It was the hook and lateral, with no lateral.
Devin Swindler’s touchdown catch and run with 6:33 left on the game clock on December 6, 2024, will go down as legendary in the storied history of Clinton High Football.
Swindler had permission to just take it on into the end zone, if the Fairfield Central corner was playing off him – and that’s just what he did, cementing a 32-21 win that gives Clinton a chance – this Thursday – to play for its 9th State Championship.
It's been since 2009 since Clinton has been in this position.
Clinton was clinging to a 25-21 lead when Tushawan Richardson connected with Swindler, on a play designed for Swindler to lateral the ball to a trailing teammate.
He didn’t need to.
The mid-4th quarter score set up a dramatic finish in which Fairfield Central – 12-2 on the season, failed on a 4th and 12 pass with 3:06 left to play, and Clinton knew it could run out the clock.
Clinton improves to 11-2 on the season. The team the Red Devils will play for the AA State Championship – the Barnwell Warhorses – are 13-1. They have won 10 games in a row.
Clinton has won 8 games in a row.
The last time Barnwell lost was to AAAA South Aiken, on Sept. 13.
The last time Clinton lost was to AAAA Daniel, on Sept. 20.
Barnwell has played more games because Clinton’s game against Union County was cancelled in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Barnwell defeated Manning, 37-14, to punch their ticket for the state title attempt. The Warhorses average about 30 points per game on offense and surrender just 10 points per game on defense.
The State Championship game will kick off 3 days of elite competition among SC high school football teams, at 2 p.m. this Thursday at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.
Clinton Football Head Coach Corey Fountain said, “First of all, we want to thank God. He’s the reason we do what we do. We want to give him the glory, honor, and praise. Awesome job by our kids, our fans; we talked about who’s gonna want it more. It's 32 degrees at the start of the game. You’ve got to have some grit. You’ve got to have great effort and great toughness.”
Talking about his team’s resilience, Fountain said, “All year long, all these other guys from these other teams have been getting North-South accolades. They’ve been getting player of the year accolades. There’s two guys on that team (Fairfield Central) with offensive player of the year and defensive player of the year. We’ve got a helluva ball club, and we’ve got a group of guys who play together as a team.”
It was anything but easy for Clinton.
First of all, the weather – by game’s end the temperature on Richardson Field at Wilder Stadium was 27 degrees.
Next, they needed all the offense they could muster, including 3 100-yard runners – Rhett Gilliam with 109 yards, Tushawan Richardson with 102, and Javen Cook with 101. Swindler caught 2 passes for 82 yards.
Richardson completed 3 of 5 passes for 104 yards and 2 touchdowns - the 4th quarter one to Swindler and the Red Devils’ opening score to DJ Clark. Clinton got great field position for that opening drive as the Fairfield Central kicker kept booting the ball out of bounds.
After Clinton missed a field goal, Fairfield Central settled in and drove for a touchdown. Then, the game changed.
Clinton scored twice inside 1:10 left in the first half. Rhett Gilliam powered in on offense, and Austin Boyd ran in a scoop and score fumble on the ensuing kickoff.
On the Gilliam scoring drive, Clinton had to overcome several penalties – one took a touchdown run off the board and another negated a long pass.
Fairfield Central saw a touchdown taken off the board by an illegal procedure penalty with 20 seconds left before halftime. Clinton held on 4th down with 1 second left before the break.
Fairfield Central tallied the only score of the 3rd quarter, but Richardson scored on the first play of the 4th quarter.
Fairfield Central converted a 4th and 2 on its next drive, aided by a Clinton penalty for a late hit, and pushed the ball to the Red Devil 2 before scoring. That made it 25-21, Clinton’s favor, and set the stage for Swindler’s score and the Griffins’ failure to score in the final 6:33 of the game.
Riding a 12-game winning streak coming into the Clinton game – the Griffins lost their season opener to AAAAA Ridge View and didn’t lose again until Friday night - Fairfield Central ran 51 plays to gain 370 yards. Clinton ran 48 plays to gain 424 yards.
Clinton’s next opponent, Barnwell, is the AA Region 5 champion, and advanced to its win against Manning by a 28-27 win over Cheraw, in Lower State AA play. Clinton’s trip to the Upper State Championship game – the first at Wilder Stadium since 1994 – came on a 31-14 win over AA #1 Batesburg-Leesville, the Panthers’ only loss of the season.
