BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
The Wolves called out to their Homecoming King Jake Blaska to lead them in the after game dance celebration.
Blaska, who was in the halftime team talk while the Homecoming Court was announced, smiled and did a few flips for his teammates after the Wolves defeated Troy Athens on Friday night, 40-21.
“It’s a good win especially for homecoming,” said senior quarterback JT King. “We executed well, but there are some things we need to work on. We put the ball on the ground too much. We lost Josh (Cantu) – it is a huge loss for us. He has been helping out the team a lot.”
“It was a good team win for all of us,” said senior linebacker Nick Stalworth.
Longtime head coach Kurt Richardson added it wasn’t a good win.
“We were lethargic,” he noticed. “We put the ball on the ground again and lost a very good running back.”
The Wolves opened the scoring with a 32-yard touchdown from junior running back Michael Fluegel with five minutes left in the first quarter. They were blocked from scoring on a 2-point conversion.
The Redhawks opened the second quarter to take the lead by one point after a long touchdown pass.
“Everything changed,” said Stalworth. “We came together and said we can’t allow this anymore. We came together and shut them out.”
The Wolves answered with taking the lead back with a 62-yard touchdown pass from King to senior Ryan Prisby and a 4-yard touchdown run by junior Josh Cantu after Clarkston recovered Athens’ punt on the Redhawks’ 4-yard line, putting the score 21-7.
They continued the momentum in the third quarter scoring three times to put the Redhawks away.
The first scoring opportunity was a result of King connecting a 69-yard touchdown pass to senior Tyler Retford with 6:49 remaining in the quarter.
King struck on his own 18-yard run with two minutes to go to put the score up to 34-7.
The Redhawks started their play on the 15-yard line but didn’t get far after junior linebacker Zach Scott intercepted the ball and ran to the 9-yard line in Athens’ territory.
Junior quarterback Nate Uballe held onto the ball for the 9-yard run to put the score up to 40-7 with 1:48 remaining in the third quarter.
King went 9-for-13 in passing for 181 yards and two touchdowns. Fluegel was the leading rusher with 82 yards on 11 carries. Retford had four receptions for 88 yards and Prisby had three receptions for 80 yards. Senior Zach Mansour was 2-for-4 on PATs.
“The offensive line did good,” said King. “Running we just need to fix a few things then I think we will be right where we were against Lapeer. We were blocking really good the first game.”
For defense, junior Gino Paese led with five tackles, with three of them with yards lost, and two assists. Senior Jake Buchmann had five tackles; Retford had four tackles and one assist; Scott had four tackles, one interception and one blocked punt; and senior Kole Gilbert had four tackles and one assist.
“The defensive line did outstanding,” said Stalworth. “They did a good job to free us linebackers up.”
The Wolves (4-1, 3-1 OAA Red) head to Oak Park (3-2) this Friday.
“We will be ready,” said Stalworth. “They are a good team and I think we will come together.”
King agreed Clarkston will be ready adding they will watch film and figure out what they need to do. Kick off is at 6 p.m., 13701 Oak Park Boulevard.

  clarkston, Varsity Football