‘Road Warriors’ travel to Soddy-Daisy
The Clinton High School Dragons (4-6) used two straight wins over Campbell County and Karns to lock up the Region 3-5A four seed in the TSSAA 5A Playoffs.
Clinton will travel this Friday to face the Region 4-5A Champions — Soddy-Daisy High School (5-4).
The Dragons find themselves in post-season play for the first time since 2015, but have a tough road ahead of them. Do not let their record fool you, Soddy-Daisy is a quality football team.
The Trojans’ main issue during the regular season was consistency. The Trojans’ earned the top seed by a tiebreaking win over Knoxville Catholic, yet lost to an average Lenoir City team.
Also, Soddy-Daisy played some quality out-of-region opponents this year — Bradley Central, Ooltewah, and Signal Mountain — all of which beat the Trojans. Soddy-Daisy is a good football team, but the Trojans are also a beatable football team.
Neither team are constantly high powered offensively. Soddy-Daisy averages 23.2 points a game, while Clinton averages 19.6 points a game. Both have scored well above their averages multiple times this season, but both have been shut out as well. The only major significant difference scoring wise, is that the Trojans average 13 points in the first quarter. Clinton only averages five points in the first quarter. The Dragons have come back from deficits before, but getting behind early in the school’s first playoff game in three years in far from ideal.
Last week, Clinton accomplished something that the Dragons have rarely been able to do—have two 100-plus yard rushers. Senior running backs Josh Breeden and Reagan Mckamey posted 100-plus yard performances, and had two touchdowns each. Without senior Isiah Washington, both Breeden and Mckamey need to have similar performances if Washington is not available on Friday. Clinton rushed for an impressive 470 yards against the Beavers last week. If the Clinton offense can establish the ground game early against the Trojans, they will be in good shape for an upset. “We are going to move the football against anybody we play, it doesn’t matter who our opponent is—we are moving the football,” said head coach Randy Mckamey.
However, defensively, on paper, Soddy-Daisy has a clear advantage over Clinton. The Dragons’ opponents are averaging 34 points per game. While Soddy-Daisy is giving up only 15.5 points per game. Clinton has struggled to stop the pass all season, and gave up 223 yards and three touchdowns through the air against Karns last week. The Dragons’ secondary has to be better this week. If the Trojans stay run-heavy, it plays into the strengths of Clinton’s defense. However, last week Karns was six-for-eight on third down conversions. Clinton’s defense has to find a way to get some stops and get off the field. They failed to force one punt last week, which forced the offense to score on most of their possessions. Do not expect the offense to be able to score religiously like last week, because Soddy-Daisy is a bigger and better football team than Karns.
For Clinton, especially for the seniors, making it to the playoffs and getting to play this Friday feels great—nobody wants the season to end. However, if the Dragons do not show up ready for a battle, Soddy-Daisy could chalk up an easy win. It is important to remember, Clinton faced the two top ranked teams in 5A football—Fulton and Oak Ridge. The Trojans are nowhere near that kind of elite, top tier caliber team. “We go down there and we steal a win, because (Soddy-Daisy) is probably overlooking a number four seed. Hopefully we can get on them early, and get them to panic,” said Mckamey. If the Dragons can keep penalties to a minimum, get some stops defensively, and keep it close for four quarters, like last week—grinding out an upset over Soddy-Daisy is completely possible.