By MONTE DUTTON

In the third round of Class 2A playoffs, they don’t play.

Okay, they play, as in play football, but they don’t play as in play around. This is serious business. Clinton is 9-3; Fairfield Central is, too.

Wilder Stadium, and all those raucous fans, could be the edge. Per capita, no one in the Palmetto State draws like the Red Devils. Head coach Corey Fountain knows this. He hopes the faithful will turn out early and often.

Addressing the fans, Fountain said, “We need you to come out early this week. Earlier. Be loud. We need all the help we can get. We need a 12^th man.

“They’re playing with a chip on their shoulder. Fairfield Central would like nothing better than to come into our stadium, where they lost last year, and beat us.”

By every measure, this game shapes up as a close one. The Red Devils and Griffins have the same record. The three common opponents – Newberry, Union County and Chesnee – had similar outcomes.

Clinton defeated Union County, 60-0; Fairfield Central defeated the Yellow Jackets, 35-0. Newberry defeated the Red Devils, 41-12, and Fairfield Central, 45-34. Clinton defeated Chesnee, 50-29, in region play. The Griffins won by a score of 50-21 in the first round of the playoffs.

Games aren’t played on paper, but this one has a sturdy stock.

A season ago, the Griffins played the Red Devils in the Upstate finals, a step closer to the state finals than this year.

Clinton, en route to its ninth state title, won that game, 32-21. A week later the Red Devils polished off Barnwell, 35-6, for all the marbles. When the final S.C. Media Poll was released at the end of this regular season, Clinton ranked second in 2A, and Fairfield Central, located in Winnsboro, was sixth.

The Red Devils and Griffins have met nine times, beginning in 1986 with a 40-0 Clinton victory. Fairfield Central’s only victory was a 12-3 win on Nov. 12, 1999. Clinton has won six in a row since and all four of the games played between the two at Wilder Stadium.

Three times – 1987, 2009 and 2024 – Clinton has taken down Fairfield Central on the way to a state championship. Clinton also compiled an 8-1 record against the Griffins’ predecessor, Winnsboro High, which merged with McCrorey-Liston to form the new school in 1986.

Last week Clinton advanced past Saluda, 35-25, while Fairfield Central was dispensing with Andrew Jackson, 36-0, in Kershaw. The Red Devils played Kershaw’s other high school, North Central, in the opening round, winning 56-7.

Let the record note that I have never seen a high-school team that blocks downfield better than the Red Devils. The Clinton cadre of quality rushers – Javen Cook, most notably, but also K.J. Vance, Angelo Cromer, Zy Butler, Rhett Gilliam and Owen Glenn – uses those blocks like pawns on a chess board.

If anyone is to beat Clinton the rest of the way, its defense will slow the Red Devils down. Almost 10 yards a carry – as a team! — is hard to beat.

Cook is a phenomenon. On an army with lots of weapons, he has rushed for 1,777 yards and 34 touchdowns. He has extraordinary power for a little man. He darts like a UFO. He accelerates like a Top Fuel dragster. Cook is not of this world. On the sideline, we see him streaking straight at us.

Uh, oh! Here he comes!

Derek Cammon led the Griffins by rushing for 93 yards at Andrew Jackson. Fairfield quarterback Kaden Diggs threw only eight times, but three went for touchdowns to Ty’Quarius Shannon.

Clinton has scored at least 31 points in its last nine games. The Griffins have won eight games by at least 29 points this season.

WPCC (106.5 FM/1410 AM/largetime.net) begins coverage at 7 p.m., with “Saturday Morning Rewind” following at 9 a.m. the following morning and a replay of the game at 10:30.

At Laurens Academy, this is the year of the big payback.

The Crusaders defeated Richard Winn twice, ending a losing streak that stretched back to 2009. They are in the SCISA eight-man finals because they ended a five-game skid against Holly Hill Academy.

Now Laurens Academy (9-2) is playing W.W. King (11-0), which has defeated it twice this season, for the state championship. Last year Winn defeated LA for the title.

It’s that rarity, a truly neutral site. The Knights, from Batesburg, and Crusaders are meeting at Greenwood Christian Academy. Game time is 7.

Last week, King swamped Jefferson Davis Academy, 74-28, while Laurens Academy was eliminating Holly Hill, 30-24.

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