East Clarendon shows both good and bad in first two games
Wolvernes beat Scott's Branch 21-14 in opener before falling to Laurence Manning 24-6
Turbeville – The East Clarendon High School football team has been at two different ends of the spectrum through their first two games of the season.
The Wolverines opened the season with a 21-14 victory over Scott’s Branch. However, they followed it up with a 24-6 loss to Laurence Manning Academy.
East Clarendon head coach Larry Cornlius is still trying to get a good read on his team.
“So far we’ve played two pretty good teams,” Cornelius said. “We’ve learned a lot so far. We went into the Laurence Manning game not at 100 percent with a few guys out. But we know we’ve got to play a cleaner game than we played against them.”
The Wolverines were penalized 15 times for 155 yards against the Swampcats. They also hurt themselves a lot against Scott’s Branch, picking up over 400 yards of total offense, but hurting themselves with penalties and three turnovers.
“We can’t afford all of those penalties,” Cornelius said. “We’ve got to stay in front of the sticks. We can’t be chasing the chains all night. Our offense isn’t built for that.”
Cornelius hopes to get the offense in gear behind an offensive line that has a lot of experience. The center is Colton Baker, who is 5-feet-100inches tall and weighs 230 pounds. The rest of the line includes Walker Kirby (6-5, 270), Koy Wright (5-11, 230), Johnny Boyington (5-10, 240) and Jesse Floyd (6-3, 215).
Gavin White is back at quarterback. He has a slew of players to throw to and hand the ball to in the likes of Heath Jordan, Easton Donlon, Jamal Prince, Shamar Graham, Picasso Brown, Pierson Kelly, Crosby Timmons and the coach’s son, Skyler Cornelius.
Floyd is the noseguard on defense with Graham and Avery Lowery starting on either side of him at defensive end. The only returning linebacker is on the outside in Ke’Shaun Porter. The other outside linebacker is Cade Mooneyham, while the inside linebackers are Timmons and Carsten Mellette.
The secondary is experienced with Cornelius at strong safety, Picasso Brown at free safety and Braylon Brown lined up at one of the cornerbacks. The other cornerback is a newcomer in Ashtin Lanier.
East Clarendon finished the night with 422 yards of total offense against Scott’s Branch.
Coach Cornelius likes the backfield combination he has of his son, Picasso Brown and Graham.
“I think we’ve got three really good backs back there,” the head coach said. “We just like to mix and match them, and we’ll go with whoever it is that has the hot hand.”
No on had a super impressive game against Laurence Manning. Graham had 11 carries for 55 yards, Brown had 48 yards on nine carries and Cornelius finished with 12 yards on four carries.
Whie completed 10 of 22 passes for 68 yards against the Swampcats. Donlon had three receptions while Prince, Timmons and Kelly had two catches apiece.
Coach Cornelius sees a lot of good things in the defense, but there is one area that needs improvement.
“We’ve got to clean up our tackling,” he said. “There are too many open field tackles that we missed. Our practice time has been really limited because of the heat, and I think that has hurt us with tackling.”
