Dragons rally on road, upend Beavers

Clinton 29 Karns 26: The Dragons entered the fourth quarter of Friday night’s game at Karns down by a score of 26-14. Instead of packing it in, however, Clinton took over in the fourth quarter and rallied for a 29-26 win over the Beavers.

The young Dragons grew up a lot on Friday night, especially first-year starting quarterback, sophomore Luke Harrison, who led the Dragons’ comeback with two fourth-quarter touchdown tosses, one to Demarea Whitt and the game-winner to J’Quan Thomas with 5:08 to play. From there, the defense held and the Dragons won their first game of the season to improve to 1-2, 1-1 in Region 3-5A.

Dragon running back Billy Long was a workhorse for Clinton on 25 carries for 192 yards and two touchdowns. Harrison was solid, completing 17 of his 28 passes for 227 yards, the two fourth-quarter scores and one interception. Thomas finished with eight catches for 155 yards and a TD while Whitt finished with seven catches for 65 yards and score. Whitt also picked off his third pass in two games and recovered a fumble.

Clinton    0-14-  0-15—29
Karns      6-  7-13  -0—26

Scoring

Karns—Chance Schubert 1 run (kick failed), 9:18, 1st
Clinton—Billy Long 12 run (Garrett Zody kick), 11:53, 2nd
Karns—Cartez Campbell 61 pass from Daniel Kitts (Sam Frazier kick), 10:47, 2nd
Clinton—Long 1 run (Zody kick), 2:34, 2nd
Karns—Teahzjawon Harper 2 run (Frazier kick), 8:53, 3rd
Karns—Kitts 1 run (pass failed), 2:39, 3rd
Clinton—Demarea Whitt 4 pass from Luke Harrison (Zody kick), 11:05, 4th
Clinton—J’Quan Thomas 22 pass from Harrison (Thomas pass from Harrison), 5:08, 4th

Team stats

First downs: Clinton 23, Karns 13
Rushes-yards: Clinton 45-264, Karns 31-174
Passing yards: Clinton 227, Karns 229
Comp.-Att.-Int: Clinton 17-28-1, Karns 13-18-1
Total plays-yards: Clinton 73-491, Karns 49-403
Punts-avg: Clinton 2-34.0, Karns 3-32.3
Return yardage: Clinton 28, Karns 17
Sacked-yards lost: Clinton 1-2, Karns 0-0
Penalties-yards: Clinton 5-45, Karns 0-0
Fumbles-lost: Clinton 2-1, Karns 1-1
Time of possession: Clinton 26:46, Karns 21:14

Time of game: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Individual stats

Rushes – yards

Clinton: Long 25-192 (2 TDs), Ro Hardin 7-33, Thomas 5-24, Harrison 6-15, Whitt 1-6, Team 1-minus 6; Karns: Te. Harper 12-95 (TD), Landon Kelly 15-73, C. Schubert 2-5 (TD), Kitts 2-1 (TD)

Passing (Completions-Attempts-Interceptions – yards)

Clinton: Harrison 17-28-1 227 (2 TDs); Karns: Kitts 13-18-1 229 (TD)

Receptions – yards

Clinton: Thomas 8-155 (TD), Whitt 7-65 (TD), Long 1-7, R. Hardin 1-0; Karns: Campbell 7-97 (TD), Thomas Harper 4-91, Te. Harper 1-36, Kelly 1-5

Punting – total yards – average

Clinton: Zody 2-68-34.0; Karns: Frazier 3-97-32.3

Kickoff returns – yards

Clinton: none; Karns: Te. Harper 1-17

Punt returns – yards

(none for either team)

Interceptions – yards returned

Clinton: Whitt 1-28; Karns: Dalton Presley 1-0

Fumble recoveries

Clinton: Whitt; Karns: Th. Harper

Fumble caused

Clinton: Whitt

Sacks – yards

Clinton: none; Karns: Cameron Francis 1-2