Comets lose to Chickasaws, 35-12

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — The late, great Walter Payton once advised his brother, Eddie, about what to expect in the NFL.

“Everything is on film so you can’t hide your mistakes.”

Nowadays, football at all levels is thoroughly filmed (or shot on video). Such was the case during Charles City’s season and home-opener against New Hampton on Friday with cameras positioned at various angles, including one goal-post high on a boom behind the end zone to focus on line play.

The footage compiled from the Comets’ 35-12 loss to the Chickasaws may not serve as pleasurable entertainment for the Charles City players, but CC coach Darren Bohlen indicated it should be invaluable for his team to rebound and move forward.

“Our guys are going to learn a lot from this game,” Bohlen said. “They’re going to see the things we need to work, and we’re also going to see the things we did well.

“We just didn’t execute. We made too mental mistakes. Be it missing blocking assignments, dropped passes, overthrows … we can go down the line. It’s everybody. We need to get better.”

New Hampton got on the board less than three minutes into the game. Facing a third-and-nine, Chickasaw quarterback Carter Stochl connected with Ryan Gorman for a 42-yard gain to place New Hampton inside Charles City’s 5-yard line. Two plays later, Drew Boeding scored from 5 yards out putting the Chickasaws up 7-0 with a Oscar Gaytan PAT kick.

Soon after, the Chickasaws took advantage of a short punt and punched it in again from 5 yards out, this time with Josh Fenske reaching paydirt — subsequent kick failed.

The Comets responded with a defensive stop on New Hampton’s ensuing possession, and got their first break of the game when junior Jalen Jones smothered Chickasaw punter Zach Wemark at the New Hampton 25, where Charles City took over.

After several substantial rushing gains by Dylan Koresh, Comet quarterback Drew Mitchell snuck it in from the 1 to make the score 13-6.

When Comet senior Jaden Foster intercepted a Stochl pass at the Charles City 30, then on offense made a diving catch of a Mitchell pass to put the Comets in business at the New Hampton 24, the momentum was clearly on Charles City’s side.

But the Comets couldn’t capitalize, and soon after Stochl connected with Gorman again with another big pass play before throwing an 18-yard TD pass to Keagan John.

“It seemed like we were heading for a whole different game, then they came up with that big play near the end of the half,” Bohlen said.

The Chickasaws extended their lead in the third quarter with a 42-yard pass TD from Stohl to Gorman, and then a 27-yard zig-zag run score from Tristan Sweitzer.

Though the Chickasaws intercepted Mitchell three times, the Comets did manage to connect with several big pass plays.

Mitchell’s 20-yard pass to Foster placed the Comets on New Hampton’s 5-yard line late in the third quarter, but Charles City failed to score.

Late in the fourth, Mitchell found Tre Walker for a 30-yard gain to get the Comets to the NH 10. After Mitchell scrambled to get to the 2, he found Walker in the end zone to cap the scoring with 15 seconds left in regulation.

Mitchell was 13-of-35 passing for 231 yards. Walker had 103 of those yards on five catches.

Koresh was ran for 76 yards on 15 carries to lead the Comets’ rushing attack.

On defense, linebacker Alex Koehler had 14 solo tackles and Theo Arndt had a fumble recovery for the Comets.

As for the Chickasaws, Stochl had a efficient night passing the ball completing 8-of-14 attempts for 212 yards. Gorman had 168 yards receiving with just four catches. Sweitzer had 55 yards rushing on eight carries.

“We came in knowing we would have to play four quarters of good football to beat them,” Bohlen said. “We played well at times, but we didn’t do the little things.”

The Comets will try to rebound Friday when they host Osage in a non-conference game. The Green Devils are coming off a humbling 62-0 loss to Saint Ansgar.

The Comet JV team won its game against New Hampton, 38-14.

Scoring By Quarters

New Hampton 13 8 14 0 — 35

Charles City 0 6 0 6 — 12

Scoring Summary

NH — Drew Boeding 5 run (Oscar Gayton kick) 7-0, 9:03 1st

NH — Josh Fenske 5 run (Kick failed) 13-0, 6:32 1st

CC — Drew Mitchell 1 run (Kick failed) 13-6, 8:46 2nd

NH — Carter Stochl 18 pass to Keagan John (Stochl to Ryan Gorman PAT) 21-6, 1:14 2nd

NH — Stochl 42 pass to Keegan (Gayton kick) 28-6, 9:47 3rd

NH — Tristan Sweitzer 27 run (Gayton kick) 35-6, 7:02 3rd

CC — Mitchell 2 pass to Tre Walker (Kick failed) 35-12, :15 4th.

PASSING — CC — Drew Mitchell 13-35-3 231 1TD; NH — Carter Stochl 8-14-1 212 2 TDs.

RUSHING — CC — Dylan Koresh 15-76, Tyreque Baker 1-5; NH — Tristan Sweitzer 8-55 1 TD, Drew Boeding 6-25 1 TD, Josh Fenske 10-14 1 TD, Stochl 4-20, Ryan Gorman 2-12, Alex Schumacher 2-8, Max Schwickerath 5-5.

RECEIVING — CC — Tre Walker 5-103 1 TD, Jaden Foster 3-64, Mike Cranshaw 2-26, Tyreque Baker 2-36, Theo Arndt 1-2; NH — Gorman 4-168 1 TD, Keagan John 1-18 1 TD, Keagan Tenge 2-14, Fenske 1-12.