Kam Stout 'saw the green grass,' didn't look back in 7th Claymont win
· Yahoo Sports
WEST LAFAYETTE — Kamden Stout sat on the mat at the 2026 Division II state wrestling tournament at Ohio State writhing in pain, just 20 seconds into his finals match.
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His knee was wrecked, the result of a misstep in the first minute after locking up with Columbus DeSales' Joel Welch.
The sophomore's championship dream was dashed, but his spirits were not. Before he knew how serious the injury was — though it was heavily speculated that is was, indeed, a significant injury — he vowed to return for his junior football season.
He did so in just five months following rehab. And those championship dreams are still intact.
Stout’s 78–yard kickoff return in the third quarter broke a scoreless tie with host Ridgewood and marked the biggest play of a 14-8 win that kept the Mustangs tied atop the Inter-Valley Conference’s South Division standings.
'Knew we needed a big play'
Stout's return, which left what seemed like half of West Lafayette and Plainfield in his wake, was anything but run-of-the-mill. His legs covered some 120 yards of AstroTurf, outrunning the angles of defenders until there were none left.
"I just saw the green grass, and I knew we needed a big play. It was going to open up the game, so I just went for it," Stout said.
It was one of the few highlights in a defensive slog for 30 minutes and one of the Generals' few special teams mistakes in a game Wyatt Marlatt's punting usually kept them in positive field position.
In this case, Stout ran toward the sideline as the right-side return man to retrieve the bouncing ball, then redirected and outran everyone against the grain.
"The gunner was down the field, and I saw everybody start crashing right," Stout recalled. "I went left and it was just all green, all the way to the end zone. ... I could feel it — I was gassed."
In a throwback game reminiscent of 1980s football than the current brand with both defenses controlling things, Stout's return changed the complexity.
It came after two foiled General possessions near midfield resulted in punts, the result of their inability to solve the Mustangs ferocious front four.
"We were going to pin them deep again," Ridgewood coach John Slusser lamented. "I think he picked it up around the (20-yard line). A game like that, we had the field position. We've got a good field-goal kicker and I thought we were in a good place, you know? It was a back-breaker."
It stayed 6-0 until Ridgewood's defense finally broke early in the fourth, when Stout and Dre'Vonn Searcy carried eight times on an 86-yard scoring drive that chewed up almost six minutes. Facing third-and-3 from the 6, Searcy outran Ridgewood to the far pylon to provide the deciding touchdown with 7:14 left.
The 14-0 lead, after the two-point conversion, had the feel of a much larger deficit. Andrew Kinsey's leaping 25-yard touchdown pass — on a near-perfectly lofted throw from Wyatt Marlatt — and Bryce Tolliver's ensuing two-point conversion run got the Generals within six at the 1:08 mark.
A failed onsides kick all but sealed it.
"We believe we can beat anybody," Stout said. "That's out motto: 'This year we can beat anybody.' So we came in here with a lot of energy, a lot more energy than they did. I think they thought they were going to beat us, and we walked in here and played a good game."
The gauntlet begins
It was Claymont’s first step in a four-game IVC firestorm that also includes upcoming games against defending state champion Indian Valley and Garaway, following a Week 8 battle with Tuscarawas Valley.
After six straight victories against teams with six between them, the conquest against Slusser’s Generals (4-2), a longtime IVC nemesis of the Mustangs, was one that exorcised the ghosts of past failures.
Claymont hadn’t beaten Wood since a 41-36 win in Week 9 of 2017, a season it finished 8-2 but missed the postseason. Coach Buddy White couldn’t remember the last time the program had started 7-0 — if ever.
They've made the playoffs only twice, another streak that seems all but primed to end in 2026.
"I'm so excited," White said. "I'm so excited that I'm excited for the kids. They're experiencing something that I don't think any other Claymont team has experienced. I'll tell you this: If we get into the playoffs, we're going to win some games."
That was the end of his praise.
White was frustrated — during the game and after — in his team's inability to adapt to a tightly called game with little-to-no leeway for post-whistle extra curriculars. Claymont was called for eight penalties for 85 yards and whistled for three 15-yarders that were offsetting.
At one point, White called timeout in the third quarter to dress down his team for their lack of poise.
"If they're throwing flags every time you say something, then you've got to respect that and shut up," White said. "That's why I say — and I mean no disrespect to them — that we played down. We kept killing our own drives."
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Kam Stout 'saw the green grass,' didn't look back in 7th Claymont win