Manning rallies from a 16-0 defecit to best East Clarendon 36-30

Manning – East Clarendon High School dominated the first half of its football game with Clarendon County School District rival Manning on Friday at Ramsey Stadium. The Wolverines came out of the locker room with a 16-0 lead and kicking off to the Monarchs.

Any momentum or mojo EC had or enjoyed was gone in about six seconds. That’s how long it took MHS kickoff return specialist CJ Robinson to get his hands on the kickoff and take it 80 yards for a touchdown. Manning tacked on the 2-point conversion to make it 16-8. Suddenly it was the Monarchs riding the momentum wave, and they never really let it get away.

MHS tied the game at 30-30 with just over six minutes left in the game, forced a turnover and then won it on a 6-yard jet sweep pass from quarterback Lovell Stevenson to Robinson with just over a minute to go for a final score of 36-30.

It was the Region 6-AA opener for both teams. Both now own 3-3 records on the season.

‘Yeah, we played a lot better than in the first half,” Manning head coach Reggie Kennedy said with a laugh.

Robinson’s TD kickoff return was his fifth of the season even though teams normally choose not to kick to him. The Monarchs had moved Robinson up on the kickoff return team in hopes he could get the ball as East Clarendon was kicking short.

However, Kennedy chose to put him deep to start the second half, and the Wolverines did not notice. They kicked it to Robinson and he worked his magic. Running back Destin Thames ran for the 2-point conversion and just like that the Wolverines’ lead was cut in half at 16-8.

“I just got it, saw an opening and I took off,” Robinson said.

Kennedy couldn’t deny the timeliness of Robinson’s return.

“Out of six ball games, he’s returned it for a touchdown five times,” Kennedy said. “I don’t know who did that scouting report, but they didn’t do a good job. We needed it at that time though. He gave us a little spark to start the second half, and it helped us to turn things around in the second half.”

East Clarendon head coach Larry Cornelius said there was a miscommunication on the kickoff.

“That was a miskick,” Cornelius said. “Obviously we’re not trying to kick it to CJ. We know what he can do.”

Manning forced EC to punt on the ensuing possession, taking over at its 30-yard line. The Monarchs picked up a first down and had a big gain on a pass but fumbled the ball away.

The Wolverines ended up scoring on a 20-yard run by running back Shamar Graham. Placekicker Juan Gomez added the extra point to make it 23-8 with 8:11 remaining in the third quarter.

MHS responded with an 8-play, 60-yard scoring drive. Manning started the drive with an 11-yard pass from Stevenson to Robinson. After that, it was all runs, ending with a 13-yard scoring run around the left end by Stevenson. The 2-point run failed, leaving the score at 23-14 with 4:59 to go.

That was really the start of a dominating running game for the Monarchs in the second half. They ended up rushing for 206 yards on 33 carries in the final 24 minutes. Isaiah Baxter had 72 yards on eight carries, Stevenson had 66 yards on 11 totes, and Thames had 55 yards on 10 carries.

“They’re a good 1-2 punch,” Kennedy said of Baxter and Thames. “Isaiah is more of our power back. Destin has a little bit more wiggle in him. We’ve got to see if he can go the distance when he gets a little crack.”

EC drove into Manning territory before turning it over on downs at the 34. The Monarchs went on a 7-play, 66-yard scoring drive that stretched from the third quarter into the final stanza. It ended with Thames scoring on a 5-yard run and then running for the 2-point conversion to pull within a point at 23-22 with 10:29 to go in the game.

MHS did a squib kick on the kickoff with one of the up men, linebacker Ke’Shaun Porter, picking it up at the 24. He proceeded to go 76 yards for a touchdown. Gomez added the extra point to make it 30-22 with 10:22 left.

After an incompletion on first down on the ensuing drive, Baxter broke off a 34-yard run to give Manning a first down at the EC 32. It took the Monarchs eight more plays, but they reached paydirt on a 5-yard run by Baxter. He then ran for the conversion to tie the game at 30-30 with 6:27 remaining.

East Clarendon lost the football on third down on its next possession with the Monarchs recovering at the Wolverine 34. MHS ran it seven straight plays to get to third down and goal at the 6.

After a Manning timeout, Robinson came across the field from the left side and took the slightest of a forward shovel pass from Stevenson, beat an EC defender to the edge and turned it in for the 6-yard touchdown on the jet sweep to make it 36-30 with 1:08 left.

“I told coach, ‘Give me the ball. I got you, I’ve got you coach,’ ” Robinson said.

East Clarendon could do nothing on its final possession, turning the ball over on downs.

Kennedy said the halftime talk with his team was more about being ready mentally for the second half.

“We were talking about staying on track because we would get off track with penalties or we would blow a blocking assignment (in the first half),” Kennedy said. “It was the little stuff that would get us off track and get us behind the chains.

“At halftime it was more about us getting them ready mentally than what we were doing on the field. We did a better job of staying on track in the second half.”

Cornelius obviously was not happy with how his team performed in the second half.

“Our defense is better than that,” he said. “ We showed it the first half. What’s the difference? Some of that is mentality, and as I said, we’ve got to do a better job of playing under pressure. Hats off to Manning, but we lost that game. We had the ability to win it, we should have won it, but they took it from us.

“If I felt like we’re not that good, I wouldn’t be upset right now. Six games now we’ve underplayed. We started this game off better than the previous five. I thought we finally got it. It’s region play, we’re kicking it in. As coaches we stayed on them with the extended halftime. We just came out flat.”

East Clarendon scored on the first possession of the game. It drove 70 yards with Picasso Brown scoring on a 1-yard run. The Wolverines scored on their second possession as well with Brown scoring from eight yards out with 35 seconds left in the first quarter.

Gomez, who had his PAT blocked after the second TD, booted a 40-yard field goal with 4:14 left in the first half to give EC the 16-0 halftime lead.

Skyler Cornelius returned from an injury to rush for 104 yards on 15 carries. Graham had 14 rushes for 80 yards, and Brown had 69 yards on 12 carries.