Alter took advantage of an early turnover to begin a run of touchdowns on three straight drives and never looked back, beating the top-ranked Falcons, 21-3, on Friday in a Division IV-Region 16 semifinal at Monroe High School. The Knights (10-3) meet Wyoming (12-1), in the regional final next Friday.
“We actually make a list of epic wins, and I told them last weekend, that if we get this, it would be an epic win,” Domsitz said of beating Massie. “We have faced Clinton-Massie what now, six times, and it’s always a battle. ... I guess I was wrong. We had more than a 50-50 chance.”
The defense set the tone for the night when Alter’s Jackson Neace recovered a fumble on Clinton-Massie’s first drive to put the offense in the red zone, and moments later, Mikey Rose scored on a 1-yard touchdown for the 7-0 lead with 4:58 left in the first quarter.
The defense forced a punt the next drive, and the Knights kept the momentum going with Rod Owens’ 25-yard touchdown run to double the cushion. After another Massie punt, Noah Jones ripped off a 76-yard run to make it 21-0 with 6:45 left in the third quarter.
“I was thinking I’m not going down, I’m not getting caught, I’m breaking every tackle I can,” Jones said. “Trusted my blockers and took it to the crib. I knew we were going to win.”
At that point, the Falcons started to look desperate.
Massie converted a fourth-and-2 from the 30-yard line with under two minutes left in the half and tried it again at the 2-yard line, but Alter stuffed the runner at the line of scrimmage and rolled into halftime with its three-touchdown lead.
Domsitz reminded his players at halftime that Clinton-Massie was good enough to come back, but the Knights never allowed them enough momentum to get going. Alter came up with another fourth-down stop near midfield on the opening drive of the second half.
Even when the Falcons finally had a chance to shift momentum, after they recovered a fumble, they ended up settling for a 41-yard field goal from Ean McGuiness with 10:04 remaining. McGuiness then recovered an onside kick to put the Falcons offense back on the field at Alter’s 49, but Massie couldn’t make anything of it.
Henry Reifschneider’s third-down sack led to a fourth-down incompletion, and if that didn’t seal it, another fumble recovery did with 3:51 left.
“Our defense really, when you’re talking about finishing out, the defense won the game for us the second half because we were not as sharp offensively,” Domsitz said.
Alter finished with 230 yards of offense, including 182 yards rushing, of which only 40 came in the second half. Jones had 117 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. Clinton-Massie, which was missing top running back Logan Chesser, finished with 189 yards of offense, with 141 yards on the ground.
“There’s no question they were the better team tonight,” Clinton-Massie coach Dan McSurley said. “We fought hard. Had a lot of young guys playing, but we will be back next year. We know who the region goes through, it goes through the GCL and that’s the way it is. They were the better team tonight and we just didn’t get the breaks, but it was a good season getting to 12-0.”
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