By MONTE DUTTON

CENTRAL – Daniel High School is not only in Central but central to Clinton High School’s rare evidences of football frustration and despair.

The Red Devils enter every game with high expectations. Few expected Clinton to venture into Dick Singleton Field and win, but its players did and, as such, the Lions’ 37-12 victory made for a disappointing Friday night and a long ride home.

Daniel (3-1) won by every measure except first downs, and that was because most of the Lions’ took up so many yards. Their average gain was 11.1 yards. The average pass was 17.7. The average touchdown was 44.

“I thought our defense played well the first half,” Clinton head coach Corey Fountain said. “I thought we actually played pretty good defense in the second half. We just couldn’t stop the big play.

“We’d have them third-and-long … and give up the big play. We put them in some bad spots with field position. … We started making a few mistakes, and it snowballed on us.”

Daniel had a 47-game, regular-season winning streak ended by Mann, 18-13, two weeks ago. Now it’s 48/49. The Lions lead the all-time series against the Red Devils, 8-5, and have won the last four games.

There were extenuating circumstances, though not enough to have altered the outcome.

Trailing 14-6 at halftime, Clinton’s versatile quarterback, Tushawan Richardson, was unable to play in the latter half. Richardson has been hampered by injury since the second game. When the Daniel defense left him lying on the field, he got back up and persevered until halftime came, and then he either tightened up or couldn’t be loosened down. He completed 11/19 first-half passes for 120 yards, connecting with Chris Boyd four times for 54 yards and Maison Tinsley thrice for 37.

Without Richardson and in spite of Jaydon Glenn’s best efforts, Clinton couldn’t run effectively when running became its only viable option. Javen Cook rushed for 83 yards, but it took him 23 carries.

In the first half, the Red Devils were in it in despite an inability to kick or finish drives. They punted once. Clinton labored hard, struggling to gain every yard. The ground forces bogged down, and the air force ran out of planes.

Daniel didn’t run much because the Lions didn’t have to. Clinton didn’t pass much because the Red Devils lost their wings. So dizzying was the second half that local TV stations didn’t even notice Richardson was missing.

In order to hang in against a power two classifications higher, the Red Devils needed to force turnovers, which they couldn’t, and eliminate mistakes, which they didn’t. Clinton lost two fumbles and an interception. Daniel was unhindered by 126 yards in penalties. Clinton was ravaged by 55.

“The thing about a team like Daniel is they’re not going to make mistakes,” Fountain said. “They’re going to play their brand of football and keep throwing the football down the field, and you’ve got to be able to stop it.

“When you make mistakes, they build off them. You’ve got to make sure you don’t make mistakes against a team like Daniel.”

Clinton (3-2) hasn’t played a single team from its own classification. The Class 2A Red Devils have thus far played, in order, 3A Woodruff, 4A Laurens, 3A Newberry, 3A Chapman and 4A Daniel. Next up is 3A Union County, which 2A Chester socked, 54-12 on Friday, and then Clinton gets to pick on folks its own size for the rest of the way.

Daniel quarterback Grayson Clary, a mere sophomore, completed 15/19 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns spanning, in order, 19 (to Jason Bish), 54 (to Trey Wimbley), 35 (to Elijah Lipsey) and 42 yards (to Christian Chancellor).

Bish corralled five Clary darts for 61 yards. Wimbley snagged four for 105, and so on and so forth. Eight different receivers took part in the festival.

The Lions only rushed for 90 yards. Spencer Conn got 70 of them in a single early-third-quarter dash.

“This game showed that we could be tough when asked to be,” said Daniel’s Jeff Fruster. “We knew their ground control was going to be a problem coming in. I’m proud of my guys’ resolve, the way they responded to the challenge they had in front of them.”

Clinton scored its touchdowns on a two-yard Kason Copeland (a local TV station called him kuh-SON) run with 5:01 remaining in the first half and a four-yard Rhett Gilliam ramble at game’s end. Lukas Kuykendall missed the former extra point and Chris Fortman the latter. Kuykendall also was wide on a 30-yard field goal.

The Red Devils and Lions squared off for the first time in a regular-season game since 1966. Daniel visits Wilder Stadium next year.

Here’s hoping Richardson goes from hampered to healthy. Clinton needs him that way.

“We’ve just got to keep pushing forward,” said Fountain. “When things get harder, we’ve got to pull together.

“It’s my job to make sure these guys have a lot of grit and guts about them, that they stick together and don’t point fingers and pull apart. I’m going to improve on that. We’re going to watch film and see where we made mistakes, correct them and get ready for Union.”

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