During a rainy second quarter against Troy High on Sept. 16, lightning struck twice for the Wolves as senior quarterback Mike Kittle ripped off remarkably similar and spectacular 59-yard touchdown runs in an eventual 26-7 Clarkston victory.
‘Mike Kittle’s big play ability was the difference. I think they played harder than us,? said Clarkston Coach Kurt Richardson.
Kittle’s first show stopper came at the start of the second quarter with Clarkston trailing 0-7. With no passing options downfield and the pocket breaking down around him, Kittle out raced his pursuit to a small vein of sideline, which he rode to the twenty-yard-line where he deftly started and stopped to circumvent a would-be tackler, and with a small hop over the now prone defender continued unabated into the end zone.
‘Nobody gave up on the play and the (offensive line) kept blocking until they heard a whistle and I found a hole and went with it,? said Kittle
Following Kittle’s first score at 11:41 of the second quarter, Clarkston and Troy each fumbled away drives and a Colt possession ending in a punt, the Wolves once again had the ball on their own 41-yard-line. On their first play of the drive, Kittle showed that a great showman can always upstage himself with an even more ridiculous 59-yard touchdown run.
‘Mike Kittle was the difference. He broke those two big plays and broke their backs ? one time they had him tackled for a two-yard loss, that’s not only a touchdown, but it deflated (them),? said Richardson of Kittle’s second run in which he broke a defensive lineman’s tackle in the backfield and vaulted over another defender before weaving his way downfield and into the end zone.
‘We’ve been watching Kittle make plays since he was 14-years-old and he’s a man out there, there’s no question about that,? said Troy line coach Nick Deane. ‘On the one play we stopped him twice and hit him four times.?
Kittle’s second run made the score 14-7 with 6:44 left in the first half after junior Mike Breen’s extra point kick. The senior quarterback’s brilliance did nothing to ease Richardson’s ire at a Wolves team which on their first drive of the game committed two penalties and had a punt blocked. The Colts recovered the snuffed punt at the 17-yard-line and five plays later found pay dirt on a 6-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Branko Hamilton.
‘You have to come to play every Friday night in this league. Anybody will jump up and get you if you come out flat, and we came out flatter than a pancake tonight,? said Richardson. ‘Winning ugly, that’s all that was. But it’s better than losing, I guess.?
Clarkston held Troy scoreless the rest of the game and the Colts offense to 169 total yards.
Senior running back Nick DeVault scored on a 2-yard run with 1:16 remaining in the half and added some insurance points on a 1-yard run with 11:53 remaining in the game to finish out the Clarkston scoring.
Clarkston’s offense piled up 333 yards for the game, 288 on the ground, but turned the ball over three times. Kittle finished with 130 yards rushing on six carries and 45 yards passing to go with his two touchdowns. DeVault complemented his pair of touchdowns with 94 yards rushing on 19 carries.
The week of practice ahead for the Wolves will undoubtedly feature extensive work on special teams with a massive underline on punt protection.
‘I’ve been having nightmares about our punt team forever,? said Richardson.
Clarkston entertains Troy Athens at home on Sept. 23.