Owen Glenn’s electrifying 80-yard run to pay dirt as the 3rd quarter time expired deflated the Newberry Bulldogs for the 4th quarter of a close contest, and led to Clinton’s 39-28 win Friday at Mike Ware Field.
Playing for the 100th time, Clinton brought the CNNGA belt back to Red Devil Nation, after a Bulldogs’ team that finished last season 12-1 took it at Wilder Stadium.
A senior quarterback. Glenn finished his work in the season’s second game with 129 yards rushing, 73 yards passing, and 92 yards punting. He was named the Player of the Game by on-site media on behalf of the Clinton-Newberry Natural Gas Authority. The Academic Player of the Game for Clinton was Lincoln Alexander.
Because Newberry is a more quarterback-centric team, the Bulldogs’ stellar sophomore signal-caller Sincerer Glymph had a little better stat line - running for 122 yards, passing for 137 yards, and punting for 107 yards. But the only stat that really matters is on the scoreboard.
Clinton improves to 2-0, Newberry falls to 1-2, and the Red Devils travel this Friday to 3-0 Chapman, to face a pass-centric team and former region foe playing at Inman. This past Friday was a Top 10 2A clash – the high school football media ranks Clinton the #2 team in the state and Newberry the #9 team in the state.
About his Red Devils, Head Coach Corey Fountain said, “I thought they were really resilient. We got moved back in the first half, our guys didn’t blink, they understood what the process was going to be, just like last week. We kept moving forward, made some mistakes, turned the ball over … we just have to keep getting better week after week.”
Young players had to come through, on the road, against a tough opponent; and Coach Fountain said, “Our kids, if one guy went down, another guy stepped up. I thought (the young players) did a great job. We’ve got only 5 returning starters from last year, and one of them wasn’t available, so we had guys step up and step in. That’s what a football team does.”
Angelo Cromer – 152 yards rushing the week before against Laurens and the Laurens County Touchdown Club’s Player of the Week – was a game-time decision because of an injury.
Fountain knew his squad was going to face a hungry bunch of Bulldogs at Newberry. “That’s a team that gave up 70 points (last week at Emerald). You know they’ve been hearing their coaches in their ear all week long about what they had to do tonight.”
Clinton faces a different kind of, but still familiar, opponent this coming Friday, at Chapman. Fountain said, “It will be different from this week. (Newberry is) run heavy from the quarterback; Chapman will throw. We’re going to have to get a good pass rush.”
Newberry started badly, fumbling the opening kickoff; and after a Clinton recovery, A’javian James found the end zone for Clinton’s first points. Newberry bounced back with a scoring pass. Glenn scored his first touchdown on a 4th and 2, and Graydon Watkins added a pick-six for Clinton. After Newberry worked the ball down to a 1st and goal with 5:39 before halftime, a Caleb Gary sack and a Watkins interception turned the Bulldogs away.
Clinton drove, but an interception ended the threat, and Newberry drove for another score. Cam Croft rambled 47 yards for the TD with just 2:30 before the half, as Clinton widened the score to 27-14. A Joshua Winbush sack stopped Newberry’s last drive of the first half. Newberry hit pay dirt again as the 2nd half began. But Clinton took the air of the ball with a monster 10-play, 62-yard drive that took 6 minutes and 16 seconds off the 3rd quarter clock. It ended with a dropped-in-on-a-dime 30-yard Glenn to Watkins scoring pass.
Newberry would not go away, scoring again inside a minute left to play in the 3rd quarter.
On the next possession, Glenn gave control of the game to Clinton with his 80-yard TD ramble (the 2 pt conversion attempt failed).
Clinton still has work to do in cleaning up its penalties. The Red Devils were flagged 13 times for 131 yards, while Newberry was flagged just 3 times for 24 yards.
After Glymph, Newberry’s next top runner was Ty Abrahms with 17 yards.
After Glenn, Clinton’s next top runner was Cam Croft with 51 yards. Bryland James was the workhorse, 11 carries for 49 yards. He also gained 53 yards on kick returns.
Bulldogs’ QB Glymph was responsible for all 4 TDs – 1 passing and 3 rushing.
Clinton jumped out to a 20-7 1st quarter lead in this road contest.
On the road again this Friday, Clinton faces a 3A, Region 3 opponent with 3 wins under their belts – 26-6 over Eastside, 61-6 over Walhalla, and 27-13 over Seneca. Their Sept. 18 opponent is Woodruff, which is Clinton’s Oct. 30 (region, regular-season finale) opponent.
Unlike Clinton in 2A, Chapman is unranked in State 3A (but they are in “others receiving votes”).
