It would have been an epic season-opening comeback for Indian Creek’s football team, freshman quarterback Evan Clark and first-year head coach Max Goodin. Instead, the game slipped away like an errant football into the opponent’s end zone Friday.
The host Braves, poised to overcome a 21-10 deficit, fell just short when Malachi Mink, who had played brilliantly up to that point (21 carries, 106 yards), had the ball stripped away just before he crossed the goal line for what would have been a go-ahead touchdown with 1:19 remaining and IC trailing by three.
Cascade recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchback, then sealed the win four plays later when, after a stout defensive effort, the Cadets’ Dayton Mink broke loose for a 22-yard gain on fourth-and-1 to seal Cascade’s 21-18 win in the season opener for both teams.
Indian Creek’s defense forced a turnover on downs with 4:05 remaining when Cascade went for it at its own 34-yard line and failed to convert. The Braves moved the ball to the Cadets’ 4 behind a Clark 13-yard pass and 11-yard run before the fateful fumble.
“You get down by the goal line, a guy reaches out, the ball gets knocked out, and it’s just something we’ve got to better about,” Goodin said. “But we’re not in that situation without Malachi. He had a heck of a game.”
Mink provided balance to Clark’s passing attack. In his first high school start, Clark completed 5 of 10 passes for 55 yards in the first half but ended the half with a 32-yard touchdown pass, a pretty post to Jaxon Ramey with 19 seconds remaining, to whittle Cascade’s lead to 14-10 at halftime.
He was even more impressive in the second half, completing 9 of 11 passes for another 111 yards and another touchdown, a 4-yard strike to J.R. Ferguson with 9:16 remaining. A two-point conversion throw to Ferguson trimmed IC’s deficit to 21-18.
Clark also drew a pair of pass interference penalties that would have padded his stats further on that touchdown drive. Ramey (five catches, 78 yards) and Bobby Emberton (five catches, 52 yards) were his most common targets.
“Anytime you’re a freshman starter, there’s that new-car smell,” Goodin said of Clark. “When he completed the touchdown pass to Jaxon right before the half, that was really the moment where he said, ‘Okay, I can play ball.’ That really showed through in the second half.”
After the touchdown to Ferguson, Cascade held the ball for 5:11 but only moved it 19 yards during that stretch. The Cadets went for it from their own 34-yard line on fourth and 8, but the Braves’ defense kept contain on Cascade quarterback Brady Trembley and stopped him one yard short of a first down.
Indian Creek’s defense held Cascade’s running game to 54 second-half yards, and only 32 without counting Dayton Mink’s final run to seal the game. The Cadets gained 126 rushing yards in the first half.
“We have very good depth and good veteran leadership on that side of the ball,” Goodin said of the Indian Creek defense. “Cascade gave us a couple of different looks we weren’t really expecting, but I am proud of the kids for their resiliency.”
Goodin lamented the Braves’ two turnovers, both of which played major roles in the outcome. In addition to the goal-line fumble, Ramey lost one that Cascade converted into a touchdown with 1:55 remaining in the first half, extending its lead to 14-3. On that same Cascade touchdown drive, IC senior defensive lineman Corey McVicar drew roughing the passer and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on a fourth-down play that would have resulted in a turnover on downs without the flags.
“Creek beat the Creek,” Goodin said. “That doesn’t take anything away from Cascade. They’ve got a very good team, and they returned a lot of players. But we turned the ball over twice, we had an untimely roughing the passer penalty that should have been a fourth-down stop. We’ve just got to learn from those mistakes. We’ve got some veteran players, but we’ve also got some inexperienced players. We’ve got to learn from that outcome. We can’t beat ourselves.”
The Braves play next Friday at Greenwood.
