By MONTE DUTTON

High-school football is fun, but it’s hard. It’s worth it. It changed my life. Once upon a time, it made me think I could do things if I set my mind to them, and when 40-50 fellows set their minds to something, they’re hard to beat.
Clinton (11-2) defeated a worthy opponent, Fairfield Central (12-2), by a score of 32-21, on Friday night, and the difference in the game was big plays. Three Red Devil rushers – sophomore Rhett Gilliam, senior quarterback Tushawan Richardson and junior Javen Cook – rushed for more than 100 yards.

Richardson had a double hundred, rushing for 108 yards (in eight carries!) and passing for 104 (in three completions!). At the final game this season on Richardson Field, the top performer was named … Richardson.
“For the state championship game, we’ll go back in the film room. All that preparation leads us into games like this,” Richardson said.
Cook said of Richardson, “He’s the leader of the team. He’s going to take us all the way.”
Head coach Corey Fountain said of his QB, “He wanted to be the man. He willed it and executed great for us.”

The rushers lined up like dominoes: Gilliam (14-109), Richardson (8-108) and Cook (17-101).
It was a fierce test of wills, which is what the Class 2A Upstate championship game is supposed to be.
Fountain said, “We preach all the time; your effort, your attitude, your toughness, your resiliency. That’s what all these guys showed, and I’m super proud of them and our coaches.
“It’s awesome that we played together as a team.”
Clinton — which has reached, in order, the second, fourth, third and now fifth (and final) round in the playoffs the past four years – is where it wanted to be. It’s where its fans always want it to be. Close to 6,000 braved the cold.

This was Clinton’s 16th Upstate championship, and it is bidding for its ninth state title.
The Red Devils fielded a roster of heroes. Undaunted by penalties, Clinton scored three times on a single drive, though not officially.
Immediately after Clinton took a 13-7 lead on Gilliam’s one-yard score, the Griffins fumbled the kickoff, and Austin Boyd scooped it up and dashed 80 yards to the end zone with 59 seconds remaining in the first half, which ended with the Red Devils up, 19-7.
In a recurring theme of the playoffs, Clinton’s versatility and balance overcame Fairfield Central’s offensive reliance on two talented players.

Ty’Darion Grier, a stout workhorse, carried the ball 21 times for 191 yards and two touchdowns.

Fairfield quarterback Kaden Diggs rushed for 84 yards and a touchdown but completed only 3/12 passes for 80, yielding an interception by – guess who? – Austin Boyd.
The Griffins crept within four points (25-21) on Grier’s one-yard run with 9:49 remaining, and Fairfield Central inexplicably kicked the extra point when a two-point conversion would have brought it within a field goal.

No matter. Richardson and Devin Swindler connected on a 17-yard score – it was either a hookless ladder or a ladderless hook – that put the Griffins away. The play, with 6:33 remaining, on fourth down and 10, gave Swindler the option to pitch back to a trailing player. He opted to keep it, and the touchdown clipped the Griffins’ wings.
Clinton took a knee to charitably end it on the Fairfield Central three after consecutive rambles of five and 15 yards by Gilliam.

Five Clinton rushers piled up 320 yards. The Red Devils amassed 424 total yards to the Griffins’ 370, averaging 8.8 yards per play to Fairfield’s 7.3. Clinton forced two turnovers and committed none.

Fountain won two state titles at Lamar. He has taken Clinton to the championship game for the first time since 2009. It’s Clinton versus Barnwell (13-1) on Thursday at 2 p.m. in Orangeburg at Oliver Dawson Stadium, home of the South Carolina State Bulldogs.
The Warhorses won the Low Country with a 37-12 victory over Manning (11-2).

“It’s business as usual,” Fountain said. “We’ve got to prepare like it’s any other game, just like we’ve been doing all year. You prepare to go 1-0.
“This is for the Zay Johnsons, this is for the Chalmerses, for the Davis Wilsons who worked hard when I first got here. This where all that hard work culminates, the Kadon Crawfords, all those guys who put the work in. These guys saw all that work being done, and they followed suit.”

It’s a short week. They’ll ready. They believe they are bound for glory.
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