By MONTE DUTTON

After Presbyterian College’s spring football game on Saturday, I asked the new head coach, Matt Rahl, why the fans called better plays than the coaches.

As Dudley Moore once asked in the role of Arthur Bach, “Isn’t fun the greatest thing you can have?”

Rahl walked through the Bailey Memorial Stadium grandstands offering the faithful a chance to call plays for $20 a pop.

“Probably some of them need to be hired,” Rahl said. “I thought it was a fun deal trying to get some fan involvement. Some of them did call some really good plays. About 50 percent of them said, ‘Hey, why don’t you just call the play for me? Everybody was just having fun.”

Rahl had enough sense not to approach me. I was sitting in the stands thinking, Okay, line up in the Notre Dame box, shift into the single wing, roll out to the right and throw a pass back across to the left …

Such a call could have affected the outcome, which the Blue (offense) won by a score of 31-28 over the White (defense). The game began with the White ahead of Blue, 28-0. My play had pick-six written all over it.

I wouldn’t have asked the question to any coach, some of whom would have mistakenly thought me serious. Rahl has a vigorous sense of humor. Some coaches take everything seriously. Rahl likes having fun because he knows that nothing is more fun than winning, which the Blue Hose did a lot last year. His predecessor, Steve Englehart, arrived in Clinton with PC football at rock bottom and steadily progressed: 1-10 to 4-7 to 6-6 to 10-2. Now Englehart is at West Georgia University, and his former offensive-line coach, Rahl, is in charge of the Blue Hose, who have lost many starters but not the acquired taste for winning.

The Blue Hose will begin the coming season on Thursday, Aug, 27 at their stately venue, taking on Virginia Wise. 

“I think we played very clean football throughout today’s game, which is a sign of how far we’ve already come with a group that has so many new faces,” said Rahl. “We made all of our quarterbacks live (as in “live and in person”) for the bulk of spring practices because they are largely inexperienced at this level, but they’ve picked up the offense a great deal and that will only improve.

“It’s all about building a culture right now. We want to be competitive in all phases, and our players definitely showed that today with some very exciting moments.”

Team Blue began its chipping way at White’s built-in lead late in the first quarter on a trick play, 20 yards from incoming freshman Anton Smith to Landon Sharpe

 Team White held their offensive teammates off the board for nearly the whole first period, but team Blue entered the scoring column with a trick play from incoming freshman Anton Smith to Landon Sharpe on a 20-yard pass.

By halftime, the Blue Hose lowered the defensive edge to 11 points, thanks to an 18-yard TD from Max Holtzclaw to Lucas Barz and a 29-yard field goal by Divan Pungong.

Matthew Recupero, fresh from Beverly Hills, Calif., threw a scoring pass to Dre’Von Dopson.

The winning score was a 12-yard reception by West Virginia Wesleyan transfer Tristan Boone.

Most of the offensive productivity occurred via the pass.

“We’re really, really depleted at running back,” Rahl said. “We mostly threw by design tbecause we really only had about two and a half healthy running backs. We didn’t want to wear those guys out. In our first two scrimmages, we ran the ball efficiently.”

Of his four quarterbacks, Rahl said, “They all gave us something different. All four of them kind of rose to the challenge.”

The offense wore blue because Rahl evaluated each practice and it got more of his check marks than the defense.

Amid the food trucks, the giveaways, the selfies and the autographs, the citizen play-callers and a guest punter, and the post-game singing of “On, On, PC,” in part because there isn’t a band to play it, a good time was had by all. The new head coach was laughing all the way.

Take heart, Blue Hose faithful. The season is going to be fun, too.

Brogan Jones’ RBI single in the ninth inning gave Longwood (22-17, 7-7) an 11-10 Big South baseball victory over the Blue Hose on Saturday in Farmville, Va.

Nick Smith homered and Emory Guilford lashed three doubles as PC (9-31, 5-9) overcame an early 6-0 deficit to take a 10-9 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning. The Lancers scored single runs in the eighth and ninth innings.

Sunday’s 1 p.m. game settles the series.

A doubleheader split gave the Blue Hose a series win over Charleston Southern (8-38, 3-12) as PC (19-27, 7-8) won the opener, 6-2, and fell in the nightcap, 10-2.

Presbyterian ended its home season 12-11 as it honored seniors Peyton Duncan, Morgan Farthing, Maddi Wood, Gracie DeCuir, Blair Darby and Molly Mattas.

The rest of the regular season affords new challenges for the 17-2 Clinton High baseball team, beginning with a 6:30 p.m. Monday home game against Simpsonville’s Southside Christian (12-7-1) that apparently features an appearance by one of the state’s premier pro prospects, lefthanded pitcher Carson Bolemon, who is apparently slated to throw 45 pitches or so against the Red Devils.

Clinton, which has won its last nine games, then travels to Columbia to face Region 3-2A opponent Eau Claire on Tuesday. The Red Devils are to visit Gaffney (6-11) on Wednesday, then close out the region season at home against the Shamrocks on Friday.

Fountain Inn (20-2) visits Clinton on Monday, April 27, and Gaffney arrives for a Wednesday, April 29, game. The playoffs ensue on Friday, May 1.

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Most of my books are available at Amazon. Two of my novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audio versions.