By MONTE DUTTON

WOODRUFF – Man, I’ve seen a lot of Clinton-Woodruff football games. The game last year was the closest the Red Devils played en route to the Class 2A state championship. The first (I remember) was in 1965 at the tender age of seven.

About 4,000 fans took up most of W.L. Varner Stadium’s capacity. The Wolverines played the Red Devils for the 85^th time. Clinton leads the series, 55-28-1, but that wasn’t the way Friday night’s game turned out. Woodruff won, 21-13. At kickoff, the Wolverines were ranked third in Class 3A, the Devils tops in 2A.

As was the case at Wilder Stadium 364 nights earlier, Woodruff (1-0) broke on top and never trailed. Clinton (0-1) missed a couple early scoring opportunities – most notably after Angelo Cromer blocked a punt – and excessive penalties were a culprit throughout.

Big Red rushed for 236 yards, led by Zy Butler with 104 and Cromer with 89, but too many of their gains required repeating. Twelve penalties for 87 yards plagued the Devils.

Aiden Gibson led the Wolverines on the ground with 67 yards. Quarterback Connor Davis hit 8/14 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown.

In his first varsity start, Clinton junior Owen Glenn hit 6/18 for 64 yards. Like his counterpart in maroon, Glenn had a TD and an interception. Jaydon Glenn was who intercepted Davis.

The game was disappointing but understandable for the white-clad Red Devils. An opening-night wake-up call worked pretty well last season. A couple injured players, junior back Rhett Gilliam and senior lineman Ashton Sherfield, should be back for Laurens, which fell at Hillcrest, 56-17.

Clinton’s third opponent, Newberry, wasted Union County, its sixth foe, 62-14.

Brett Sloan’s Wolverines provided the Red Devils a stern test. That was the plan. Losing to them wasn’t, but Fountain considers opening the season with quality opponents the best way to prepare for the Region 1-2A schedule, still six weeks away.

“We played a really good football team in Woodruff,” Fountain said. “It was a really good lesson.”

That lesson? “Too many mistakes.”

Davis, who netted 15 yards on the ground, put the Wolverines on top with a 10-yard rush with 11:54 remaining in the first half. Joshua Ruiz added the extra point. Woodruff pushed the lead to 15-0 on Davis’s 42-yard pass to Gibson and Jackson McCarley’s two-point conversion.

The Red Devils got on the board on the half’s final play, a five-yard pass from Glenn to Javen Cook.

Woodruff led 21-6 as a result of Jaylen Lyles’ four-yard rush with 27 seconds left in the third quarter. The kick failed, putting the Wolverines up, 21-6.

The clock still had 7:07 on it when Clinton completed an eight -play, 68-yard drive with Butler scoring on an 11-yard run. Cromer’s 29-yard burst had given the Red Devils a first down at the 27. Matt Brown’s low liner was miraculously good for the extra point.

Clinton never got the ball back. Without gaining more than 11 yards on a single play, the Wolverines needed 12 plays to run out the clock and reach as far as the Clinton 12.

While the Red Devils visit Laurens (0-1), Powdersville (0-1) visits the Wolverines next week. The Patriots banished Woodruff from the 2024 3A playoffs with a 21-14 verdict.

“We just have to push the reset button,” Fountain said. “I put myself to blame for this one. I didn’t have my guys ready in certain situations.

“This game’s not going to define our season. It didn’t last year. … I thought our kids played hard to the very end. Our kids gave great effort. Nobody gave up. We fought to the very end.”

For years, my site has been supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports). Every little bit helps.

It pays for gas to Blacksburg and some pregame Mexican. It pays for pictures and gamers and wee-hours coffee.

Most of my books are available at Amazon.