Phillips, Gorsich star as Lions roll
About the only thing that could slow down Linn-Mar junior quarterback Reese Phillips on Friday night was a bum ankle.
His arm was working beautifully.
Phillips set a Linn-Mar record with five touchdown passes in less than three quarters of action as the Lions shot out to a 34-0 lead and cruised to a 50-14 win over Clinton at Linn-Mar Stadium.
The five scoring tosses broke the single-game record of four, shared by four other former Lions, most recently lastseason by Ryan Schmidt, who did it twice, in wins over Waterloo West and Jefferson.
Schmidt, now playing at Iowa, was in attendance and was in the locker room to congratulate Phillips.
"It just felt great out there tonight," Phillips said. "After we hit them with a deep one, they just sagged off and we took advantage."
The guy taking advantage was senior Daniel Gorsich, who caught four of Phillips' scoring passes, which tied a Lion record for touchdown receptions in a game. Ironically, Gorsich was on the field last year when Trevor Noble caught four TD passes against Jefferson.
"I'm glad to have tied (the record)," Gorsich said. "I didn't really care about the touchdowns. I was more concerned about getting the win, and we got it."
Phillips said he knew pretty quickly that the Clinton defenders couldn't stay with Gorsich.
"Danny is just so versatile," Phillips said. "They really couldn't guard him. He was too fast for them."
The record-breaker for Phillips came early in the third quarter when he found junior Kirby Kerr, who took the ball away from a Clinton defender and raced the rest of the way to complete a 62-yard scoring play.
There was some concern when Phillips, who completed 12-of-16 passes for 267 yards, had to leave the game with five minutes left in the third quarter after a Clinton defender rolled up on his ankle. He limped to the sidelines and didn't return as senior Nolan Hollinger stepped in and finished the game.
Phillips headed to the locker room before the end of the game for treatment.
"He's OK," Forsyth said. "We just took him in and got some ice on it right away. He'll be fine. We've got a quick turnaround with Washington (on Thursday). He should be back doing something by Sunday."
In the first half, Phillips combined with Gorsich to put on a show. They hooked up on a 58-yarder down the sideline midway through the first quarter. After that, Clinton defenders backed off and Gorsich simply turned in front of them and caught the ball. He turned three such plays into scores of 19, 7 and 10 yards. Gorsich finished with eight catches for 151 yards.
"We just did our normal stuff," Forsyth said. "We were just looking for the best match-up and it turned out to be Danny tonight."
It wasn't only Phillips and Gorsich turning in strong performances. Early on, the Linn-Mar defense made life miserable for River King junior quarterback Jonny Sullivan, who had thrown for 625 yards and eight scores in Clinton's two wins to open the season.
A blitzing Lion defense forced him to fumble three times, losing two. He also threw his first interception of the year when Linn-Mar's Josh Strauss jumped in front of a pass at the goal line and returned it 27 yards. Sullivan did finish with 193 yards passing, most coming after the game was decided.
"I really thought the defense played well," Forsyth said. "Their quarterback had some good stats and stuff. We were able to do pretty well against their offense.
"We played a couple of team that didn't spread it out like they do," continued the Linn-Mar coach. "We had a lot of respect for their offense. Our kids were really motivated playing against the top-ranked quarterback in the state."
Linn-Mar had a pair of running back go for over 100 yards. Junior Brennan McGaffe had 114 yards on 18 carries, including a 30-yard TD run on his first carry as a Lion.
"This was his first football game since ninth grade," Forsyth said of McGaffe. "He's a good kid and did a nice job for us."
Senior Zach Luehring ran for 153 yards on just six carries. He capped the Linn-Mar scoring with a 55-yard scamper early in the fourth quarter.
Now 1-2, Linn-Mar has a short week to prepare for Thursday's game against Washington at Kingston Stadium.
"This is really going to help us next week, getting ready for Wash," Phillips said. "This win gave us some momentum."
LINN-MAR 50, CLINTON 14
. CL LM
First downs 13 23
Rushes-yards 29-216 39-309
Passing yards 193 272
Comp-Att-Int 8-20-1 13-19-0
Fumbles-lost 6-4 0-0
Punts-avg. 4-28.0 3-43.0
Penalties-yards 8-81 5-50
Clinton 0 7 7 0 - 14
Linn-Mar 21 13 10 6 - 50
Scoring plays
LM - Brennan McGaffe 30 run (Austin Cochrane kick)
LM - Daniel Gorsich 58 pass from Reese Phillips (Cochrane kick)
LM - Gorsich 19 pass from Phillips (Cochrane kick)
LM - Gorsich 7 pass from Phillips (kick failed)
LM - Gorsich 10 pass from Phillips (Cochrane kick)
C - Gage Harris 75 run (Seth Bolen kick)
LM - Kirby Kerr 62 pass from Phillips (Cochrane kick)
C - Theo Harris 87 pass from Jonny Sullivan (Bolen kick)
LM - FG Cochrane 23
LM - Zach Luehring 55 run (kick blocked)
Individual statistics
Rushing
Clinton - Gage Harris 18-198, Jonny Sullivan 7-9, Theo Harris 1-2, Luke Larkin 1-(minus 11), Walker Chapman 1-18.
Linn-Mar - Brennan McGaffee 18-114, Zach Luehring 6-153, Reese Phillips 6-31, Daniel Gorsich 4-25, Josh Gassmann 2-0, Nolan Hollinger 3-(minus-14).
Passing
Clinton - Jonny Sullivan 8-20-1-193.
Linn-Mar - Reese Phillips 12-16-0-267, Nolan Hollinger 1-3-0-5.
Receiving
Clinton - Theo Harris 3-98, Gage Harris 2-22, Ty Wenzel 1-10, Sam McEleney 2-63.
Linn-Mar - Daniel Gorsich 8-151, Josh Gassmann 1-8, Brennan McGaffee 2-16, Kirby Kerr 2-97.
