Dragons unleash big plays against Karns; playoff bound
Dragon Bryson Maddox hauls in a Joshuah Keith offering for an early score Friday night against Karns. (photo:Shari Wandell-Bryant )
Clinton improved to 3-6 overall and 2-2 in Region 3-5A games. Karns fell to 1-8, 0-3. All three of the Dragons’ wins this season have seen the mercy-rule running clock used, as the winning margin in the second half has met or exceeded 30 points.
Clinton will be the No. 3 seed in the region and will take on the No. 2 seed from Region 4-5A, likely East Hamilton, on the road in the first round of the playoffs Nov. 3.
Jawan Goins scored three touchdowns for the Dragons against Karns. He rushed six times for 65 yards and two scores and recorded a team-high four catches for 53 yards and a TD.
Clinton quarterback Josh Keith completed 11 of 17 passes for 203 yards and three touchdowns.
Bryson Maddox caught three of Keith’s tosses for 93 yards and a touchdown. D’Mon Marable scored another receiving TD for Clinton. Chauncey Felts added a rushing TD for the Dragons, and Deameion Leavell returned a punt for a score. Derek Bean caught a 33-yard pass and returned a kickoff 51 yards. Emanuel Ortiz booted six extra points for the home team.
The Dragons ran only 28 plays to Karns’ 66 and possessed the ball only 11 minutes, 2 seconds, to the Beavers’ 36:58. But Clinton scored on six of its seven full possessions, punting only once and having the half end on two other drives. The Dragons outgained Karns 313 yards to 243.
Clinton committed only four penalties, but two of them nullified touchdowns.
Bo Wright and Bean intercepted one pass apiece for the Dragon defense.
Wright and Marable led Clinton defenders with 14 tackles apiece. Wright broke up two passes, while Marable forced a fumble and made one tackle for loss for 3 yards. Jerius Hundley added 10 tackles and Felts nine. Bean made seven tackles, including one TFL for 3 yards. Jayson Graham collected six tackles for the Dragons, and teammate Gage Wergin made five tackles, including the game’s only sack for a 5-yard loss. Jaxon Herrell had five tackles and Parker Searle four for Clinton, and Leavell broke up a pass while Rhett Seivers added a TFL for 1 yard.
Karns was led on offense by Kareem Ellis with 17 carries for 51 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Carson Paul was 16-for-28 for 126 yards and a TD with two interceptions. Fullback Alex Idol caught the scoring pass and led the Beavers’ receiving corps with five catches for 46 yards. Douglas Turner scored the other Karns TD on a rushing play.
The Beavers opened the game with a 14-play scoring drive that took 7:21 off the clock. Ellis and Idol did most of the running, with Turner having the longest play of the series to end it: a 19-yard TD run. The extra-point kick was wide left, but Karns led 6-0.
The Dragons wasted little time in taking the lead for good, scoring a TD in only four plays covering 55 yards. Maddox caught a 24-yard Keith pass for one first down and two plays later hauled in a 21-yard scoring pass. Maddox had a step on the Karns defensive back in the left side of the end zone. Ortiz’s first extra point gave Clinton a 7-6 lead with 2:54 remaining in the first quarter.
Clinton appeared to strike paydirt again when Goins turned a short pass from Keith into a 76-yard touchdown, but a holding penalty on the Dragons nixed the score. A holding foul on the previous play canceled out a 22-yard run by Keith. After Simon Tutu broke up a Keith pass on third down, Clinton’s Blane Collins would make his only punt of the game, a 30-yarder.
Clinton’s offense went into high gear again as Bean caught a 33-yard pass from Keith and Goins ran twice for 6 and 21 yards, the latter a touchdown run during which he made a number of good moves through the Beaver defense. The Dragon lead was 14-6 with 7:54 left in the half.
Clinton scored quickly on its next drive as Maddox reeled in a 48-yard pass from Keith in two-on-one coverage, the longest play from scrimmage in the game. Two plays later, Marable, in motion from the left, took a push pass from Keith 10 yards for a touchdown. Ortiz’s kick gave the home team a 21-6 lead at the 4:05 mark of the second quarter.
Karns then held the ball for 15 plays but was frustrated by the Dragon defense on several occasions. Eric Page and Felts stopped Avery Westfield for a 1-yard gain early in the drive. Wright broke up a pass on third down, but Karns converted on fourth down on a 6-yard pass from Paul to Turner. Paul later called his own number on a sneak on another fourth-down play, the third time in the game he had done so. Bean flipped Turner for a 2-yard loss on a screen pass, but Turner on the next play converted a fourth-and-3 with a 15-yard reception. Wergin sacked Paul on the following snap at the Dragon 26.
Idol threw a halfback pass to the end zone that was incomplete with 24.9 seconds left in the half. Wright then picked off Paul at the 13, returning the interception 24 yards. Clinton then ran out the clock on the half with a 21-6 lead.
Clinton struck quickly to open the second half. Bean took the kickoff at his own 24-yard line and motored 51 yards to the Karns 25. Felts scored on the next play, taking a snap as the wildcat and running untouched around left end for the score and a 28-6 Dragon advantage.
Three plays into the Beavers’ next drive, Marable tackled Ellis for a 3-yard loss on a screen pass. One play later, Bean stepped in front of a Karns receiver and intercepted a Paul pass, returning it 26 yards to the Beaver 31. A horse-collar foul on Karns moved the ball to the 16-yard line.
Goins scored on the next play, again making a number of cuts as he ran to his left for the tally. Ortiz’s kick gave the Dragons a 35-6 lead.
Karns drove 70 yards in nine plays for its second score of the game. On fourth-and-3 from the 9, Idol caught a scoring pass from Paul. The Karns two-point conversion pass from Walker Lockhart to Daesean Huckleby was caught but stopped by the Dragons well short of the goal line. Clinton led 35-12 with 4:46 on the third-quarter clock.
Clinton again scored quickly, with Wesley Phillips catching an 11-yard pass from Keith. Goins made his trademark moves two plays later on a 35-yard touchdown pass. Ortiz added the point-after for a 42-12 Clinton lead that started the mercy-rule running clock.
Searles made a tackle on third down to force a Karns punt on the first play of the fourth quarter. The Beavers’ coverage team let the ball roll, and Leavell picked it up at the 36-yard line and sped down the right sideline for a 64-yard touchdown. The extra-point kick was no good, but the Dragons led 48-12 with 11:37 remaining in the game.
Karns scored on its final drive of the game.
The Dragons conclude the regular season at home this Friday with a Senior Night game against Heritage.