Eight-man state championship: Line play on both sides of the ball keys Amboy-LaMoille-Ohio run to title game

If football games are won and lost in the trenches, it’s no wonder the Amboy-LaMoille-Ohio Clippers are playing for an eight-man state championship on Friday night.

Strong line play has been the key to the Clippers’ stellar season, helping them overcome the loss of their starting quarterback – and lone senior – for six weeks by facilitating a ground game that has led to a 10-2 record and a deep run through the playoffs for the second straight season.

And the playoff runs don’t get any deeper than this, as Amboy will take on undefeated West Central for the Illinois 8-Man Football Association state championship at Monmouth College.

“It’s a great thing to be practicing for one more week. It might be cold, but we’re going to work hard,” junior center Trey Payne said. “It’s a great feeling, because you get to play for a state championship – and not a lot of people can say that they’ve done that.”

These Clippers are looking for the program’s second state title – the other came in 1984 – and have gotten to this point thanks to punishing line play on both sides of the ball.

On offense, the big boys up front have paved the way for 1,000-yard rusher Landon Whelchel (169 rushes, 1,386 yards, 17 TDs) and 800-yard rusher Quinn Leffelman (115 rushes, 838 yards, 15 TDs), as well as 820 rush yards and 327 passing yards for Tucker Lindenmeyer, who has been back for the three playoff games after sophomore Eddie Jones filled in admirably through the final six weeks of the regular season.

“We take a lot of pride when we see the yards our guys are putting up,” Payne said. “You can’t really do that if you don’t have a good offensive line, so those are our yards too.”

Junior end Brennan Blaine believes that not only has the line play been great all season, it’s been even better in the three playoff wins. Ever since a 68-30 loss to West Central in Week 9, the Clippers have notched playoff wins of 48-0 over Blue Ridge, 30-28 over Milford-Cissna Park, and 54-22 over St. Thomas More.

“The coaches have told us every game we’ve played, both at walk-through the night before and right before the games, they always say, ‘If we want to win this game, our front five are going to have to control the line of scrimmage’ – and I think most of the time, we’ve done that, and that’s why we’ve been so successful this year,” Blaine said. “Especially these last two games against Milford and St. Thomas More, I think our line has played as good as we have all season, and that’s why Whelchel’s putting up great numbers and Quinn has had some great games.”

Juniors Ian Sundberg and Landon Montavon line up next to Payne at the guard spots, and classmate Vincent Zembruski provides blocking at the other end spot opposite Blaine. While Blaine is a blocker on a lot of plays, he’s also one of the best receivers in eight-man this year, with 40 catches for 1,094 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Sundberg says it’s not just the skill and technique the Clippers linemen bring to the table, but also their ability to work well together and find their flow quickly in each game.

“There have been ups and downs, but when we figure out our rhythm and we figure out what we can do on the line, it’s been good,” Sundberg said. “Running our power traps with Quinn Leffelman kicking out the end and Zembruski going for the middle linebacker and me going through the hole has been a big part of our run game. I believe in Trey and his blocking abilities, we’ve got Montavon pushing inside for the holes or outside for those inside powers. Brennan, me and him, during the Milford game, we had a good double-team against one of their tackles, and that helped us figure them out.”

Head coach Scott Payne – Trey’s uncle – says the offensive line is the unit that gets the Clippers going each week, and it’s one of the reasons why he likes to receive the opening kickoff every game and put his offense on the field first.

“Our offensive line sets the tone for us,” he said. “We always like to try to take the ball first and get the ball moving and get in a rhythm. Our offensive line just comes out and starts opening up the holes, and our backs run hard and are able to run through some pretty good holes. That starts things off for us well.

“Our line on both sides has done a great job all year of opening up the holes offensively, and defensively they’ve done a good job of plugging up the holes and allowing our linebackers to scrape and fill. I couldn’t be happier with the group of kids I’ve got playing both sides of the ball.”

Sundberg and Montavon man the defensive tackle positions, and Blaine is a defensive end. Leffelman plays the other end spot, and the goal is simple for the Amboy defensive line: disrupt the opposing offense as much as possible play in and play out to let the linebackers and defensive backs make plays.

“Basically we just push through and make the backfield chaos so they can’t run an option, or we can clog those holes for inside power and outside power,” Sundberg said. “We can make holes for our linebackers to blitz right through to make those tackles in the backfield and stop those plays.”

As big as offense is in the eight-man game, Blaine believes it’s the Amboy defense that has been the biggest key to the Clippers’ success this season – especially the big boys in the trenches.

“I think we have one of the best defensive lines in the state. We just really control things, and our linebackers can come up and fill holes when they need to. The defensive line just does its job and allows other guys to make plays,” Blaine said. “And all game, just beating down the other team’s offensive line does a lot. By the fourth quarter, lots of times their linemen are down on their knees and getting up slow. I think just beating them down throughout the game helps a lot.”

As strong as they’ve been up front defensively, the Clippers know they have their hands full with West Central’s strong offensive line in the state title game. The Heat front has paved the way for 5,527 yards rushing and 90 touchdowns this season, led by all-state tailback Kaiden Droste, who has rushed for 3,095 yards and 55 touchdowns; he has 11 games of more than 100 yards rushing, nine games of more than 200 yards, and five games of more than 300 yards.

Quarterback Mason Carnes has run for 1,000 yards and 18 TDs and thrown for 488 yards and five scores, and fullback Parker Meldrum has 850 yards and 10 TDs on the ground.

“West Central has a really successful running game, and a lot of that is because of their line. They have a really good line, one of the best in the state,” Blaine said. “They’ve got big guys up front who can move around well. We’re just going to have to work hard on playing against that, just playing up to their intensity and playing up to their level.”

Coach Payne says the key will be his guys up front, and their ability to take up blocks, plug holes, and not allow the West Central linemen to get to the second level and get hands on Amboy’s linebackers.

Blaine and Sundberg both think the revenge factor will play to Amboy’s favor, and they both believe the Clippers are a better team playing better football now than they were in the Week 9 matchup.

“We’re hungry for a win this time, and we’re really ready to play them again,” Sundberg said.

“I think we’ll be just fine,” Blaine added. “We didn’t have Tucker, and I think we’re a different team than we were when we played them Week 9, so I think it’s going to be a little better game this time around.”