By MONTE DUTTON

For teams that win their regions, the first round of the football playoffs is stress-free and the second is fraught with concern.
Led by an unexpected hero, hard-nosed sophomore Rhett Gilliam, Clinton still got to chill – literally – in its 48-20 conquest of Chester on Friday night at Wilder Stadium in front of the usual throng.
Everyone could see their breaths. It neither snowed, rained, nor sleeted, and the arrival of Cyclones affected the Red Devils minimally. Clinton (9-2) quieted the visitors with rolling thunder.

Led by Gilliam’s 20 carries, 165 yards and two touchdowns, the Red Devils encountered only early resistance and advanced to play at home again, against Batesburg-Leesville (12-0), a 49-14 victor over Andrew Jackson (4-8). He entered the game with 264 yards all season and exited with 429.
“I was definitely expecting a tough game, but we found a way to drive it down the field,” Gilliam said.
The best example was he, but he wasn’t alone.

Clinton’s rushing game was as noisy as the crowd. Javen Cook rushed for 130 in 14 carries. Angelo Cromer needed just two tries to gain 49. D.J. Clark needed eight for 42. Seven shifty Devils carried the ball, piling up 432 yards. Five scored touchdowns. Gilliam scored the first two.
Cook hiked his season rushing totals to 1,360 yards and 18 touchdowns.
The team averaged 8.2 yards for every infantry assault on the Cyclones’ defense.
It didn’t start out looking like a rout. Clinton received the opening kickoff and went nowhere. The Red Devils’ first possession was minus-five yards thanks to a penalty. Chester’s was minus-six thanks to an unsatisfying completion.

“I think the biggest thing was we haven’t seen speed like that in a while,” said Clinton head coach Corey Fountain. “The speed on the field of Chester was a lot faster. The biggest thing was we had to get used to it.”
For the second week in a row, quarterback Tushawan Richardson’s first two passes were dropped, and for the second, also, he had one incompletion the rest of the way. The Red Devils passed for show but ran for dough. Richardson was 6/9 for 52 yards that included a seven-yard scoring toss to Noah Garrett.

The Red Devils assumed permanent control on their second possession, marching 77 yards in 12 plays. On the drive, Gilliams carried the ball seven times for 48 yards, scoring on a two-yarder with 5:13 remaining in the first quarter.
Gilliam’s 30-yard ramble on the second possession, with 1:29 left, capped a seven-play, 80-yard march.
Chester’s splendid quarterback, Trooper Floyd, had to be one, as in, a trooper. He hit 9/18 for 179 yards, and his understudy, Jackson Wilburn, was 1/6 for minus-two. Brett Young intercepted Floyd, and Austin Boyd picked off Wilburn.

“The entire game, we put pressure on Floyd, didn’t give him time to throw,” said Fountain. “We were on all the screens. Our guys didn’t get fooled. Defensively, we executed the game plan very well.
“People don’t know it, but Chester is a really good team. Coach (Victor) Floyd is one of the best coaches in the state. He had those guys ready to go. You could tell it at the beginning of the game.”

Caleb Feaster, who scored all three Chester touchdowns, rushed for 79 yards on six carries, but 76 of them were on a single fourth-quarter sprint. Feaster hauled in a 79-yard scoring pass from Floyd late in the first quarter, but Clinton led at halftime, 28-6.
Chester (5-6) came to town with a three-game win streak but succumbed to Clinton’s sixth straight victory. Against Chester, which Clinton first played in 1922, the Red Devils have won six of the last seven to lead the series, 17-14.

Batesburg-Leesville won Region 2 and entered the playoffs ranked first in Class 2A. Clinton captured Region 1 and ranked fourth. The other Upstate semifinal matches Fairfield Central (12-1) of Winnsboro versus Central (10-2) of Pageland.
The games get progressively tougher. So far, so good.
“And all the time she’s been waiting on him, she’s been waiting on you and me” – Tom T. Hall, “Ravishing Ruby”

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