Woodruff scorched the Clinton defense for 40 points and 479 yards of total offense in the non-region opener for both teams.
Clinton tallied 36 points of its own, erasing a 13-point halftime deficit and out-gaining the visitors with 488 yards of total offense. The Backyard Brawl between two long standing rivals, literally, came down to who had the ball last – Clinton missed on a 4th and 1 from Woodruff’s 17-yard line on a pass into the end zone with 19 seconds left to play.
Red Devil signal caller Tushawan Richardson led home-standing Clinton with 14 runs for 147 yards and 6 pass completions in 14 attempts for 119 yards. Javen Cook turned in the play of the game with a punt block which led to Clinton taking a lead with 3:17 left in the 3rd quarter. It was a lead the Red Devils could not hold.
“I take the blame for this loss. I didn’t have our guys ready to execute the way we needed to execute and there was plenty of chances for us to execute on first down, in the red zone and we weren’t able to get that done,” Clinton football head coach Corey Fountain said. “We got down two scores before the half, and I talked to them in the locker room about we have scored plenty more points than that. The guys came out, we got some things going, we got the momentum going our way; but it’s a game of inches and we were just a couple of inches off tonight.
“We were able to come back but not enough tonight. We want them to sting. We want that (loss) to sting a little bit and carry that over into practice this week and stay fired up about next week against Laurens.”
The Wilder Stadium crowd saw official Tommy C. Stribble officiate his 700th game, with an officiating crew he handpicked. One of the crew was Clinton’s Truman Owens, a Hall of Famer who handled the pre-game coin toss. Just before kickoff, the officiating crew surrounded Owens and bowed their heads for The Lord’s Prayer, on the C and Pitchfork of Richardson Field’s 50-yard line. At halftime, the Clinton High boys’ tennis teams of the early ‘70s were honored for their 4 consecutive state championships – 3 with Keith Richardson as coach and 1 with Andy B. Young as coach. The teams will hold their 50th reunion dinner tonight at the high school.
In football game action, Clinton was true to its offensive philosophy running the ball 58 times to gain 369 yards and grind out 22 first downs. Woodruff ran the ball 33 times to gain 276 yards and completed 15 passes in 22 attempts for 203 more.
The August 30 games for both teams will be against nearby foes – Clinton plays host to Laurens and Woodruff travels to Fountain Inn. The all-time record between Clinton and Woodruff now stands at 55-27-1 in the Red Devils’ favor; Clinton won last season, 36-20.
