It’s homecoming week for Clinton

October 23, 2019 by Collin Riggs

There are two big games this week as Clinton hosts Campbell County and Anderson County travels to Ooltewah to face off against East Hamilton. Both are region games.

Clinton’s Friday night tilt is also homecoming for the Dragon faithful.

Clinton hopes to find the first win of the season against Campbell County, who’s had mixed success this year and is currently sitting at 4-4. Campbell County won games against Seymour, Carter, Cocke, and Karns, but dropped by double digits against stronger opponents such as Oak Ridge, Gibbs and Powell.

While Campbell County currently sits at 29th in its division and 156th in the state, its district record is 1-3, only slightly better than Clinton’s 0-4.

Campbell County is favorite for the game, scoring an average of 16 points per game to Clinton’s nine. Still, with Clinton coming off its bye week, the Dragons should be refreshed and ready to slug it out, and, with the home-field advantage, stands a strong chance against the Cougars.

Anderson County, meanwhile, makes the long trek to Ooltewah on Friday to face the East Hamilton Hurricanes. The teams are a strong matchup against one another, with the Mavericks sitting at 7-1 to the Hurricanes 6-2. Both teams are undefeated within the district and the game will also determine whether Anderson County receives home-field advantage for the playoffs, making the game even more important.

Anderson County has scored an average of 43 points per game, while East Hamilton has scored an average of 42.

Mavericks Coach Davey Gillum said the team is looking forward to the game.

“This is maybe the second-best team we’ve played this year, right behind Powell,” he said. “They’re definitely one of the better-coached teams we’ve played against.”

This will be the team’s second game back after the bye week. The first week back showed a strong win against Chattanooga Central, but Gillum said he’s happy with how the team returned after its time off.

“We took a whole week off. There were some itty-bitty mistakes here and there,” said Gillum. “Everybody played hard, but we had some dropped snaps, which we don’t usually have.

“We had some busted coverage, which we usually don’t have.”