By MONTE DUTTON

UNION – I don’t know what happened to Union County, but it must be similar to Laurens.
Class 2A Clinton ushered out a non-region schedule of four 3A and two 4A opponents. Any effect of the lower classification wasn’t readily apparent as the Red Devils blitzed the 3A Yellow Jackets, 60-0, at the fairgrounds on Friday night.
About 2,000 braved the steady rain for a while. Clinton fans were incentivized to hang around. Almost everyone on the home side waited long enough to see who the homecoming queen was, then worked on their Japanese and said sayonara.
Who could blame them?

Now Clinton (3-3) returns to Region 1-3A for the remainder of the regular season, with Liberty (4-2), coached by Paul Sutherland, visiting Wilder Stadium on Friday night for another homecoming affair. Liberty’s teams are also Red Devils, but for now, that confusion can wait.
“We wanted to use this game as a springboard to the region,” Clinton head football coach Corey Fountain said.
On the one hand, Fountain has done with his scheduling what he intended. The Red Devil offense gets more explosive every week. On the other, the three teams Clinton has defeated have one win between them. Clinton led that team, Union County (1-5), by a score of 40-0 at halftime.

The Red Devils are volatile. Even with a break-even record, Clinton has outscored its six opponents by 72 points (209-137). Its two shutouts to date are the most of Fountain’s seven seasons at the helm.
Clinton’s yardage was no greater than its norm, but the Red Devils ran only 32 offensive plays and gained an average of 8.6 yards. Clinton scored its nine touchdowns on seven runs, a pass and Kynius Williams’ fumble return.

The Red Devils ran and had no need to hide. Javen Cook and K.J. Vance each rushed for two touchdowns. Zy Butler and backup quarterback Jaydon Glenn each rushed for one. The starter, Owen Glenn, hit P.J. McGowan from 48 yards distant.
The scoring plays averaged 18 yards.
Everybody got involved. Nine ran the ball. Four – Cromer (2-61), Cook (6-42), Butler (7-41) and Vance (6-41) – rushed for at least 41 yards.
Qa Brannon led Union County, rushing for 53 yards in 14 carries. Brannon hit 6/24 passes for 32 yards.

The most surprising stat was penalties. Clinton only had seven of them for 51 yards, sparse by their standards. Union had seven for 60 yards.
“We just have to block like we did tonight,” said Fountain. “We cut down on penalties. We’ve got to keep working each week on minimizing our mistakes.
“We had explosive plays at the beginning of the year. The problem was that we kept getting them called back.”
The most extraordinary stat was time of possession. Clinton had the ball for only 13 minutes, 21 seconds, out of the 48 minutes that escaped the clock.
The Devils bore the look of a team ready to play ball in the region and beyond. It was a miserable night to witness a spectacular mismatch.

Few were the surprises also at Todd Kirk Field, where Laurens Academy (5-1, 1-0) thrashed Newberry Academy (0-5, 0-1), to which it has never lost, by a score of 42-14.
The Crusaders defeated the Eagles, 30-14, in their opening game.
Ethan Collins threw touchdown passes of 55 and 21 yards and ran one in from 38 yards out. LA led 28-0 at halftime. The Crusaders play Wardlaw (1-4, 0-1) for homecoming next.
Laurens (0-5) went scoreless for the third time, falling 35-0 to Lexington (2-3). The Raiders have been outscored, 233-27, this season.

The Wildcats led 28-0 at halftime and amassed 403 yards of offense in the game.
Laurens quarterback Logan Bragg completed 9/22 passes for 92 yards. The Raiders visit Fountain Inn (3-3) next.
Three Laurens County players – Javen Cook and Chris Boyd of Clinton and Brock Franklin of Laurens – were assigned to the North roster for the Touchstone Energy (North-South) Bowl, scheduled for Dec. 13 at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium in Myrtle Beach.

I’d love to have you make a contribution to keep my truck rolling. You can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports). Every little bit helps.
Most of my books are available at Amazon.