Here comes the ... BOOM!

Dragons score 41 on the road against William Blount

August 25, 2021 by Dan McWilliams Special to The Courier News

The Clinton Dragons bolted out to a 33-0 halftime lead, survived a shaky third quarter, and went on to defeat host William Blount 41-23 in their season opener Friday at Mike White Field.

The Dragons’ lead had frittered away to 33-16 in the third quarter when they made a crucial fourth-down stop, then went on a drive of more than 8 minutes to put the game away.

Clinton quarterback Joshuah Keith ran for one touchdown and threw a 72-yard bomb to Jeremiah Blauvelt for another score. Keith finished 4-for-6 for 125 yards. Rodayvien Truss returned an interception 81 yards for the Dragons’ fifth TD of the first half.

Connor Moody led a nine-person Dragon rushing attack with 52 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. Elijah Batiste added 47 yards on nine attempts, and William Taylor rushed six times for 32 yards and scored the Dragons’ big fourth-quarter touchdown. Backup quarterback Trace Thackerson made plays with his feet and threw three completions in four tries for 39 yards.

“We’re still learning how to win,” said Dragons head Coach Darell Keith. “We’ve got to learn how to stomp out our opponents. We haven’t gotten there yet. We’ve got to learn how to put our foot on the jugular. They did respond to adversity, and we came out victorious. I’m so proud of them.”

Keith said it was the fourth-down stop that was the key to the win, not the 8-minute drive.

“When we stopped them on fourth-and-one, that was the turning point. That’s when we regained momentum,” he said.

After William Blount’s kicker sent the opening boot of the game through the end zone, the Dragons went on a 13-play, 80-yard drive for a touchdown.

Taylor made a 10-yard run for one first down, and Truss caught a 17-yard pass from Keith to move the sticks again.

Blauvelt had a 10-yard reception, and Moody ran 9 yards to set up first-and-goal at the 4-yard line.

Erreese King ran the ball in two plays later from the 1, and Ryan Bradley’s extra-point kick gave Clinton a 7-0 lead. The drive took 6 minutes, 50 seconds, off the clock.

Helped by a Truss tackle that stopped a player for no gain, Clinton forced a three-and-out on the Governors’ first possession, got the ball back on a punt, and struck quickly for a score. A holding penalty made it second-and-21 from the 28-yard line, but quarterback Keith found a wide-open Blauvelt over the middle, and the tall Dragon receiver easily completed the 72-yard touchdown play. The extra-point kick was blocked, leaving Clinton up 13-0, a lead they would hold to the end of the first quarter.

Three Hollifield tackles on the next William Blount possession led to another punt.

Clinton took over at its own 30 and put together a 10-play drive that ate up 6:22 off the clock. Receiver Andy King made a 16-yard run. Keith overcame a sack to throw a 26-yard pass to King. Taylor ran 12 yards and Moody 10, and Moody finished the drive with an 11-yard touchdown run. The extra point was blocked again, but the Dragons led 19-0 with 5:27 left in the half.

Another three-and-out for the Governors, who saw Hollifield sack quarterback Matthew Clemmer for a 4-yard loss, brought on what would be a disastrous punt. The William Blount kicker’s missile struck a teammate only 8 yards away, and the Dragons got the ball at that spot: the Governors’ 33-yard line.

Clinton wasted little time. Receiver Lucas Kendall ran 21 yards on second-and-10, fighting through tacklers for the last few yards. Keith ran 4 yards to set up first-and-goal at the 2, and the Dragon QB called his own number on the next play for a 2-yard touchdown, almost getting tackled short of the goal line but reaching the ball over for the score. Moody’s two-point conversion run put the Dragons up 27-0.

Clemmer completed two 18-yard passes to help move the Governors to the Dragon 23-yard line, but Truss stepped in front of a Clemmer pass at the Dragon 19 and motored 81 yards with the interception for a touchdown. The two-point conversion failed, but the Dragons were ahead 33-0 going into the half.

William Blount moved the ball 70 yards on 14 plays to start the second half, collecting their first score on a Clemmer 5-yard pass to Brandon Keeble. Job Matossian’s extra point cut the Dragon lead to 33-7.

Clinton lost a fumble on the first play of its next series, and the Governors took over at the Dragon 25. Keith left the game with a leg injury after the fumble but would return. Three plays later, the home team was in the end zone again, this time on a 6-yard pass from Clemmer to Matossian. The latter’s extra-point kick made it a 33-14 game.

Nigel Lee made a 21-yard kickoff return for Clinton, then caught a 13-yard screen pass to start the Dragons’ next drive. Big trouble, however, would ensue when Clinton was forced to punt. The snap to punter Blaine Collins went awry, and Collins kicked the loose ball out of the end zone for safety. The play caused a 37-yard hit on the Dragons’ rushing stats, but it averted worse calamities and left the score at 33-16.

The Governors and their fans were riding high, but Clinton then made the play it needed to stop the momentum. William Blount had two incomplete passes, but made a 9-yard pass on third-and-10, although Chase Glandon and Hollifield hurried quarterback Clemmer into making the pass. That set up fourth-and-one at the Dragon 47, and that’s when the Clinton defense made the play of the game. The entire Dragon line stopped Clemmer’s run, and the ball went over on downs to Clinton.

Taking over at their own 47 with 2:18 left in the third quarter, the Dragons ran off 13 plays for a touchdown. Keith returned to the game after Trace Thackerson had taken over following the starting QB’s injury. Batiste ran for 13, 7, and 2 yards to begin the drive. When the quarter changed, Thackerson came back into the game. Thackerson faced a fourth-and-10 from the Governor 28, but he ran 12 yards to pick up a first down and keep the drive alive. Thackerson would run 9 yards on third-and-8 from the 14, setting up first-and-goal at the 5. Two plays later, Taylor rumbled in from 6 yards out, and Hollifield’s two-point conversion put Clinton up 41-16 and all but sewed up the game with 6:08 left.

William Blount would reel off a 55-yard TD drive in seven plays, capped by a 39-yard pass from Clemmer to Keeble. Deven Monroe made a 4-yard sack for the Dragons before the TD. Matossian’s extra point cut the Dragon lead to 41-23 with 4:06 remaining, but the Governors would never see the ball again.

Moody ran for 6 yards and a first down inside William Blount territory, and Andy King made a nice catch for 23 yards to the 16-yard line.

William Blount burned through all of its timeouts, and after Batiste ran for a 15-yard gain, Thackerson took two kneel-downs to run out the clock.