Clinton, 28-6
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Way to go saints!! Keep it up!
great article. The Xavier fans really came through in the clutch being outnumbered by quite a few in the bleachers. They helped cheer their team to victory. ily. it’s a shame river kings posted that phrase on the internet. Like Ryberg said, it helped fuel the team. GO Saints. ily.
dear xavier. good game. you played hard. the fans, the players, the community, and the coaching staff were too cocky. good humbling experience. also when i was walking to my seat i noticed a xavier fan tell everyone their shoes were untied to our fans. good strategy. i think thats another reason why we lost. blocked the fans mental focus to cheer.
Clinton should take a lot of pride in their team this year. Boy, they played hard, and 11 wins is a BUNCH! A very special year for the River Kings.
Maybe things work differently in the MAC, but you really don’t want to taunt Xavier. Perhaps the Saints provided a little lesson in humility to some of the Clinton fans this evening.
On to the Dome, and a rematch with City High! Tie game in the last meeting with 2 minutes left, before Ellis Jordan’s 99-yard kickoff return … no one should be taking anything for granted next Friday.
Congratulations to the River Kings on a great season. You’ve got some solid athletes and you played tough tonight. Hopefully our teams will have an opportunity to play each other again in the next year or so.
But for now, GO SAINTS!!!
And happy birthday to Scott Goedken
An impressive win by the Saints. Nice work.
Congrats to the Kings on an outstanding season. They are probably the second best team we faced all year. To those who said that Clinton couldn’t compete in the MVC — hey, they can compete in ANY conference. Johnson is a stud — it’s scary when the ball is in his hands. Bad break to have lost Krick before the half; score would have been closer if he had not gone down. And great stadium, great atmosphere — far and away the largest crowd we played in front of this season.
These last two games the Saints have played have been their two best. They’ll need to keep it at that level against Derby and the Little Hawks. But it’s doable — the offense is better now than in Week 3, and the D?
They make a statement every week!
On to the Dome!
Are you for real? Xavier kids were telling Clinton kids that there shoes were untied and that’s why you lost? We blocked your mental focus to cheer? The Clinton fans are very classy, you’re right! That’s why those brats were running around after every Xavier touchdown and shouting out expletives at the Xavier Student Section. Who does that? Look at the scoreboard. You’re losing. Big Time. The MAC is an easy conference, it’s as simple as that. You bring the River Kings to the MVC and they wouldn’t have as much luck with an undefeated season.
Next Beatdown Victims: Iowa City High
i dont know why clinton fans thought they were all that…they play in the mac and have the easiest schedule…yes they were undefeated but if xavier played ther schedule we would be too…GO SAINTS!
good job to the clinton lumberkings, but go SAINTS beat city high
Congratulations to Xavier on the win Friday night. Though it was very hard to take, the better team did prevail that night. The Clinton River Kings have nothing to be ashamed about. They are a great group of young men who are wonderful role models both on and off the field. The sense of pride they gave the community was amazing! They will go down as the most successful football team at Clinton High EVER! As a side note, the players, coaches, and most of the community did not take Xavier lightly. Sometimes in the uncharted excitement of the River Kings success, overly zealous comments were made. The best thing Xavier can do is go on and win it all, not only for yourselves, but to prove to everyone that Clinton was for REAL this year.
To XAVIER101: Let me correct your statement. The MAC is not an easy schedule. The MAC is the only conference in the entire state where all teams must play all teams, I don’t call that easy. A MVC team can win their conference without ever playing the toughest teams, so go refigure your statement if you will. There is no way Clinton would have gone undefeated in the MAC unless they were the real deal and you cannot discount that. Please, a little respect.
That game started out as a true battle, then the officials had some terrible calls, don’t think they worked together well at all! Xavier capitalized on the cheap chop-block on the #1 defensive player Clinton had which took him out of the game. Another blown call by the officals along with a touchdown called back & on & on. There is no doubt if Clinton would have had the momentum or the officiating in their favor @ any point the score would have been a whole lot different. Xavier is a solid team but if they played it all over again the outcome would be a whole lot different. It is so disrespectful that anyone with any intelligence would say any undefeated team had an easy schedule. Those boys worked hard to do what they’ve accomplished this year & they’ve earned & deserve that respect!
Play It Again:
Please. Don’t be pulling out the excuses. I agree the officiating crew seemed to have several, shall we say, differences of opinion amongst themselves, but bad calls did not change the outcome of this game. I think Xavier got a break on the muffed punt .. I thought it touched the Xavier return man, but the officials said no. Then Clinton had the Johnson touchdown called back on a holding call.
After that, I think you have to agree the calls were all Clinton’s way … Xavier TD called back by a penalty, followed immediately by an interception. Tons of penalties on Xavier in the second half. It wasn’t the officials that determined the outcome!
Congrats to the River Kings. Any undefeated regular season is an accomplishment to remember! Any year you can beat Bettendorf, Assumption, and run the table in the whole MAC is an outstanding year.
Congrats to both teams. Xavier has a great chance this week to be the best team in the MVC.
Clinton would be around a 7 win team in the MVC. Good point they may get a CF walk in the park schedule, or an ICW/Kennedy schedule where you have to battle just to stay afloat.
It is great to see a community support a team like Clinton showed this year. Last Monday for the Kennedy-Wash game NO ONE WAS THERE. In fact, for the season that Wash had, NO ONE WAS EVER THERE. Wash-Jeff the stands were empty. The MVC had better football, but atmosphere at an MVC game is awfull compared to Clinton. If they can continue that, they will get some great teams coming annually. It looked like a fun place to play football.
CR Football Fan, I totally agree. The atmosphere at Clinton made me feel like it was homecoming. The Clinton crowd was large and into every aspect of the game. The Clinton players battled with lots of class. I din’t see a single kid hang his head even after the game was over. I’m not too sure about leaving the starters in behind by 28 with 4 minutes to go but that is for me to judge. I’m sure we’ll see them in the playoffs for years to come.
ok king mom, how many undefeat teams did they play..none, xavier played a 9-0 team a 8-1 team and a 7-2 team…clinton played bettendorf who was 8-1…but the next best team had a 5-4 record…so yes they had an easier schedule than xavier
Xavier101, Dont Talk any more
bottom line is xavier is far from cocky when the team got off the bus all the clinton punks(and i mean the football players ) were flipping them off, was that another stratgey along with throwing chew on the xavier bus along with the beatdown crap they had on there website oh and the BLACK OUT i mean seriously your whole town was wacked out. And heres the last thing there it wouldnt matter what way youi flip it or this and that clinton was not a #3 team in anyway shape or form period.
agree with XHS, clinton was way to cocky, especially that beat down post they had