Woodruff stuns Red Devils, 40-36
Clinton QB Tushawan Richardson (1) goes for yardage inside the tackles during Clinton’s 40-36 loss to Woodruff Friday night at Wilder Stadium.
Woodruff snapped a four-game losing streak against Clinton Friday night, stopping a last-minute Red Devils drive and escaping Wilder Stadium with a 40-36 victory in the season opener for both teams.
Wolverines quarterback T.J. Morris ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more, while freshman running back Aiden Gibson ran 19 times for 174 yards and two scores.
Despite those gaudy Woodruff stats, the Red Devils took a 36-33 lead on Javen Cook’s 4-yard run with 7:55 to play, which was followed by a 2-point conversion pass by Tushawan Richardson to D.J. Clark.
But Gibson’s second touchdown came on a 2-yard run with 4:26 to play and proved to be the game-winner.
The Red Devils (0-1) mounted a final drive that stalled inside the Woodruff 20 when a Richardson fourth-down pass into the end zone fell incomplete with only a few seconds left on the game clock.
“There were plenty of chances for us to execute on first down and in the red zone, and we weren’t able to get that job done,” said Clinton head coach Corey Fountain, who said he was taking responsibility for the loss.
The Red Devils rallied from a 27-14 first-half deficit to take a 28-27 lead on a Richardson 30-yard run with 3:17 left in the third quarter.
But Morris matched that score with a 7-yard touchdown run of his own with 10 seconds left in the third quarter.
Richardson ran for 147 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries and completed 6 of 14 passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns.
Both of Richardson’s touchdown passes – 39 and 11 yards – went to Devin Swindler, who had just those two catches for 50 total yards. Cook also had 120 yards rushing on 19 carries with two touchdowns.
In addition to the 76 total points scored, the two familiar rivals combined for over 950 yards of total offense – 488 for Clinton and 479 for Woodruff.
“We only have three starters back on defense,” Fountain said. “A lot of those guys aren’t young but they hadn’t been in those situations. So a game like this early on is good for us. It’s a test – to test our resilience, to test our Moxie a little bit. We were able to come back, but not enough tonight.
“We want that to sting a little bit and carry that over into practice this week and stay fired up about next week versus Laurens.”
Clinton and Laurens are to play next Friday at Wilder Stadium with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.
Woodruff 40, Clinton 36
