By MONTE DUTTON

Blacksburg came to Wilder Stadium for the first time ever and to Clinton for the first time since 1938.

It didn’t go well for the Wildcats on Friday night. Clinton (6-2, 3-0 Region 1-2A) torched Blacksburg (3-5, 0-2), 61-14, and rolled up 605 yards of total offense, second most in history. (Woodruff yielded 618 in 2022.)

About all Blacksburg had to exercise its incisors was 318 yards, 229 of them courtesy of quarterback Josh Sims, who completed 12/28 passes for a touchdown but three interceptions.

Brett Young, Bryson Perrin and Maison Tinsley made the picks.

Also, the Wildcats scored, which they hadn’t managed in 1937 (19-0) and ’38 (38-0). The score was 28-0 in the former half and 33-14 in the latter.

“Before the game, I said, ‘Look, guys, you’ve got to play for each other,” Clinton head coach Corey Fountain said. “Don’t play for yourself. Don’t play for what you can do. Play for each other, and don’t be selfish.

“What I didn’t like in the first half was we were too undisciplined. We’ve got to shore that up and be more disciplined on the offside penalties, too much extracurricular, and to be a championship team, we’ve got to clean that up.”

The Devils were ferocious. It was a feeding frenzy. Clinton ran up 159 yards in penalties that didn’t loom large amid 478 yards rushing and 127 through the air.

Seven Clinton players scored touchdowns: Javen Cook, A.Z. Simmons, Tashawan Richardson, K.J. Vance, Rhett Gilliam, Angelo Cromer and Owen Glenn. Richardson and Gilliam scored twice.

Cook rushed 12 times for 152 yards, clearing the 1,000-yard mark. Simmons needed three carries to gobble up 82 yards. Richardson rambled for 73 and Vance for 61. As a team, the Red Devils averaged nine yards a carry.

Richardson, by the way, was sick at practice during the week, and Owen Glenn drew the start at quarterback. The senior showed few ill effects. He completed 3/8 passes for 102 yards. Glenn was 2/3 for 25.

“It was a great plan by our coaches,” said Clinton head coach Corey Fountain. “Our players executed and, I thought, played better as the game went on. It was awesome to get a lot of guys touchdowns.

“We had a lot of guys play on offense and a lot of guys play on defense.”

Cook went 43 yards for a score on the game’s third play. Devin Swindler caught two passes, one for 48 yards and the other for 40.

“We knew those guys were going to come in throwing the football,” said Fountain. “Those guys played hard. Brett Young is consistent every single week.”

Tushawan Richardson rambles.

As Fountain noted, “A lot of those yards were because we went a lot of yards forward and a lot of yards backwards.”

When a penalty backed the Devils up, it appeared to tick them off.

Liberty (4-3, 1-1) upended Landrum, 42-24, and visits Blacksburg next while the Red Devils take the week off. The regular season concludes on Nov. 8 when Clinton takes a trip to Liberty, where it will face another team named Red Devils for the first time since Clinton lost to Great Falls, 7-0, in 1933.

Clinton has won its three region games by a combined score of 163-57.

“The good thing about it is that so many guys who practice hard every week finally get on the field and get a chance to score some touchdowns, to block and tackle,” said Fountain. “It keeps the morale up at practice. Those guys get a chance to play.”

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