Blue Raiders pull out all the stops in win over Dragons
Clinton’s Joshuah Keith leaves a Blue Raider defender in the turf during Friday night’s season opener. (photo:Tony Cox )
Without two key linemen from the opening moments, Dragon quarterback Josh Keith — a Tennessee-Martin commit — was harassed in the backfield all evening. But he managed to go 17-for-31 passing for 286 yards and a touchdown.
Scrambling frequently, Keith rushed 11 times for 57 yards, despite taking two sacks for 23 yards that went against his running totals. He scored two TDs. His one-yard sneak as time expired provided the final margin.
Penalties plagued both teams, but pre-snap flags in the first half haunted Clinton as the Dragons committed 13 penalties for 90 yards in the opening half alone, and finished the game with 19 penalties for 150 yards.
Three Dragon TDs in the first half were nullified by penalties.
The game featured 116 offensive plays and 801 yards of combined total offense.
Cleveland rolled up 300 yards rushing on 47 attempts with five touchdowns. Using a two-quarterback rotation, the Blue Raiders went a combined 6-for-12 through the air for 121 yards and a TD.
Clinton’s Deameion Leavell made the only interception of the game.
Jawan Goins picked up a Keith fumble and advanced it 11 yards for a TD, but the standout Dragon running back was held to 15 yards on nine carries.
Chauncey Felts scored on the ground for the Dragons. Jeremiah Lee and Goins led Clinton receivers with four catches each, Lee for 67 yards and Goins for 54.
Braylon Taylor added three catches for 62 yards. D’Mon Marable caught the lone Dragon TD pass. Marable, a Purdue commit, and Gage Wergin paced Dragon defenders with 11 tackles each, with Marable also recording a sack for a five-yard loss.
Felts added nine tackles, including one for a loss of eight yards, and he both forced and recovered a fumble. Jerius Hundley added eight tackles with a half-tackle for loss. Jayson Graham made five tackles and broke up a pass for Clinton, while Derek Bean made five tackles, with one TFL for five yards and two pass breakups.
The Dragons had one lineman ruled ineligible for the game and another ejected just minutes into the contest, forcing them to rely on second- and third-stringers.
“We lost one to the TSSAA, and we lost one to the referees ejecting Eric Page,” said Dragon Coach Darell Keith. “That’s two 300-pounders gone. So we played on our defensive line with twos and threes and our offensive line with twos and threes.
“It was tough. Why do you think I made this hard schedule, you know what I’m saying? Did I want to win against Cleveland? You’re doggone right I wanted to win, but I wanted to see my kids — could they fight, would they play?
“And they will,” Keith said. “There wasn’t anybody in our region who played the team like I played tonight.”
Cleveland surprised Clinton with onside kicks in the first half, made good use of the two-quarterback system, and also employed direct snaps to Lucas Szymborski, who scored once and ran 10 times for 32 yards.
“It was like Pop Warner football to me,” Keith said. “One of the things, we didn’t know [Cleveland Coach Chandler] Tygard, so we couldn’t really game-plan for him, but he just lined it up and played old-fashioned football and just ran it down our throats.”
Keith singled out Dragon receiver/defensive back Wesley Phillips for good play against Cleveland. He also complimented quarterback Keith, who is his son; Goins; and running back/linebacker Hundley.
“I thought Wesley Phillips played hard on both sides of the ball,” Keith said. “I thought Josh Keith played extremely hard. I thought Goins was a sparkplug.
“I was impressed with No. 2, Hundley, he did a lot of work. He did everything. I was impressed with the whole team because they didn’t quit fighting. If they had quit and given up, it could have really gotten ugly.”
Cleveland opened the game with an onside kick that the Blue Raiders recovered at the Dragon 31-yard line.
Clinton’s Wergin recovered another onside kick by the Blue Raiders to set up the Dragons at the Cleveland 49. But the Dragons could not score.
Cleveland promptly fumbled the ball back to Clinton on the next play, as Felts recovered the ball for the Dragons at the Blue Raider 15-yard line. A 15-yard Keith TD pass to Goins was wiped off by a holding penalty.
Cleveland took over at its own 30-yard line and scored in four plays.
Clinton scored its first TD of the season on the next drive. Runs by Hundley and Marable and a 24-yard pass to Lee made it first-and-10 at the Cleveland 16. Three plays later, Felts tallied on an eight-yard run. Keith completed a two-point conversion pass to Phillips to cut the visitors’ lead to 14-8.
Cleveland wasted little time in scoring again. Carroll hauled in a 43-yard pass from Adams for a touchdown.
Clinton opened the second quarter with a 38-yard pass from Keith to Goins. The Dragons saw a 38-yard TD pass to Phillips and a 15-yard Felts TD run both called back by holding penalties. But the home team would score nevertheless, as Keith spotted Marable open by a step in the end zone for a 25-yard touchdown pass. A two-point Keith pass to Leavell connected but came up just shy, leaving Cleveland’s lead at 22-14.
The Dragons forced what would be the game’s only punt. But the Dragons turned the ball over on downs at the Cleveland 27.
The Blue Raiders’ Davis ran for 11 and 29 yards early in the visitors’ next drive, but Dragon lineman Konner Riggs chased Adams out of bounds for an 11-yard sack. A chop block nullified a six-yard TD run by Szymborski, but Cleveland scored shortly afterward, despite Marable sacking Adams on the next-to-last play, on a 28-yard field goal by Bolanos.
Kingston Pickens of Cleveland recovered an onside kick by the Dragons to start the second half, and the Blue Raiders mainly kept the ball on the ground, churning out a 52-yard scoring drive in 11 plays.
The Dragons had another turnover on downs at the Cleveland 43. Two plays later, Leavell intercepted a deep pass by Bandy and returned it 35 yards to the Dragon 40.
The Dragons scored in six plays, staring with a nine-yard Keith pass to Graham. Keith reeled off a 29-yard run down the right sideline to set up first-and-goal at the 6. After a delay-of-game penalty, Keith fumbled a snap, but Goins picked up the loose ball and scored from 11 yards out. Keith ran in the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 32-22.
Cleveland opened its next drive with runs of 32 and 12 yards by Adams. On first-and-goal from the Dragon 4-yard line, Brian Beard Jr. scored on a running play with 3.4 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Dragons wasted little time on their next drive as Keith connected with Taylor on consecutive passes of 21 and 17 yards. Two plays later, Keith faked a handoff and scored on an 18-yard option run. Goins ran in the two-point conversion to cut Cleveland’s advantage to 39-30 with 10:47 left in the game.
The Blue Raiders salted the game away with an 11-play, all-running scoring drive. Bolanos then booted a line-drive kickoff that was recovered by Cleveland at the Dragon 49. Phillips tackled Adams for a 5-yard loss, but two plays later, Westfield rumbled 40 yards for a touchdown. Bolanos’ extra point gave Cleveland a 49-30 lead.
Clinton wound up with the ball at the Cleveland 33. Keith ran 17 yards to the 16, and on the next play a pass-interference foul on the Blue Raiders moved the ball to the 8-yard line. Goins ran for 6 yards, and Keith ran twice for 1 yard each, with his teammates shoving him into the end zone on a sneak on the second play.