Angelo Cromer’s 4 touchdowns – 2 running, 1 receiving, 1 scooping up a fumble – paced the Clinton Red Devils to a 61-6 Homecoming win Friday night against a depleted Union County team that earned minus 21 yards of total offense.
Cromer’s 99 yards on the ground was supplemented by Cam Croft’s 92 yards rushing. Owen Glenn completed 4 of 10 passes to add 86 yards, and 2 touchdowns passing, to the Clinton’s totals. Glenn and reserve quarterback Elijah Lomax both tosses 50-yard scoring passes.
The Red Devils scored all 61 of their points in the first 3 quarters of play.
Clinton got the bad taste out of their mouths from losing last week at Chapman, getting off early, surviving a long half-time and a lightning delay and, eventually as the running clock ran out, taking a knee just outside the Union County endzone.
“Every coach turned up the volume on their position,” Clinton Football Head Coach Corey Fountain said, “and we really had a good game plan. I thought our coaches did a great job of preparing our young men. Our young men responded to having their manhood challenged. Every day this week somebody challenged them, and they responded. We still put the ball on the ground a little too much. I think there were less penalties, not sure (9 flags for 85 yards), it seemed like it was, but it wasn’t a lot of dumb penalties like it’s been. We improved in that area.”
Fountain said the Red Devils will keep turning up the volume. “There’s a lot of things we can still improve on, and that’s not a bad thing – that’s a good thing. We got that lightning delay right after they did the Homecoming court, so I was really worried because every one of our guys practiced hard, and they’ve been practicing hard, this week and I wanted them to get a taste of playing in Wilder Stadium, Richardson Field, and get that crowd. (After the lightning) we didn’t have a crowd, but we brought our own juice in the second half. We started out fast in the second half and didn’t let up; we wanted to get that 42-point lead so there would be a running clock and we did.”
Fountain, now in his 8th season with the Red Devils and with a 75% games-won margin, said about prepping for each week that it is important for the players to understand “what they represent. Homecoming tonight, and we talked about that before the game. It is Homecoming. A lot of people came before you to set the tradition of the C and pitchfork. And, it better mean something to you. You’d better bring the juice when you come out here on Friday night, because you represent everybody who put gas in their car and bought tickets for the whole family to see you play.
“We want to make sure we represent the C and pitchfork the way we need to represent it.”
Clinton showcased its running Friday night, against a very young Union County team.
The offense ran the ball 38 times for 375 yards and passed for 136 yards, which included 2 50-yard scoring passes.
The 49 Red Devil plays went for 511 yards.
The Yellow Jackets’ 40 plays went for minus 21 yards.
That was minus 39 on the ground and 18 through the air on 6 of 24 passing.
Clinton’s defense held Union County to 1 of 12 on 3rd down conversion attempts.
Cromer ran the ball just 8 times but went for nearly 100, in a game when the starters came out early in the 3rd quarter and, basically, the JV team took over with the running clock. There was no Thursday night JV game because Union County cannot field a junior varsity team.
Camden Gregory started Clinton’s touchdown parade, following a fumble recovery. Cromer caught a pass from senior QB Glenn for the second touchdown.
After a Graydon Watkins interception, Clinton lost a fumble, but Union County fumbled a punt attempt. Mason Snider then scored on a Glenn toss, as the first quarter ended. Cam Croft scored for Clinton on a 60-yard run on the first play of the second quarter. Then came Cromer’s fumble scoop-and-score.
After Clinton blocked a Union County punt, Cromer ran for another touchdown. Union County scored on a 96-yard kickoff return by speedster Sondrell Worthy, who amassed 151 return yards on 4 attempts – the Yellow Jackets’ 9 kickoff returns went for a total of 255 yards. Red Devil junior Damajia Crooks scored from 6 yards out to run the score to 47-6, Clinton.
Coming out of halftime, and the lightning delay, Clinton was 1 point away from forcing a running clock.
Cromer took care of that with a scoring run, and a Lomax to Jay Taylor pass (two freshmen connecting) pushed Clinton up to 61 points.
It was one of Clinton’s highest points-scored totals ever (110 seasons of playing football).
Clinton scored 87 points against Cross Anchor in 1926 – 63 points vs Palmetto in 2021 is the largest victory margin in the Fountain era (*stat from Game Notes by Patrick Nelson).
Clinton scored 60 points last season against a rebuilding Union County squad.
The Red Devils, 3-1 and the #6 team in 2A in the high school football media poll, now turn their attention to their final pre-region game, this coming Friday at Batesburg-Leesville, 0-4 with a Friday loss to Gilbert. The Devils stay on the road against Southside Christian Oct. 2 and Chesnee Oct. 9, before returning to Wilder Stadium for Coach Bill Rhodes Night on Oct. 16, against Mountain Valley Prep. A reception is planned for the gym adjacent to Wilder Stadium, 6 – 7 p.m.; and a halftime announcement of a Bill and Judy Rhodes Scholarship is expected at halftime.
