Dragons bounce back, pound Pounders, 51-21

Friday night, the Clinton Dragons got back on track and avoided a hangover from last week’s disappointing loss to Powell by blowing out the Chattanooga Central Purple Pounders, 51-21.

Josh Keith threw four touchdown passes—three to Lucas Kendall—and the Dragon defense stymied the Pounders as Clinton improved to 4-2 on the season. The Dragons dominated the first half, leading 24-0 at halftime after four first-half touchdowns. Clinton took the opening kickoff and drove down the field for the game’s first score, a 10-yard run by Brandon Hollifield, and led 6-0 after a failed two-point conversion—the first of four such attempts in the first half, but more on that later.

Less than two minutes later, following a fumble recovery, Keith hit Kendall for the first time from 44 yards out to give CHS a 12-0 lead. The Dragons added to their advantage in the second quarter on a 7-yard run by Keith and a 20-yard Keith-to-Kendall connection to extend the lead to 24-0 at intermission.

Clinton struck first coming out of the locker room on a 5-yard pass from Keith to Kendall that, with the successful extra point kick by Jeremiah Lee–filling in for the injured Jacob Prewitt–gave the Dragons a 31-0 lead. Lee also handled kickoff chores for CHS and ended up going 3-of-4 on extra point tries, in addition to his usual return duties.

The Pounders scored a couple of touchdowns in the third quarter, halting the running second-half clock, on a 5-yard Ronyé Watson run and a 66-yard pass from Watson to Tristan Odom to make it 31-14 after three quarters.

In the fourth, Clinton got a touchdown from Lee, who caught an 11-yard touchdown pass, as well as a 10-yard Jawan Goins scamper and a 3-yard Teegan Bolinger fumble recovery scoop and score, while Chattanooga Central (3-3) added a second touchdown run, this one from 7 yards out.

Game Notes

• Josh Keith was 23-of-32 for 258 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs
• Lucas Kendall had 4 receptions for 119 yards and 3 TDs
• Clinton outgained the Pounders, 384 to 289, including a 137-99 edge in rushing
• Each team was penalized 14 times, with Clinton’s penalty yardage coming out to 127 yards, while Chattanooga Central’s totaled 102.

Box score by Dan McWilliams

Chattanooga Central       0-  0-14-  7—21 

Clinton                           12-12- 7-20—51  

Scoring 

Clinton—Brandon Hollifield 10 run (run failed), 9:02, 1st 

Clinton—Lucas Kendall 44 pass from Joshuah Keith (run failed), 7:20, 1st 

Clinton—Keith 7 run (run failed), 9:50, 2nd 

Clinton—Kendall 20 pass from Keith (run failed), 4:28, 2nd 

Clinton—Kendall 5 pass from Keith (Jeremiah Lee kick), 8:11, 3rd 

Chattanooga Central—Ronyé Watson 5 run (Marquis Parson kick), 4:38, 3rd 

Chattanooga Central—Tristan Odom 66 pass from Watson (Parson kick), 2:49, 3rd 

Clinton—Lee 11 pass from Keith (Lee kick), 8:27, 4th 

Chattanooga Central—Watson 7 run (Parson kick), 5:30, 4th 

Clinton—Jawan Goins 10 run (Lee kick), 4:02, 4th 

Clinton—Teegan Bolinger 3 fumble return (kick failed), 3:48, 4th 

Team stats 

First downs: Clinton 15, Chattanooga Central 10 

Rushes-yards: Clinton 22-126, Chattanooga Central 34-99 

Passing yards: Clinton 247, Chattanooga Central 190 

Comp.-Att.-Int: Clinton 23-32-0, Chattanooga Central 8-25-0 

Total plays-yards: Clinton 54-384, Chattanooga Central 59-289 

Punts-avg: Clinton 4-27.0, Chattanooga Central 2-33.0 

Return yardage: Clinton 43, Chattanooga Central 100 

Sacked-yards lost: Clinton 0-0, Chattanooga Central 0-0 

Penalties-yards: Clinton 14-127, Chattanooga Central 14-102 

Fumbles-lost: Clinton 0-0, Chattanooga Central 4-2 

Time of possession: Clinton 25:43, Chattanooga Central 22:17 

Time of game: 2 hours, 46 minutes 

Individual stats 

Rushes – yards …Clinton: Goins 11-74 (TD), Hollifield 5-35 (TD), Keith 3-20 (TD), Erreese King 3-minus 3; Chattanooga Central: Watson 11-67 (2 TDs), Perry Armour Jr. 8-44, Chris Nichols 5-22, Marquise High 7-5, Caden Jones 1-3, Team 2-minus 42 

Passing (Completions-Attempts-Interceptions – yards)…Clinton: Keith 23-32-0 258 (4 TDs); Chattanooga Central: Watson 8-22-0 190 (TD), Jones 0-3-0 0 

Receptions – yards …Clinton: Lee 8-38 (TD), Kendall 4-119 (3 TDs), Braylon Taylor 4-21, Jaquan Benton 2-34, D’mon Marable 2-19, Bolinger 1-18, Wesley Phillips 1-6, Goins 1-3; Chattanooga Central: Larry Henderson 4-92, Odom 3-91 (TD), Carter Daniel 1-7 

Punting – total yards – average…Clinton: Blane Collins 4-108-27.0; Chattanooga Central: Kade Weaver 2-66-33.0

Kickoff returns – yards…Clinton: Travis Jackson 2-31, Lee 1-9; Chattanooga Central: Kyree Steward 4-51, Watson 2-19, Daniel 1-13, Odom 1-12

Punt returns – yards…Clinton: none; Chattanooga Central: Moses Duckett 1-5

Interceptions – yards returned…(none for either team)

Fumble recoveries…Clinton: Elijah Batiste, Bolinger; Chattanooga Central: none 

Fumble returns – yards…Clinton: Bolinger 1-3 (TD); Chattanooga Central: none 

Sacks – yards…(none for either team)