BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
The Wolves excitedly surrounded Team Manager James Barnett as he held up the district trophy to the Clarkston Varsity Football team after they defeated White Lake Lakeland last Friday, 26-6.
“We did a lot of nice things,” said Kurt Richardson, long-time head coach for Clarkston, adding the players still had too many penalties and made too mistakes.
The Wolves opened the scoring with three minutes remaining in the first quarter. Lakeland punted the ball after they had run out of downs and Josh Luther picked it up on the 20-yard line. The pass went incomplete on the first play.
During the next play Luther grabbed the hand off from quarterback Jake Jensen and ran 80 yards into the endzone. A PAT from Tristan Mattson put the Wolves in the lead, 7-0.

Clarkston scored twice during the second quarter both on 1-yard touchdown runs made by Jacob Honstetter. His first touchdown was came less than three minutes into the quarter. Lakeland blocked the extra point, putting the score 13-0.
“We knew their passing game struggled a little bit,” said Richardson. “We knew once we got up on them we could blitz them a little bit harder – that was the plan.”
Honstetter scored his second touchdown with 47.8 seconds remaining in the first half. The Wolves attempted for a 2-point conversion and they were blocked, ending the half, 19-0.
The Eagles opened the second half with control of the ball. They lost it five minutes into the third quarter when they fumbled the ball. Honstetter recovered it on the 49-yard line in Lakeland’s turf.
Jensen passed the ball to Keagan King who closed in on the endzone. On the next play, King ran the ball in for a 15-yard touchdown run. A PAT put the Wolves at 26-0.
Jensen was 8-for-17 in passing for 188 yards. King caught three passes for 95 yards and Matt Miller caught three passes for 47 yards.
Luther carried the ball once for 80 yards. Kidus Johnson carried the ball six times for 33 yards and Honstetter carried the ball five times for 15 yards.
Luther led defense with nine tackles and four assists. Brendan Barker had six tackles and four assists, Hayden Temple had five tackles, two assists and recovered a fumble, Zach Reid had four tackles and two assists, and Honstetter had three tackles, three assists and recovered a fumble.
The Wolves (9-2) head to Lapeer (11-0) for the regional title on Friday.
“We have a big win now,” said Richardson. “Lapeer kind of spanked Oxford so it’s going to be a dogfight up there.”
Kick off is at 170 Millville Road in Lapeer, 7 p.m.

  Clarkston Varsity Football, district championship, Football