By MONTE DUTTON

Woodruff High School is a familiar place for Red Devils to play, though on Thursday night they were playing Class 4A Fountain Inn at W.L. Varner Stadium, where I once played and Varner was still the Wolverines’ head coach.

As I sat on a bench waiting for Clinton to arrive, it occurred to me that the stadium is largely the same except for a press box, a concession complex on one end and a fieldhouse on the other. Those were there in 1974, but they’re much nicer now. The grandstands have also been modernized, but they’re about the same capacity. The scoreboard is on the other end.

In recent years, once practice starts and teams start scrimmage, it has appeared to me that the Red Devils are ahead of the opposition at every stage, and that’s also the way it looked this time as Clinton scored on its first two possessions and gave up a late score to the Fury – by then quite furious – to win 14-7.

New quarterback Owen Glenn looked sharp and unflappable. Tre Aiken paved the way for a breakaway ground game, as he is prone to do. Javen Cook was his spectacular self. Rhett Gilliams scored the second touchdown on a never-ending, fourth-and-long gallop, though he pulled a hamstring doing it.

It was impressive but imperfect. A dropped bomb cost the Red Devils another score.

Head coach Corey Fountain saw plenty to fix. A rainy week of practice affected Clinton’s level of fitness.

It undoubtedly rained this week in Fountain Inn, too. Clinton, preparing to defend a Class 2A state championship, was the better team. The Red Devils committed fewer penalties, tackled and blocked better. Next up is 5A Chapin at Wilder Stadium next Tuesday at 6 p.m.

It was good to walk the sideline with familiar company. Fletcher Pruitt Jr. has photographed Clinton games since the late 1970s. The Advertiser’s John Clayton and I traded quips, compared notes and shared observations.

I’m out of shape, too, though walking up and down the sideline isn’t exactly the pentathlon. Since I got out of the hospital at the end of January, I get tuckered out easily. I might have written this last night had I not conked out in the easy chair while watching a preseason NFL game on TV. I doubt I was the only viewer to fall asleep.

Did you know the Colts have been in Indianapolis longer than they were in Baltimore? They got trounced in Baltimore last night. By the time I fell asleep, most of the players were destined to wind up on a NASCAR pit crew. Tonight the Panthers are playing the Browns. It probably won’t take sideline walking to get drowsy for this one.

It’s only two weeks before I’ll be following the Red Devils back up to the House That Willie Built. Woodruff upset Clinton, 40-34, at Wilder Stadium to open the 2024 season. It was the best game of the year, probably more of a wake-up call than anything else. Every game a state champion plays contributes to the title. It came down to the final minute. Most of the rest of the season came down to halftime.

I sort of miss close games, but only when Clinton loses, and the last few years, that hasn’t been too often.

Providence Day, which is from North Carolina but looks like it’s in the ACC, was getting ready to play Byrnes by the time I was talking to Fountain (as opposed to the Inn), who was passing out McDonald’s to his charges while I inquired about the first bricks in the wall.

He found more flaws than I had detected.

Woodruff took on Nation Ford in the final exhibition.

“We were a step slow, having been inside all week,” Fountain said. “We’ve got to make better plays and get their offense off the field. On offense, we’ve got to execute a little better.”

Fountain Inn has only been around for four seasons, going 0-10, 3-7 and 6-5 in the previous three. Quarterback Sam Holliday will fuel a lot of victories for the Fury this season.

Clinton – 12-2 last season – is 46-8 over the past four. Fountain and staff have quite the assembly line going.

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