Yes, the high school football season kicked off on Thursday night, and Manchester and Clinton looked the part of two teams not yet in midseason form.

But the good outweighed the bad for the Flying Dutchmen as they defeated the Redskins 29-14 at Eastern Michigan's Rynearson Stadium to kick off the seventh annual Big Day Prep Showdown.

Trailing 14-13 at halftime, Manchester shut out the Redskins in the second half to claim its fifth straight victory in the 110th renewal of the rivalry.

More coverage: Boxscore at MLive.com | Photo Slideshow

Manchester coach Wes Gall said his offense, which was penalized five times, wasn't as far out of sync as it appeared.

“We dropped some balls that were right off the fingertips," he said. "I thought a couple of those blocks were clean. I’m going to have to watch film to see where we were holding,” Gall said.

Things couldn’t have started much better for Manchester. The defense stopped Clinton on its opening drive and a shanked punt gave the Dutchmen possession on the Clinton 18-yard line.

Junior quarterback Nate Bossory then connected with Josh Wilson on a fade route to the front corner of the end zone on Manchester’s first play from scrimmage.

Manchester took a 13-0 lead on a 22-yard Bossory pass to Devin Jose with 8 minutes, 45 seconds remaining in the half, but the lead and momentum would proved short-lived.

Clinton’s TJ Baker returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown and scored again later in the half, hauling in a 29-yard pass from Ben Dreslinski to give Clinton the lead with 1:37 remaining. Baker capped off an amazing second quarter with with an interception -- Bossory's second of the half -- in the end zone to stall a Manchester drive before halftime.

“We were down, I just wanted to get some points on the board,” said Baker, who finished with 222 all-purpose yards and was his team’s MVP of the game. ““Our game plan was to put pressure on (Bossory), mess his feet up and not let him get comfortable.”

After two trips to the Clinton red zone to begin the second half only yielded three points -- on a Tyler Stennett 25-yard field goal -- Manchester finally broke the game open with a 45-yard pass from Bossory to Jake Osborne with 5:48 remaining.

Down two scores with little time remaining, Clinton had to switch from its ball-control offense and attempted to air it out the rest of the way with little success. After a turnover on downs deep in Clinton territory, Nick Cozart sealed the game for Manchester with a 5-yard run.

“It’s a tough loss. We had them on the ropes, but big plays killed us," Baker said. "“I thought we actually did a good job with the game plan, a couple breakdowns really hurt us.”

Bossory finished 17-of-39 passing for 296 yards and three touchdowns. But with three interceptions on the night, he knows there's plenty to work on for the weeks to come.

“I didn’t throw the ball as well as I expected," Bossory said. “I was getting a lot of heat. A lot of times I was throwing it when I was getting some heat and I need to make better decisions and tuck the ball.”

The Manchester defense negated the offensive turnover woes, forcing five Clinton fumbles and recovering three.

Contact Pete Cunningham at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.