Clinton County traveled to Jackson County, Tennessee, Friday night in the Dawgs’ season opener.
The Dawgs were held scoreless in the first half and lost the contest, 28-14.
“The game started off with Jackson hitting a big run first play of the game and that drive eventually ended up with a 7-0 lead for them,” Head Coach Rocky Tallent said. “After that, we settled in defensively and didn’t allow another point in the first half. Offensively, we moved the ball well in the second quarter, but stalled out in the red zone. We were down 7-0 at the half. We came out in the second half and went and got a score on a touchdown run by quarterback Jaxson Mason.”
Clinton County couldn’t capitalize on the run and found themselves down 7-6 without the two point conversion.
“We came out and got a stop to get the ball back, but never could grab the lead. In the fourth quarter, the heavy run offense of Jackson County started to wear on us defensively and they put up 21 points in the fourth quarter,” Tallent said. “We fought back after being down 21-6 and capped off a scoring drive when Mason connected with Noah McCutchen for a touchdown, followed by a two point conversion run by Tristen Rodgers.”
In the end, Jackson County came away with a 28-14 victory after punching in a late score on the ground.
“Overall, I thought there was a lot of good that came from the game Friday night. I thought that the offensive line and defensive line matched the physicality of Jackson County in the trenches and gave us time to throw offensively and we tackled well defensively,” Tallent said. “Our lines really played well. We kind of wore out late in the game as Jackson County was physical up front and ran the ball 38 times. Another good thing about Friday night was we played a clean game turnover-wise. We didn’t have a turnover all night and forced one from Jackson County. It’s always a plus to win the turnover battle. All in all, it was a loss with a lot of positive to end early in the season. The Bulldogs were able to move the ball through the air and overall put in a solid night defensively. I thought we were just a play here or a play there from the game being totally different.”
The Dawgs were lead offensively by Mason, who was 21-38 for 168 yards and one touchdown. Mason also added a rushing touchdown. On the receiving end of Mason’s passes, the Dawgs were lead by Kasyn Massengale with eight receptions for 91 yards, McCutchen four receptions for 30 yards and a touchdown, Will Beaty added four yards for 23 total, and Jason Kinney had three for 18 total. We couldn’t get much going on the ground against Jackson County’s tough run defense and were lead by Kasyn Massengale on the ground with 14 yards rushing. On the defensive side of the ball, the Dawgs were lead by Mason McDainel with 13 tackles, Austin Arms with nine, Kade Beaty with eight, Tristen Rodgers and Levi Wray with seven, and Jadon Kinney with five yards. Kade Beaty had the lone sack for the Bulldogs on Friday night and Austin Arms had a forced fumble with Tristen Rodgers.
“Overall the effort was there and this is a really good group. If we continue to play the way we did Friday night the wins will come,” Tallent said.  “We have some freshmen starting and have some players who have never played before starting, so a lot of new faces in new places and we have those first game jitters out of the way.”
Clinton County will be on Bulldog Field Friday night to host Wayne County with kickoff being set for 7 p.m.