Comets bedevil Osage, 35-20

Charles City earns first victory over Green Devils in 3 years

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — It would behoove football teams to refrain from the temptation of running with the Green Devils.

Osage has a wide-open, motion coverage shedding, no-huddle passing attack that can turn games into track meets.

But after taking a 14-12 lead at the half, Charles City made sure that its home opener against Osage last Friday was going to be a football game as the Comets grinded out a 65-yard drive to start the second half and went on to win, 35-20.

“That was a big drive for us,” Charles City coach Darren Bohlen said. “We wanted to get back to running the football and take some time off the clock.

“We wanted to keep their offense off the field. They like to spread it out with that five-receiver set, and they have a good athlete at quarterback.”

The QB referred to was Green Devil senior Drew Olson. An elusive scrambler that at times can be hard to take down, Olson can extend a play to more than 10 seconds while putting pressure on pass coverage. He also has line-of-scrimmage awareness, and when it looks like he’s about ready to turn it upfield, Olson has a penchant of pulling up short of the line and finding a wide-open receiver whose defender left him to converge on Olson.

That happened late in the first quarter when Olson found a lonely Jayden Hansen behind the Comets’ defense for a 67-yard score.

Later, Hansen and Olson connected for a 76-yard catch-and-run TD.

Both scores were immediate responses to Comet touchdowns. The first one was a 22-yard TD run from sophomore Dylan Koresh, who led all rushers with 109 yards on 12 carries.

The second Comet TD was a 61-yard pass play that had quarterback Mike Cranshaw leading a post-pattern running Cade Hemesath, who made a fine outstretched catch while hauling the ball in with his fingertips.

Even after the quick responses, the Comets remained in the lead after foiling both of the Green Devils’ PAT attempts.

Charles City senior Theo Arndt had a hand in both plays — first blocking a PAT kick attempt and then successfully defending a pass in the subsequent PAT attempt.

Senior fullback Tyreque Baker capped the aforementioned opening second-half drive by powering his way into the end zone with a 6-yard run — Baker had 85 yards on 24 carries.

Osage eventually pulled within 1 (21-20) on Olson’s 1-yard run followed Olson’s 2-point conversion pass to Zach Williams.

Late in the third quarter, Cranshaw hit Tre Walker on an 11-yard TD pass play. Then with 9:22 left in regulation, Crashaw fed Elliott Sinnwell a perfectly placed option pitch for an 11-yard open lane to paydirt.

Cranshaw, who threw a grand total of two passes last year  — both for touchdowns, by the way — had another efficient night throwing and running the ball. He completed 4 of 6 attempts for 124 yards and two touchdowns. Cranshaw also rushed for 49 yards on 11 carries, and picked up several crucial first downs in the second half to keep the Green Devil offense off the field.

Comet placekicker Derek Milligan was 5 of 5 on his PAT attempts.

Olson threw for 223 yards through the air with Hanson accounting for 179 of that on four catches. But for the most part in the second half, the Comets contained the potentially explosive offense with a relentless three-man rush and stickier coverage in the secondary.

Hemesath, Koresh, Alec Elsbernd and Sam Niichel were all credited for tackles for losses for the Comets.

“We haven’t beaten this team in three years, so this is a great win for us,” Bohlen said.

Charles City (1-1) will begin district play next Friday (Sept. 8) when it travels to South Tama.

CHARLES CITY 35, OSAGE 20

Scoring By Quarters

OSAGE 6 6 8 0 — 20

CHARLES CITY — 7 7 14 7 — 35

Scoring Summary

CC — Dylan Koresh 22-yard run (Derek Milligan PAT kick) 7-0, 1:34 1st

O —Jayden Hansen 67-yard pass from Drew Olson (PAT kick blocked) 7-6, 1:12 1st

CC — Cade Hemesath 61-yard pass from Mike Cranshaw (Milligan PAT kick) 14-6, 11:52 2nd

O — Hansen 76-yard pass from Olson (PAT pass failed) 14-12, 10:51 2nd

CC — Tyreque Baker 6-yard run (Milligan PAT kick) 21-12, 8:10 3rd

O — Olson 1-yard run (Zach Williams PAT pass from Olson) 21-20, 2:26 3rd

CC — Tre Walker 11-yard pass from Cranshaw (Milligan PAT kick) 28-20, 1:10 3rd

CC — Elliott Sinnwell 11-yard run (Milligan PAT kick) 35-20, 9:22 4th