Clinton’s 36 first half points, including a touchdown and 2-point conversion both by Graydon Watkins with 17 seconds before halftime, were far too much for visiting Liberty to overcome in the first round of the AA state playoffs.
Clinton added a Bryland James score on the first possession of the 2nd half on its way to a decisive 63-30 win over “the other” Red Devils, the ones from Liberty.
Clinton rode senior running back Angelo Cromer’s 147 rushing yards on 15 carries and 3 touchdowns to the win-and-move-on victory. The Red Devils ran 36 Power four consecutive times to score the first touchdown of the game, in tribute to Clinton Football Championship Coach Andy B. Young, III, who passed away on Wednesday.
When the Red Devils prepare to take their home field, their intro includes Coach Young’s voice intoning, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
This was an emotional time - Clinton Football Head Coach Corey Fountain said, “That pre-game talk, it hits a little different (this time) when you hear that pre-game intro. We are missing Coach Andy B. Young here tonight, watching. He always brought a standard that was going to be disciplined football, you’re going to get after it, and you’re going to win with class; and we’re trying to carry on that tradition that was established by Coach Richardson and Coach Young.
“We’re trying to keep that tradition going.”
Fountain said on the first drive, he didn’t want to keep signaling Power because the opponent would figure out the signal and know the play – “we just wanted to Xerox it” and keep running Power as a tribute to Coach Young.
Clinton also has lost veteran coach Bill Rhodes and former player and “The Pride of Clinton” author Monte Dutton this season.
“I’m proud of our guys tonight,” Fountain said. “We gave them those first two scores. I was a little frustrated. I didn’t like how many penalties we had tonight (14 for 127 yards) – we’re going to have to clean that up. But, overall, we played hard, we played physical football. Some of the penalties we got early on, on offense, were because we were being physical. We just have to continue to be physical.”
Now, Clinton travels to region foe Southside Christian this coming Friday in the AA 2nd round – the Region Champion Sabres won the region season matchup by 4 points over Clinton. “There’s not many chances in life when you get a re-do – we get a re-do versus Southside Christian. We’ve got to be ready to rock-n-roll.”
Southside Christian earned a bye this week as the overall #2 seed in the Upstate playoffs, by virtue of being the Region 2 champions (undefeated Mid-Carolina, of Prosperity in Newberry County, is the overall #1 seed).
This was the first time since 2022 that Clinton was undefeated at home for the season, at 6-0. The Red Devils likely will not host another playoff game this season, improving to 7-4 overall, because they are the lowest seeded team still left in their bracket.
Liberty’s defense was unable to stop a Clinton offense clicking on all cylinders – Clinton was 8 for 8 in the Red Zone.
Clinton ran 52 plays to gain 506 yards, while holding Liberty which played the game without a traditional quarterback to 271 total yards and 5 of 11 on 3rd down conversions.
Liberty’s offense was Orion Spence’s 92 yards and Cullen Spence’s 90 yards rushing. Spence also caught a 41-yard TD pass.
Clinton countered with Cromer’s 147 and a 31-yard catch and Cam Croft’s 83 yards, Owen Glenn’s 73 yards, and Rhett Gilliam’s 66 yards on the ground. Watkins was a triple threat – catching 2 passes for 22 yards, returning a punt for 31 yards and hauling in 2 kickoff returns for 52 yards.
Six different Clinton Red Devils scored touchdowns in the playoffs, 1st round win.
This time against Southside Christian, Clinton will be without the services of Demajia Crooks (injury), who had a monster game against the Sabres. But the team has several players back now who did not see previous action against Southside Christian. It is Clinton's 2nd trip this season to the opponent's Simpsonville field.
On Saturday Morning Rewind, Coach Fountain remembered attending Clinton's 2009 State Championship win over a powerful Myrtle Beach squad, never suspecting that someday he would lead the Red Devils into action (this is his 9th season in Clinton).
That Andy B. Young-coached team was simply "relentless, they really got after it," Fountain said. "They were the team that nobody wanted to play.
"That's the kind of team we want to be."
