Bulldogs continue to struggle on the field

Posted October 12, 2016 at 8:28 am

The Clinton County Bulldogs traveled to Red Boiling Springs Friday night in hopes of picking up a win, however, the Dawgs lost a close battle and finished on the losing end of a 34-28 decision in overtime.

“We had some key players get pretty banged up,” Head Coach Jamie Miller said. “It was a real physical game. When you have a tight game like that you need everyone to play four quarters of football. We just weren’t able to stay with our normal offense when it got down to crunch time.”

Clinton County finished the game in regulation tied at 28, sending the game into overtime.

Coach Miller said since his tenure at Clinton County, he has been in three overtime games.

Overtime rules are a little different than in the regulation part of the game in that each team takes the ball at the 10 yard line and the first team who doesn’t score on their respective possession loses the game. If both teams fail to score then it goes into a double overtime.

In Friday night’s game, Clinton County was unable to score in the overtime period and Red Boiling Springs did score a touchdown, giving them the win Friday night.

“We took the lead 28-20 and they scored relatively late to tie the game,” Miller said. “The defense had a terrific stand.”

Friday night, Noah Pruitt had two touchdowns and a two point conversion, followed by Cory Arms, Christian Carpenter and CJ Smith with one touchdown each. Smith also had a two point conversion for the game.

Pruitt rushed for 127 yards and had 119 passing yards for the game. He also surpassed 1,000 yards rushing for the season.

Pruitt also had 20 carries for 127 yards while Arms had 14 carries for 94 yards, Smith had four carries for 26 yards and Jordan Davis had two carries for one yard.

Carpenter caught two passes for 61 yards total, Smith caught three passes for 39 yards, Arms caught two for 18 yards, Dylan Groce caught one pass for 13 yards and Luke DeFault caught one pass for 15 yards on the game.

On defense, Devon Redman led the team with 14 tackles, followed by John Stearns with 10 and Jon-Allen Cross with nine tackles. Stearns recorded one interception and Richard Stephens had one fumble recovery.

This week is a bit different for the Dawgs as Clinton County will take the field Thursday night. With the Foothills Festival being held this weekend, Clinton County has opted to take to the field on October 13 at 7 p.m. against Jenkins.

“We are trying to keep everything as normal as possible. We are practicing at the same time. On Thursday, I don’t want them staying at home all day, so they are going to come out here at 10 a.m. and we are going to watch a couple movies, have a light run through and watch another movie and then get ready to play.”

Miller said this will be the last year Clinton County will be playing Jenkins and Webster County.

“We are trying to pick up Celina, Tennessee, and Fort Knox. I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not,” Miller said. “I’m thinking that the next time it’s available we are going to get back into district play. I think there are two teams in the district we can compete with and Metcalfe isn’t the worse team in the district anymore. They may actually give Glasgow a run for the district title.”

Clinton County is labeled as a 2-A school so when the redistricting happens, every four years, Clinton County will once again be part of post season play. As of right now, Clinton County would be in a district with Glasgow, Metcalfe County, Monroe County and Green County. Once Clinton County re-enters district play, Miller said that could change a little.

“Green County is struggling pretty bad this year and Monroe County isn’t as strong as they normally are,” Miller said. “We’ve been 2-A since 2011. Whenever the district gets re-aligned, we will get back in the district.”

Last year, Clinton County defeated Jenkins 44-28 and will look to pick up another win come Thursday night.

“They are coming off a win, so they aren’t going to come all the way down here to take a beatin’,” Miller said. “We need to get our guys mentally prepared.”

Thursday night will be Senior Night for the Dawgs with festivities beginning around 6:30.