Red Devils take down No. 1 Panthers, advance to Upper State finals
Clinton RB Javen Cook (3) on a 10-yard touchdown run in the second half of the Red Devils’ 31-14 third-round playoff victory over Batesburg-Leesville at Wilder Stadium.
Clinton is headed to an Upper State championship game for the second time in three seasons.
The Red Devils stunned previously unbeaten Batesburg-Leesville, the No. 1-ranked team in Class 2A, 31-14 Friday night behind a dominant second half to advance to the Class 2A Upper State finals.
Clinton will host Fairfield Central (12-1), a 48-28 winner over Pageland Central, next Friday night for a chance to advance to the Class 2A championship game.
In 2022, Clinton made it to the Class 3A Upper State championship but lost at Powdersville, which handed the Red Devils their only loss of the season.
Against Batesburg-Leesville, Clinton junior running back Javen Cook ran for 269 yards and three touchdowns and the Red Devils shut out the Panthers over the final two quarters and held them 25 points below their season average.
“It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and I’m thankful for these guys. I got a bunch of guys that are resilient,” said Clinton head coach Corey Fountain. “We got hit in the mouth, some bad things happened, and we never dropped our head – never started fighting amongst ourselves. We regrouped, got some turnovers, won the turnover battle, and I’m just really proud of this defense, who shut a team down that was prolific on offense all night long. We executed down the stretch, and I think we outlasted them.”
The Red Devils (10-2) held the Panthers (12-1) to 202 yards in total offense and kept them out of the end zone for the final 24 minutes of game time as Cook scored on a pair of 10-yard runs in the second half, breaking a 14-14 halftime tie.
Batesburg-Leesville quarterback Tanner Watkins scored on a 3-yard run and connected with K.D. Whitt on an 8-yard touchdown pass to put the Panthers ahead 14-7 with 5:14 left in the first half.
Clinton answered with an 11-play, 74-yard drive and a gutsy move by Fountain, gambled on fourth-and-goal – twice. A penalty negated a touchdown pass from quarterback Tushawan Richardson to tight end Noah Garrett, but Richardson scrambled 9 yards for the touchdown on a second fourth-down attempt to tie the score at 14-14 following a Luke Kuykendall extra point with no time on the clock.
Watkins completed 9 of 19 pass attempts for 89 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the final minutes of the game that ended any hopes of a miracle comeback by the Panthers.
The Clinton defense also caused and recovered two fumbles, the first of which set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Cook with 9:31 left in the first quarter.
“We talked about it all week. . . . You’ve got to have grit, and it’s gonna be the guy that gets tired of getting punched in the mouth and taps out (that loses), Fountain said. “And our guys didn’t, never tapped out, and we kept putting the gas pedal down.”
CLINTON 31, BATESBURG-LEESVILLE 14
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