Victory!

RED OAK— Seniors Nick Leinen, Jose Perez and Drew Askey were sophomores the last time the Red Oak football team walked off the field with a win.

Red Oak snapped a 20-game losing streak Friday night with a dominating 64-0 victory against Clarinda Academy. The Tigers last recorded a victory on Sept. 3, 2010 with a win over Shenandoah. It has been two long seasons of frustration for the Tigers. Those frustrations ended Friday.

“We had one winning game my sophomore year against Shenandoah and after that it was downhill from there,” said Askey, a senior defensive lineman. “We haven’t been able to win a game and winning this one, it just boosts our confidence a bunch.”

The Tigers (1-4 overall, 1-2 district) jumped on the Eagles early and often in the win.

Dakota Petty gave Red Oak their first lead since their second game of the season when he scored from four yards out with 8:14 left in the first quarter.

Red Oak was set up for that scoring opportunity after Eddie Perez forced the second Clarinda Academy fumble of the game.

“One thing that they were doing is they were running something and they were repeating. If they had something that was working for them, they kept going,” Askey said. “So we came together as a defense and worked perfectly together.”

The next Tigers score came with 4:34 left in the quarter when Ryan Leininger hooked up with Jose Perez for the first of four touchdowns through the air, this one for 48-yards, to give the Tigers the 12-0 lead.

“The linemen were blocking well and downfield the other two wide receivers were being covered,” Perez said. “They blocked for me and I just came across wide open and Ryan threw the ball to me.”

Nick Leinen had the last touchdown of the first quarter on a five-yard run. The lead was 18-0 for Red Oak at the end of the opening 12 minutes.

“The traps inside were working,” Leinen said. “The line really opened huge holes actually.”

Leininger and Perez hooked up again for a touchdown early in the second quarter from 50-yards out. An Eddie Perez extra point made the Red Oak lead 25-0.

Leinen followed up just a couple minutes later when he had a six-yard run for a score, making the Red Oak lead 32-0.
The Leininger-Perez connection connected for a third time in the game, second in the second quarter, on a 31-yard touchdown pass with 6:15 left until halftime. Red Oak’s lead became 39-0, which led to a running clock.

“It’s been really good,” Perez said about working with Leininger. “We joke around before games that our gameplan is just me and him, but we both know our gameplan is just to win. It feels good to create a bond with him.”

The Tigers added defensive touchdown when Evan Mellott scooped up a fumble and returned it 17-yards for the score with 4:20 left until the half.

Leininger tossed his last touchdown pass to Perez with 1:19 left until halftime. Perez hauled in the 34-yard reception and raced for the score.

The Tigers missed the extra point, but led 52-0 at halftime.

Leinen scored his third touchdown of the game on the first play from scrimmage of the second half, running 66-yards to make the lead 58-0.

Leinen finished the game with six carries for 89 yards.

The final touchdown came in the fourth quarter when Eddie Perez scored on a 16-yard scamper.
Red Oak coach Jeff Spotts emptied his bench midway through the fourth quarter.

The victory was Red Oak’s first shutout victory since Sept. 19, 2008 when they defeated Shenandoah 34-0.

The Tigers’ 64 points is the most Red Oak has scored since 2005 when they defeated West Central Valley, 70-0.
The 64 points Friday night also is more than the combined total of Red Oak’s first four games this season.

Leininger completed 5-of-7 passes for 171 yards. Perez hauled in four of Leininger’s passes for a season-high 163 yards and four scores. His 258 yards receiving this season leads the team.

Leininger took over the Tigers’ signal-caller job after senior Tanner Johnson, who had been starting quarterback the last three seasons, decided not to play this season, after suffering a concussion during last year’s homecoming game against Glenwood.

Both Perez and Leinen said Johnson has been terrific on the sideline, cheering and supporting the team.

“It’s pretty good that we have a senior leader on the sideline pumping us up,” Perez said.

Defensively, Nathan Guffey finished as the leading tackler for Red Oak, recording nine total tackles. Mellott and Austin Streicher had eight tackles, while Phillip Decker had six.

Askey finished the game with five tackles.

Askey and Leinin were king candidates for homecoming.

Both agreed they’ll enjoy the homecoming king nomimination is nice but a homecoming win on the field is better.

The Tigers will play Clarinda Friday night and look to make more noise in the district and fight for a playoff spot.
Leinen said he hopes the win will give the team momentum heading into the Clarinda game this week.

“Hopefully we can start the game off with a bang,” Leinen said.

The game starts at 7 p.m.