By MONTE DUTTON

INMAN – It wasn’t just another rainy night, but it was the second in a row.

The final score of Clinton’s 49-27 victory on Thursday night at Chapman was a bit misleading. The Red Devils led, 35-7, at halftime, 42-7 midway through the third quarter, and 49-14 with 10:01 left in the fourth.

“What we did tonight was what we do in practice,” said Clinton tackle Tre Aiken. “The drills, the intensity, everything. Everything that we do in practice shows up on the field.”

Clinton head coach Corey Fountain wanted to give his backups some game experience. Chapman’s Harry Cabaniss wanted to save some serious face. Both succeeded, and the fourth quarter became an interminable series of the Panthers stopping the clock at every opportunity and the Red Devils trying to keep it running.

It was a rather irksome encounter. Players from both teams were undoubtedly dreading class on Friday morning. Tempers flared. When it mercifully ended, almost no one on either side seemed happy, a lot of folks were yelling, and it was a shame because Clinton (3-1) played very well and it ended up being a triumph but not an artful one.

The teams combined for 202 yards in penalties.

At the end, Chapman (1-3) was squeezing water out of a turnip and doing it well. The Panthers scored twice, on passes of 27 yards from Taylor Rogers to Blake Williams with 5:27 left and 75 to Hank Tolleson with 2:39 to play.

Chapman salvaged as much as it could, but the game ran about three hours and everyone had class the next morning. It was cool and rainy, and Chapman scored three touchdowns to Clinton’s two in the second half, which had nothing at all to do with the outcome.

The Red Devils had 137 yards to the Panthers’ 50 in the first quarter, and the edge at halftime was 259-123 and 353-234 after three quarters. Chapman doggedly won the fourth quarter in yardage, 163-20, and thus led the final total, 397-373.

Have you ever heard the expression, “Go ahead and knock yourself out”? The Panthers knocked themselves out. Had it been a movie, the closing credits would have lasted an hour.

Clinton had little use for the pass, which Chapman used with desperation. The Red Devils, as a team, rushed for 339 yards and averaged 7.1 yards a carry. The Panthers starter at quarterback, Bryson Cothran, completed 13/23 passes for 140 yards. Rogers came in and hit 5/5 for 121.

Chapman had the bombers. Clinton had the horses. Javen Cook led the Red Devils, for the third game in a row, with 156 yards on 14 carries (11.1 average gain). Kason Copeland checked in with 9-93 (10.3). Both scored two touchdowns. Next were Rhett Gilliam (7-35), Angelo Cromer (6-26), K.J. Vance (7-19) and D.J. Clark (4-12).

The most noteworthy accomplishment for Clinton was getting off to a rousing start. The Red Devils had trailed during the first half of the season’s first three games. This time they came out surfing a wave.

“We’ve been preaching that for the past two weeks, and we finally got a fast start,” Fountain said. “It was exciting to see that. Defensively, we were able to lock them up. Our guys were ready to go, even though it was a Thursday night.”

The Devils locked the Panthers up, all right. They just forgot to throw away the key.

Clinton scored five touchdowns in seven first-half possessions and led, 35-0, after Austin Boyd returned a fumble 55 yards with 1:47 remaining in the second quarter.

K.J. Vance returned the opening kickoff 61 yards to the Panthers 28, and on Clinton’s first play from scrimmage, Cook rambled into the end zone, and Chris Fortman kicked the first of seven consecutive extra points.

The second drive ended when Chapman’s Tolleson intercepted Tushawan Richardson (2/6, 34 yards) in the end zone, but Kason Copeland rushed in from 14 yards out to spur the Red Devils’ 28-point second quarter.

Richardson found Chris Boyd for a 20-yard touchdown pass. Copeland rushed for 22 yards and a second touchdown. Austin Boyd picked up a Cothran fumble and took it 55 yards to the house.

In the second half, before the aerial onslaught, Cook scored his second TD on a 46-yard burst.

Angelo Cromer scored the Red Devils final touchdown with 10:01 left in the game to make the score 49-7.

“We had too many penalties,” said Fountain. “Too many holding calls, a ‘celebration’ call. That’s on me, and we’re going to tie up those loose ends. You can’t make mistakes next week against a team like Daniel.”

The Lions (2-1), ranked third in Class 4A, are off this weekend after falling a week ago to 5A seventh-ranked J.L. Mann, 28-23.

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