By MONTE DUTTON

Clinton’s 14-6 victory over Chester was a great one but also an unusual one on Friday night at Wilder Stadium.

The Red Devils nailed down Region 4-3A in what was probably considered an upset to most outside the knowing boundaries of School District 56.

Clinton (7-2, 3-0 region) entered the game averaging 43 points. Chester (8-2, 3-1) entered its final regular-season game – the Red Devils close at Emerald next week – averaging 36 and ranked seventh in Class 3A.

The halftime score was 7-0.

“The difference was definitely our defense,” said Clinton’s most notable clutch performer, Zay Johnson. “Our defense stepped up pretty big, but we got a lot of work to do on offense. On that side, we didn’t play the way we wanted to.

“It was a dogfight, just like Coach (Corey Fountain) said coming out.”

Even though it rained heavily for a while in Clinton on Friday afternoon, the turf was in fine shape. Also in fine shape was the Clinton defense, which limited the Cyclones when it counted the most.

The two teams also played yellow-flag football, combining for 213 yards paced off by the striped shirts. The game was truly played in fits and starts.

Clinton intercepted three passes – Tray Cook, Chris Boyd and, decisively, Johnson — and blocked two punts. One may not have been blocked, but it skittered out of bounds at a distance of eight yards. The other was obviously blocked by Johnson and scooped up by Cook. It was early in the fourth quarter, the same as when Johnson put the game away with 14 seconds left with his interception at his own 33.

Johnson – and the ubiquitous Kadon Crawford – played the other quarters, too. Johnson caught a 42-yard bomb from Tushawan Richardson for the only touchdown of the first half, 8 minutes, 59 seconds into the game. Johnson caught two more. Crawford had one. Richardson hit 5/9 for 103 yards.

Chester, led by quarterback Trooper Boyd’s 239 yards, outgained the Red Devils, 334-198, but a lot of it had to do with the fact that the Cyclones ran 19 more plays (61-42) and kept the ball for more than six more minutes.

For instance, the game’s leading rusher, Chester’s Elijah Coleman, gained 51 yards but averaged just 2.5 per carry. Cook led the Red Devils with 49 at a 6.1 average.

Neither team scored in the second and third quarters. Clinton led 14-0 with 7:38 remaining on Crawford’s one-yard score. Only 17 seconds later, Coleman caught an 80-yard scoring strike from Floyd.

Chester converted 3/8 fourth-down attempts and was 3/14 on thirds.

Lukas Kuykendall and Keegan Fortman split splitting the extra points. Kuykendall punted twice for an average of 38 yards. Chester averaged 2.5.

“We made huge plays on defense,” Clinton head coach Corey Fountain said. “Just a gritty performance by our guys who showed a lot of resolve.”

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The next Fiesta Grande open mic is Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 8 p.m.