Clinton beats Barnwell 35-6 for AA football state championship

         Orangeburg – The Clinton High School football team did what it does offensively – pound the football and pound the football some more – and its defense had its best game of the season in the biggest game of the year.

         And that’s why the Red Devils are the state champions for the first time since 2009.

         CHS ran for 312 yards and limited Barnwell to 155 yards of total offense on the way to a 35-6 victory in the AA state championship game on Thursday on Willie E. Jeffries Field at South Carolina State University’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

         Clinton finished the year with a 12-2 record in winning its ninth state championship. The Warhorses finished the year with a 13-2 record.

         After making deep playoff runs the past three seasons only to come up short, Red Devils head coach Corey Fountian was elated to be bringing a championship trophy back to the Laurens County school.

         “I’m just elated and I give the glory to God,” said Fountain, who just completed his sixth season at CHS. “He put together the coaches that we needed and the players that we needed. They gelled together, they bought in and the seniors have been working for six years.

“I have to give thanks to all of the players who came before them. We didn’t win a lot of games those first two years, but we kept grinding and working. That’s what it’s all about. I’m proud for our community, for our coaches, for our players.”

Clinton runs a flexbone offense out of the shotgun formation and it was dominant throughout behind its huge offensive line. The Red Devils ran the ball 55 times for the 312 yards, an average of 5.7 yards per attempt.

“It’s our staple,” said CHS right tackle Tre Aiken, a 6-foot-5-inch, 300-pound junior who has several Power 4 offers, South Carolina among them. “We’ve been running the football since Day 1. We’ve just gotten better and better.”

Clinton set the tone for the day pretty much from the outset. On the second play of the game, Red Devils quarterback Tushawan Richardson kept the football and went 77 yards for a touchdown. Running back Rhett Gilliam ran for the 2-point conversion to make it 8-0 with 11:20 still remaining in the first quarter.

BHS wasted no time with an answer. Jaquan Peeples fielded the ensuing kickoff at his 23-yard line, broke a couple of early tackles and went 77 yards for a touchdown. The extra point attempt was no good, leaving the score at 8-6 just one minute into the contest.

CHS had to work a little bit on the ensuing possession, but it answered with another score. It put together a 9-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a 27-yard scoring run by running back DJ Clark. Placekicker Lukas Kuykendall added the extra point to make it 15-6 with 7:07 left.

Richardson thought that response was a key point in the game even though there were still over 3 ½ quarters to play.

“You’ve got to rise to the occasion and score to seize the momentum and we were able to do that,” said Richardson, who ran for 106 yards and the touchdown on five carries while completing 2 of 6 passes for 38 yards and another TD. “It was important to put points on the board, and our defense was amazing.”

The Red Devils limited Barnwell to just 34 rushing yards on 18 carries and just 121 passing yards. The Warhorses had just nine first downs as they were stopped on all five of their fourth-down conversion attempts.

“Our defensive coaches did a great job of preparing our kids,” Fountain said. “We just did an excellent job on fourth down. I’ve never seen so many fourth-down stops.”

BHS head coach Brian Smith summed the outcome up in succinct fashion.

“They played well, and we made a lot of mistakes tonight,” Smith said. “It’s a great year though. I’m proud of these kids and we’re just happy to be here.”

Clinton did a good job of llimiting Barnwell star quarterback Cameron Austin. The senior entered the game with 725 rushing yards but had just 37 yards on 12 carries. Austin completed 15 of 34 passes for 121 yards with one interception.

Clinton senior linebacker Kason Copeland said Austin was the focus of the defensive preparation.

“We prepared all week to keep the quarterback in the pocket,” said Copeland, who shared the team lead in tackles with six and had a team high two tackles for loss. “That’s all we did, that’s all we were working on. We kept him in the box.”

The third time Clinton got the ball, it put together a 13-play, 62-yard scoring drive that sucked 7:01 off the clock. The drive culminated with Gilliam scoring from five yards out. The 2-point conversion run failed, leaving the score 21-6 with 9:33 left in the second quarter.

“We couldn’t stop them the whole game,” Smith said. “That’s something we’ve got to do, and we just couldn’t do it.”

The Red Devils had a chance to open an even bigger lead into the locker room when it sniffed out a fake punt on fourth down and took over at the Barnwell 34. CHS drove to a first down and goal at the 4 and faced third and one. However, a fumble pushed it back to the 15 and it missed out on the scoring opportunity.

With the Warhorses receiving the second-half kickoff, that may have afforded them the opportunity to climb back intp the game. A 32-yard kickoff return by Jordan Peeples left BHS starting at its 38. A 32-yard completion rom Austin to wide receiver William Robinson gave it a first down at the Clinton 31.

On third and one from the 22, Austin was dropped for a 1-yard loss. Austin then threw an incompletion to turn the ball over on downs.

“That hurt us, that hurt us big,” Smith said of the inability to convert in that situation. “We’ve got to be able to do that.”

The Red Devils responded with a 7-play scoring drive that ended with Richardson throwing a 29-yard TD pass to wide receiver Devin Swindler to make it 28-6 with 4:57 to go in the third quarter.

“You could have just stuck your foot on their neck at the end of the half, and we didn’t do that,” said Fountain, who won two state titles at Lamar. “We didn’t do that and that had me worried. But we were able to get the stop and go down the field and score. It just shows what kind of team we are.”

Any doubt of the game’s outcome was put away when Gilliam scored on an 8-yard with 6:49 left in the game. Gilliam rushed for 59 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries, while Clark had 37 yards and a score on seven carries.

Leading rusher and junior running back Javen Cook didn’t score but did have 93 yards on 20 carries. Swindler had both of the BHS catches for 38 yards.

Kahzeer Wesley was the top target for Austin, coming up with six catches for 52 yards. Robinson had three catches for 44 yards and Logan Sturkie has two catches for 21 yards.

Robinson also had a big game on defense, coming up with 12 tackles from his free safety post.

Smith put everything in perspective on what his team achieved.

“It’s not the outcome we wanted, but it’s a whole lot better than sitting at home and watching it,” he said. “Our goal every year is to get here. It was a great year, a phenomenal year.”

         Fountain said winning state was a culmination of all of the hard work put in by everyone involved.

“I’m just very happy, very happy for our players, our fans, our coaches, the work they have put in,” Fountain said. “Those seniors have been putting in the work since they were in middle school. The work in the weightroom paid off today.

“It takes a buy-in, not just from me, but from all of these coaches. They made this happen today.”

All of the Red Devils talked about how special it was to win the title for the community. There couldn’t have been too many folks left in Clinton based on the numbers in the stands.

“It means a lot to win it because they’ve been supporting us since Day 1,” Aiken said. “The town deserves it. They’ve been waiting for it and we were able to give it to them.”

“Through our four years of high school to have worked so hard and come up short, it really feels good to get it done for the community, the coaches and the players,” said Richardson, who also had an interception on defense.

While Copeland also wanted to win for the community, he also wanted to win so he could lord it over some former teammates.

He is the youngest of the four Copeland brothers. The other three were integral parts of the three previous teams, but Kason is the only one who will have a state championship ring.

Does he plan on giving his siblings a constant reminder of that fact?

“Oh, yes sir,” Copeland said. "It means everything to win state. I’ve poured my heart into this. It’s a good feeling. We’ve worked so hard for this.”