Javen Cook’s touchdown run on the second play of the game and Tushawan Richardson’s 35-yard option run on the final Clinton play of the 3rd quarter – both coming after Blacksburg onside kicks – were key factors in the Red Devils’ dominating 61-14 Homecoming win Friday night.
Clinton finished the game with 605 yards of total offense.
Ry’Daijia Mars, representing girls’ basketball, was crowned the Homecoming Queen at Richardson Field, Wilder Stadium. Pre-game, Clinton honored 20 senior football players and their families.
Clinton, at 3-0, becomes Region 1, AA’s only undefeated in region play team (6-2 overall), with one region contest left to play.
Clinton gets to rest and heal this coming Friday with a bye week, before traveling to Liberty to end the regular season. The winner of this region keeps home field advantage in the playoffs for as long as it is winning.
Blacksburg’s first score, in the 3rd quarter, was sandwiched between Angelo Cromer’s scoring run, in an 11-play, 67-yard drive that dominated the quarter, and Richardson’s scoring scamper. The visiting Panthers added a 2-point conversion on that first score and a 4th quarter score. Clinton countered that final quarter score with AZ Simmons’ touchdown run with 8 minutes to play and reserve quarterback Owen Glenn’s score with 1 minute left on the game clock.
But Clinton Football Head Coach Corey Fountain said the 605 total yards was necessitated by the fact that the Red Devils were penalized 159 yards on 18 flags. Blacksburg lost 81 yards on 10 penalties.
The Red Devil running game ground down the Panthers’ defense with 53 attempts gaining 478 yards.
Passing, Clinton completed 5 of 12 for an additional 127 yards.
“It was a great job by our coaches, the plan we had coming into the game the players executed. I thought we got better as the game went on. It was awesome to get a lot of guys touchdowns (7 different players scored) - I thought the offensive line did a great job blocking. Defensively, we were shutting them out, and then we subbed some guys out because at the end of the game you want keep your starters fresh for the next game and you don’t want to get them hurt. We had a lot of guys come in. We had a lot of guys play on offense. We had a lot of guys play on defense.”
Quarterback Richardson and running back Rhett Gilliam both scored 2 touchdowns. Clinton’s offense went 6 for 7 in red zone scoring opportunities.
“The thing I didn’t like,” Fountain said, “in the first half, we were a little too undisciplined. We’ve got to shore that up on our offside penalties (and) some of the stuff extracurricular. To be a championship team, we’ve got to clean that up.”
The Red Devil defense snagged three interceptions.
Still, Blacksburg threw for 229 yards against Clinton’s secondary.
The team that Clinton will face Nov. 8, Liberty, was a 42-24 region winner against Landrum. Hurricane Helene postponed what would have been Clinton vs Liberty as the first Region 1, AA game of the season (Clinton also could not play a game against Union County, which would have been Homecoming and will not be made up).
Then, the state playoffs begin Nov. 15 as the SC High School League backed up the season’s end one week to make up some of the missed games, especially in region play, to determine playoff seedings.
