East Clarendon drops a tough one to Manning, 36-30 in Region 6-AA opener
Wolverines lose to Marlboro County 53-6 to drop to 0-2 in region play
Turbeville – East Clarendon High School dominated the first half of its football game with Clarendon County School District rival Manning on October 2 at Ramsey Stadium in Manning. The Wolverines came out of the locker room for the second half with a 16-0 lead and kicking off to the Monarchs.
And that’s pretty much where the good times came to an end for EC. The Monarchs returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and that propelled a rally that ended up in a 36-30 Manning victory.
East Clarendon head coach Larry Cornelius admits he was disappointed with his team.
“Our defense is better than that,” said Cornelius, whose team lost to Marlboro County 53-6 on Octobert 9 to fall to 3-4 overall and 0-2 in Region 6-AA. “ 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.”
The Wolverines certainly weren’t flat in the first half, scoring on their first two possessions of the game. East Clarendon received the opening kickoff and drove 70 yards with Picasso Brown scoring on a 1-yard run. On the next possession, Brown scored from eight yards out.
Placekicker Juan Gomez booted a 40-yard field goal with 4:14 left in the first half to give EC the 16-0 halftime lead.
Shamar Graham scored on a 20-yard run in the third quarter to put East Clarendon up 23-8. The Wolverines’ final touchdown came on a 74-yard kickoff return by up man Ke’Shaun Porter to make it 30-22 after MHS had pulled within a point.
EC finished the game with 283 rushing yards. 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.
Entering the game, Graham had 459 yards and three touchdowns, while Brown had 424 and four scores.
Quarterback Gavin White had thrown for 577 yards and seven TDs. His top targets were Easton Donlon with 13 catches for 156 yards and Pierson Kelly with 11 receptions for 177 yards.
Free safety Jamal Prince had 12 tackles, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble.
On the season, Avery Lowery and Porter were leading the defense with eight tackles for a loss. Lowery also had three quarterback sacks.
