The Clinton County Bulldogs came close to pulling off their first win of the season Friday night against Trimble County, but a final strategy for a two point conversion didn’t play out for the Bulldogs. Clinton County lost the game, 14-13.

Clinton County had a chance to kick a extra point after scoring a touchdown in the final three minutes of the game, but instead opted to take the lead with a two-point conversion.

Head Coach Jamie Miller said the decision to try for the two-point conversion came easy.

“I play to win,” Miller said. “I felt like we had been running the ball right down their throat during that possession. Their defense was getting tired and I felt like we really had an opportunity to stick it in and take the lead with just three minutes left in the game. After seeing it on film, the play was there. Even though we didn’t execute the play perfectly there was still a big enough hole to score.”

Miller said the play he ran had been a productive play through out the series.

“We ran that play several times and picked up four to eight yards every time,” Miller said.

As the final minutes of the game came to a close, Clinton County found itself down by one point after scoring a touchdown. Instead of kicking the extra point and forcing overtime, Miller chose to try the two point conversion in order to take the lead and possibly win the game.

As the play started, Clinton County’s attempt for two points fell through and the Bulldogs were stopped just before getting into the end zone.

Miller told the NEWS his team hits about 50 percent of their extra points during practice.

“Our first one almost got blocked and it could have been roughing the kicker, so I asked myself do we take our 50/50 chance of kicking the extra point or do we go for two and take the win? When you play to win, sometimes you will make a bad call and I take the blame for that. Every coach is going to make a bad call sometimes.”

Miller said he has no regrets about making the call to go for two.

“If I had it to do all over again, I would do the same thing,” Miller said.

Friday night’s game was Clinton County’s first home game of the season. This year, the Bulldogs have only four total home games.

“It’s actually a very fun game to watch, but it’s not a fun game to be a part of,” Miller said. “If you watched the circumstances that led up to the final score, you would realize that with five turnovers you are not going to win many football games.”

Miller said he is going to work on taking care of the ball this week in preparation for Friday night’s game against Adair County.

“Taking care of the football … that is something we definitely have to get better at,” Miller said. “I think our offense has improved a lot. We are able to move the ball and pick up first downs.”

Looking back at Friday night’s game, Miller said the Bulldogs had the potential to put a lot of points on the board.

“The score of the game could have been totally one sided,” Miller said. “You’re not going to win the football game when you don’t take care of the football and you have five turnovers.”

Miller said last week that he felt Friday night’s game would be a good chance for a win.

“I still feel that way, but it has me, the coaches and players just sick from not executing and taking care of the football,” Miller said.

With the game scoreless after the first quarter, Miller made a change at quarterback. As Coty Harris took the snaps, to replace Derek Albertson in the second quarter, Clinton County’s offense started moving forward with the ball.

“Coty hasn’t had all that much game experience and I wanted to see how he did in that position,” Miller said. “Both of them led a touchdown drive and had a touchdown, which I was pleased to see. I just wanted to give Coty a chance and he stepped in and made the most of it.”

The Bulldogs will travel to Adair County on Friday night to take on the Indians. Clinton County has not played Adair County in the regular season, however, the Bulldogs have scrimmage them in the past.

“We have scrimmaged them the past couple of years,” Miller said. “They have changed their offense a little bit. They used to be just a total option team. Defensively they are going to line up in a five-three … unless they change what they are doing, that is what we’ve worked on the most. We should be able to move the ball offensively if we can take care of it.”