By MONTE DUTTON
I was at a football game on Friday night. I watched on TV all day and well into the night on Saturday and Sunday.
The most common part of all the games was holding. And other assorted infractions.
The best quotation came from Clinton High School head coach Corey Fountain, who, after the Red Devils rolled up 605 yards of offense in a 61-14 victory over Blacksburg, said, “The reason we gained so many yards was that we lost so many yards.”
My father would have called that “the Gospel truth,” and he didn’t quote the Gospel often.
Forty-six years ago, the National Football League began allowing linemen to use their arms, hands and fingers. The expressed reason was to lessen holding penalties. All other forms soon followed.
The result was that they have doubled, though I can’t prove it. The National Football League did not begin “compiling sufficient data” until 2009. From 2009 through 2023, the number only went up about 10 percent.
How convenient. One would think, when the NFL changed the rule, its leaders would have examined the numbers.
College-football holding penalties have risen by about 40 percent from 2000 through 2023.
I thought to myself, What would happen if they changed the rules back?
This, of course, is crazy talk. The automakers are more likely to return to manual transmissions.
Steve Englehart (PC photo)
Happy days were there again. In DeLand, Fla., the skies were getting clear again.
After four straight damnable losses in which Presbyterian lost twice in overtime and by a total of 27 points, Steve Englehart’s Blue Hose walloped Stetson by 28, 42-14.
In the Pioneer Football League, PC is 1-4, with one more net point than Davidson, San Diego, Morehead State, Drake and Stetson.
For the season to date, the Blue Hose are 3-6. Opponents have scored 241 points. PC has scored 237. Since the first game, the cumulative score is 227-178, PC.
Yesterday is dead and gone. Tomorrow looks better. Monday wasn’t bad.
Englehart said, “Our kids continue to show up. … You can always turn it around, you know, and just keep showing up.
“One of the biggest compliments we get from alumni, from people here at PC, from opponents, is how hard our kids play. … As we continue to play hard, they’re going to start seeing the fruits of their labor.”
The season is down to three more games, two at home. Dayton visits Bailey Memorial Stadium on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Blue Hose visit Marist (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) at noon on Nov. 16 and close at home against Butler on Nov. 23 at 1.
“It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past,” Englehart said. “These are life lessons these kids learn. It doesn’t matter how bad it gets. You always have a new week, a new day to make it better.
“This could be a life lesson they take with them. No matter how hard life gets, you have a family, you have kids, you have a wife, and you just keep showing up every day, and you’re going to end up being successful.”
Lineman Clayton Lawson – that’s offensive and defensive – is the Player of the Week as chosen by the Laurens County Touchdown Club.
In Friday night’s 61-14 victory over Blacksburg, the senior graded 90 percent on his blocks as Clinton rolled up 478 rushing yards and 605 total. On defense, he made three tackles, one of them for loss.
“Clayton was a hard worker in the off-season strength and conditioning program and currently during practice. His hard-nosed play on offense and defense set the tone in the trenches. He has a ‘high motor’ and barely comes off the field during the game, which is rare for a big man. It’s fun watching his two-way, throwback style of football on Friday nights.”
The Touchdown Club will honor Lawson on Thursday at the bi-monthly meeting. The meeting is at noon at The Ridge in Laurens. Player of the Week awards are presented by Farm Bureau Insurance of Laurens County.
The Oct. 31 meeting features Charlie Wentzky, deputy commissioner of the S.C. High School League and staff member responsible for high-school football operations.
The Ridge is located in at 301 Exchange Road, and the public is invited. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $15. All meetings are at noon with the food-service line opening at 11:45 a.m.
Damorney Hutchinson scored his 10th goal of the season, but the Blue Hose (4-7-2, 1-4-1) battled the fifth-ranked High Point Panthers (10-2-2, 6-0-0) before coming up short, 2-1, at Martin Stadium on Saturday evening.
Before the game, PC honored seniors Hutchinson, Carson Griffith, Damian McGregor-Wickham and Ruedd Manin.
In the 18th minute, High Point scored the game’s first goal when Ross Johnstone scored off a Beau Yantz assist. In the 24th minute, Lukas Kamrath headed in a Jefferson Amaya corner kick, increasing the Panthers’ lead.
In the 43rd minute, Presbyterian’s Gabe Carvalho sent a long pass from the Blue Hose defensive third to a streaking Hutchinson near the top of the box. Hutchinson beat a couple of High Point defenders and blasted the ball into the lower-right corner of the goal, cutting High Point’s lead in half.
Presbyterian finishes the regular season on the road at Winthrop at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Laurens’ junior-varsity football team got quite a lift from an 18-14 victory over Westside in Anderson last Thursday.
Kalen Gilchrist returned a Rams punt with 1:32 to play all the way to the Westside four-yard line. Two plays later, Buddy Cheeks scored from three yards out to give Laurens (3-2-1) the win.
I’ve laid around and played around this old town too long / Summer’s almost gone, Lord, winter’s coming on – Billy Grammer
Wellpilgrim.com is trying its best – translation: I’m trying – to describe the highs and lows and avoid the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Highs and lows are inevitable because all the games have a loser and a winner, and Wellpilgrim.com is trying its best – translation: I’m trying – to describe the highs and lows and avoid the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Highs and lows are inevitable because all the games have a loser and a winner, and when it’s done, they are the same number.
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Nightrider's Lament 