When the rain started, Clinton went heavy.
In Friday’s 36-20 win at Woodruff, Clinton started the rainy second half with big linemen and converted linebackers serving as running blockers in the back field. Kadon Crawford operating in the wild devil and Tyshawan Richardson operating at the quarterback position accounted for the yardage and scores that gave Clinton the important Region 4 AAA win.
The victory sets up this coming week’s game against Chester, a winner over Emerald, likely for the Region Championship and important hosting status in the early rounds of the AAA State Playoffs.
Clinton improves to 6-2 on the season, wrapping two region wins around a bye week after a two-game non-region losing skid.
DJ Clark did the heavy lifting for Clinton mostly in the rain-free first half carrying the ball 13 times for 88 yards.
Clinton’s defense held Woodruff’s running game to 30 yards for the game.
Still, the host Wolverines’ passing attack, with just one major yardage catch and run, went for 270 yards, mostly in the first half.
“I’m proud of our coaches, proud of our kids and their resolve. They didn’t hesitate, they didn’t waiver, they scored, we scored,” Clinton Football Head Coach Corey Fountain said. “We went back and forth. We gave up some big plays in big down situations. We were able to get them off the field later on, but we didn’t execute on offense. Second half, we went to the heavy package that we put in this week, and we were able to hammer the ball without handing it off, direct snap, power right, power left, and go right at them and it was fun – it’s fun to punch people like that.”
Fountain commended DJ Clark for his running and the offensive line for “pounding the line of scrimmage - DJ did a good job sticking his nose in a hole, it wasn’t always a big hole, he would get 3 – 4 yards a clip and that’s what we needed to sustain drives tonight.”
Woodruff drew first blood with a scoring pass out of a punt formation. Then, for Clinton, Tray Cook’s long kickoff return and Zay Johnson’s scoring catch of a Richardson pass on the Red Devil’s first play from scrimmage knotted the game. After holding Woodruff on 4th down, Clinton found the end zone again on a Tray Cook from Richardson pass, a Richardson run, and Tray Cook running in the ball. Woodruff converted a 4th and 16 to the Clinton 16 on the first play of the 2nd quarter and managed a 31-yard field goal. Starting from its own 8, Clinton got a Zay Johnson catch to the Wolverines’ 16 and then a Javan Cook TD run, making the score 21-10.
But Woodruff clawed back – a 24-yard field goal with 1:26 before halftime. A Richardson run to the Woodruff 25-yard line with 14 seconds before halftime led to a field goal attempt, unsuccessful, with 6 seconds before the break.
Clinton got the ball to start the second half. With the passing game compromised by wet conditions, Clinton went heavy – and the fun that Coach Fountain talked about running right at the overwhelmed Wolverines. The Red Devils pushed the lead to 27-13 and held the ball for almost the entire third quarter. When Clinton failed to convert on a 4th and goal from the Woodruff 14, a Wolverine rally was stopped by a Zay Johnson interception, following by a Kadon Crawford touchdown and a Clinton safety on a botched Woodruff punt out of the end zone. Clinton couldn’t punch it in one more time on the ensuing possession, and Woodruff added a TD with 24 seconds on the game clock.
That sets up this coming weekend’s game against Chester, ranked #7 in the state in the SC Prep Media Football Poll – a poll where Clinton once stood at #2 in the state prior to two consecutive losses. For Chester, the trip to Wilder Stadium will be a revenge-seeker – the Red Devils won this game in 2022, 48-20, at Chester on their way to a 13-1 season and a trip to the Upper State Championship. This Red Devils team early on looked ready to duplicate that feat, before the injury bug struck midway through the non-region series. Slowly but surely, Clinton is starting to get some of those players back.
“We saw Chester against Woodruff, we have a film,” Fountain said of the Cyclones, a 48-16 home winner over the Emerald Vikings; in their other region wins, 8-1 Chester defeated Woodruff 44-6 and beat Union County 60-0, their only loss was to #7 in AAAA South Pointe (Rock Hill). The Clinton game will be Chester’s regular season finale, even as the Red Devils have a final game coming at Emerald (last week, Woodruff defeated Emerald on the game’s last play).
“Chester is a physical team. They’re fast. You’re not going to bust off a big play against Chester – you’re going to have to sustain drives and you’re going to have to execute and execute over and over again. On defense you’ve got to not give up big plays. You’ve got to get them off the field on third down.”
