Clinton Punishes the Panthers.
Clinton's run-dominated offense rolled for more than 600 yards in a 55-20 Friday night win over Batesburg-Leesville, in a non-region tune-up to THE BIG GAME this Friday at home against Laurens.
Bryson James' two 3rd quarter touchdowns against the tiring Panthers' defense to put the game away at 48-20. B-L had hung around with an 80-yard kickoff return touchdown, and an interception on a screen pass touchdown. A senior running back and outside linebacker, and team captain, James racked up 159 yards on 8 carries. Do the math - that's 19.9 yards per carry against a Panthers-busting offensive line.
Clinton Football Head Coach Corey Fountain said. "I thought we started kinda slow, gave up a big play, kinda got complacent and gave up a big play on special teams, turnover on offense, first half we just shot ourselves in the foot. They're a good football team, too; give a lot of credit to Coach (Greg) Lawson. He'll have those guys ready to go for the rest of the year.
"I'm just proud of the offensive line, proud of how they blocked all night long. Proud of how the backs blocked for each other; some of those holding pernalties were because our outside guys were giving a lot of effort and they were taking guys to the ground, and that's what we want to see. We're not going to tell them to stop being aggressive because that's what we want to see; we want to punch people in the mouth every time. We want our receivers doing that, we want our backs doing that, and we want our offensive line doing that. We just have to keep it going, keep our hands inside, but I'm not going to fuss at them for being aggressive."
James scored 4 touchdowns on the ground for Clinton. Austin Copeland managed the offense well at quarterback, before giving way to junior Bryce Young in the 4th quarter. Copeland connected with Christopher Young, senior wide receiver, for a passing TD with 7:53 before halftime to stake Clinton to a 33-14 lead. B-L scored its 20th point on a pass play with 5 minutes to go before halftime.
Clinton broke a school record for first downs with 29 in the game.
Coming up this Friday, the 2022 Red Devils will play host to the 1972 State Champion Red Devils for their Golden Anniversary. That team's coach - Hall of Famer Keith Richardson - will be the special guest Saturday morning on WPCC's Saturday Morning Rewind from Whiteford's restaurant, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary.
The Golden Anniversary celebration will be at halftime in Wilder Stadium on Richardson Field.
