By MONTE DUTTON

The most important – and most exciting – play of Clinton’s 56-0, Class 2A playoff victory over Pelion occurred with 17 seconds remaining in the first half.
After Pelion (2-9) ran out of downs at the Clinton 20, quarterback Tushawan Richardson and company took over. Javen Cook rushed for three yards.
Devin Swindler lined up on the right sideline, sprinted up and then toward the middle of the field. Richardson lofted it to him perfectly, and Swindler caught it in full stride, scoring on a 72-yard bomb.
What made it important was that that another Clinton lightning strike – and Chris Fortman’s extra point – made the halftime score 42-0, which, in turn, by that precise margin, allowed the clock to run without stopping in the second half.

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Surely it didn’t cause disappointment in the patrons from home or away. If it was a problem for the Panthers’ partisans, well, there were 67 of them. By one estimate, they constituted 1.6 percent of the total.
“We game-planned throughout the week,” Richardson said. “We had certain plays we wanted to get to and execute. We were playing a team that we had the advantage over, so we tried to keep it simple and limit the mistakes.

Sophomore Rhett Gilliam rushed for 43 yards.

“The road gets tougher as we go. It’s the playoffs, and you’ve got to win by any means. It’s a big advantage having Wilder Stadium behind us, cheering for us and making noise.”
Clinton (8-2) ran up 473 total yards – 110 through the air and 363 on the ground – and that isn’t bad for a game half played with a running clock.
“The goal is to go 1-0 every week,” said Clinton head football coach Corey Fountain. “Our guys did a good job of that.”
What’s more, the Red Devil defense pitched its first shutout since 2021 and the fourth of Fountain’s six-year tenure. His Red Devils blanked Powdersville, 31-0, in 2019; Calhoun County, 51-0, in 2021; and Emerald, 47-0, that same year.

Forty games have passed since. It was a first for this roster.
First-round games for top seeds are only mildly less predictable than sunrise. The going gets tougher as the tough get going. Next to enter the Wilder Stadium cacophony is Chester (5-5), a previous region rival in Class 3A, which surprised many by defeating Strom Thurmond (6-4), 44-23.
After the season’s first games – Chester didn’t play in that so-called “Week Zero” — the Cyclones were ranked tops in Class 2A. Once 0-3, they have won three in a row. Chester is a dangerous opponent.

Enough about the future. Clinton lived up to expectations. In fact, Lakelands Sports Group correctly picked the final score.
Many of the Red Devils’ games have followed the same pattern. Clinton pulled comfortably ahead, Fountain played his reinforcements, the other team kept its starters in, and the final scores were 49-27 (Chapman), 46-21 (Chesnee), 56-22 (Landrum), 61-14 (Blacksburg) and 42-22 (Liberty).

Not this time. The clock kept on running, the Devils kept on scoring, the Panthers kept on not doing so and Fountain kept on substituting. As Donny Wilder used to say when everything in the Chronicle fit perfectly, “Just add water.”
“It’s huge to get a shutout,” Fountain said. “We were able to sub in guys and still hold that shutout.

“That was commendable to all our guys. No matter who we send in, we still want you to get the job done. … After the Liberty game, we talked about focusing in the second half and finishing the game. No matter when you go in, whether you’re the second guy to go in, the third, we want you to execute, do your job and continue to play the game the way you’re supposed to.”
Whoa. Clinton scored on runs of 76 yards (K.J. Vance) and 57 (D.J. Clark), 41-yard punt return (Chis Boyd) and the aforementioned pass (Richardson to Swindler).

For the first time since the second game, the Red Devils’ leading rusher was not Javen Cook. He was fine. He rushed for 40 yards and scored twice. His season total rose to 1,230 and his touchdowns to 17.
On this night, however, Cook ranked fifth in Clinton rushers behind Vance (3-98, 2 TDs), Clark (2-60, 2), Richardson (2-59) and Rhett Gilliam (3-43). Red Devils rambled at will.
Richardson’s first two pass attempts were dropped. Afterwards he was 4/5 for 110 yards. He doesn’t get much credit for what he does because he doesn’t need to do it that often.

“He executed well,” said Fountain of his senior quarterback. “He did a great job of managing the whole, entire game.”
Pelion’s leading rusher, Michael Cottrell, gained 117 yards in 28 carries, but the rest of the team netted minus-26. Quarterback Alan Moore hit 8/18 for a mere 36 yards. Bryson Perrin intercepted Moore on the game’s sixth play, and the rout was on after Cook scored on a two-yard run halfway through the first quarter.

Modern sports-talk broadcasters are fond of saying Clinton “boat-raced” Pelion, whatever in tarnation that means.
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