The Clarksville football team will defend its home field against Coon Rapids-Bayard to kickoff the 8-Player postseason on Friday. It will be the first ever meeting between the programs, as the Crusaders take a two hour and 44 minute bus ride over for the matchup.
Clarksville (6-2) concluded the regular season with a thrilling 50-47 over Collins-Maxwell in their homecoming game last week. Nathan Moon has been electric for the Indians offense with 1,710 rushing yards and 30 touchdowns. Both marks rank as the second most in the state in 8-Player. Kaiven Kielman captains the defense with 63.5 tackles. Clarksville Head Coach Darren Bohlen notes what he would like to see executed by the team on each side of the ball.
“We want to establish the run again. We want to be able to run the power right at them. That is going to pose a lot of problems for them, just based on film. Other teams have had success running the power play against them. That’s our strength. I think that’s going to favor us a little bit,” says Bohlen. “We need to be disciplined because they like to run a little bit of option. They will read our ends on whether they’re going to hand it off or keep it. We got to be able to stay disciplined, do our job and trust our teammates to do their job.”
Coon Rapids-Bayard (5-3) concluded the regular season with a 60-18 win over Glidden-Ralston last week. The Crusaders lean on the run offensively with 2,292 rushing yards (eighth most in 8-Player). Ethan Bauer has a bulk of the carries with 1,207 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns.
This will be the Indians fourth straight playoff appearance and the Crusaders first since 2020.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. in Clarksville.
Clarksville Head Coach Darren Bohlen Interview:
