YARMOUTH — For the first time in the game, the Oak Hill football team had a little momentum.

The Raiders made a defensive stop and scored to cut into the Yarmouth lead. Oak Hill was making another defensive stand against the Clippers and could feel some confidence building.

Then one pass changed all that.

“I think the turning point was that fake punt,” Oak Hill coach Dave Wing said. “We were there and just missed it. That gave them some momentum. They went into the half up 21-6.”

The defending Class C champions turned that fake punt into another touchdown and never looked back in a 45-6 win in their Western Class C quarterfinal.

The Clippers (9-0) beat the Raiders 51-7 earlier in the season. This time, Oak Hill  (3-9) was hoping for a little better showing.

“I know in the paper it’s going to look like the last game,” Wing said. “The last game we stunk it up. This game we played tough and played physical. We just didn’t have enough to overcome what they had for skilled players.”

Yarmouth rushed for 257 yards, utilizing a variety of backs. Caleb Uhl led the Clippers with 108 yards on nine carries and a touchdown. Anders Overhaug scored three touchdowns and rushed for 68 yards on 11 carriers.

“We try to get equal carries,” Yarmouth coach Jim Hartman said. “We try to spread it around. Once they started chasing Anders. We could run Caleb back on a couple plays.”

It was Overhaug who helped set up the early lead with lengthy kick returns. He  took the opening kick to the 40. Four players later, Brady Neujahr scampered in around the left side from 30 yards for the 7-0 lead.

“We preach that special teams win championships,” Hartman said. “We work hard at it. We spent a lot of time this week on that. We picked up on some things they did on the film, and we worked on it really well.”

It was a lengthy punt return that put Yarmouth at the 47. Matt Woodbury capped off that brief possession with a dive from the 2 with 6:27 left in the opening quarter.

Oak Hill stopped the Clippers on their next possession. Then the Raiders produced its only scoring drive of the game. The Raiders pounded the ball on the ground and used the efforts of Cody Depuy, who finished with 132 yards on 33 carries. He rushed for more than 30 yards on the scoring drive. Parker Asselin finished it off with a sneak at the 1 with 9:39 left in the half, putting the Raiders down 14-6.

Yarmouth’s next possession was hampered by a delay of game call. The Clippers were facing fourth-and-eight at the 47. Set up in punt formation, Dennis Erving found an open Nate Shields for the first down,a pass play of 25 yards. Five plays later, Overhaug took it up the middle from the 8 for a 21-6 lead with 3:46 left.

“I’ve been fighting with him all year to throw that thing,” Hartman said. “He’s been open all year. He’s six-foot-whatever. When Nate went in motion, I was yelling to Dennis ‘He’s open, throw it.'”

The Raiders struggled to recover.  Oak Hill had two interceptions and a fumble in the second half. The most offense it had was a drive that went 37 yards before the Raiders turned the ball over.

Yarmouth turned two of the turnovers into points as the Clippers wore the Raiders down.

Overhaug had a pair of 13-yard scoring runs in the third quarter to make it 35-6. The Clippers then added a 27-yard field goal from Bryce Snyder and an 18-yard run by Uhl in the fourth.

“I think we had some spots where we played very well,” Wing said. “We hit well. Defensively, the score doesn’t show it, but we played fairly well. They’ve got a lot of speed and when they got into the secondary, look out.”

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