The Cliton Dark Horses (3-2) fell to the Whiteville Wolfpack 34-21 in their home game on Friday night.
The Wolfpack opened the scoring on their second possession after turning the ball over on an interception, as Whiteville converted a deep pass for a touchdown. The extra point made it 7-0.
After the first quarter, Whiteville doubled their lead with a short touchdown from four yards out and then a second passing touchdown to put the Dark Horses down 21-0. A huge return from Clinton kicked the offense back into gear after some early turnovers. They capped their next possession off with a five-yard pass touchdown from Dark Horse quarterback Elijah Bryant.
After halftime and down 21-7, the home side took possession of the ball, as they looked to build from where they left off in the first half. It didn’t take long, as Clinton’s Gavin Miller broke free and ran upfield to convert a 55-yard touchdown. After Whiteville answered with a touchdown of their own, the Dark Horses took possession at their own 37-yard line deep into the third quarter.
But the offense was unable to capitalize, as Clinton turned the ball over on downs after being stopped on fourth. The Wolfpack took over at the Dark Horse 41-yard line.
The final quarter began with a one-yard touchdown rush for Whiteville, as they marched 40 yards to convert on the defensive stop, but the extra point was missed.
Clinton fought back into the game, with Bryant throwing a 40-yard bomb to wide open receiver Jonah Boone, who cruised into the end zone to cut the Wolfpack lead down to two touchdowns.
The defense for the Dark Horses kept hope alive for another drive, after their opponents were forced to punt. After a few plays, Bryant stepped back in the pocket to throw, but was picked off. The turnover all but sealed the game for the Wolfpack, as Clinton dropped their second game of the season.
“The first half was awful,” Clinton head coach Jason Arnette said post-game. “I think we had five false start penalties; we had broke a huge run, got all the way down to the two-yard line and first down, and then we went backwards 33 yards. We had a snap go over the quarterbacks head and then another bad snap that he had to recover. Then we ran a pass play and got sacked and wounded up having to punt the ball, and that was after we had the ball on first down on the two-yard line. They go and score, and then there was another opportunity where we get the ball, punt to them and then fumble it to give them short field at the 16-yard line. You’ve pretty much almost given them a touchdown there because they’ve got to go 16-yards to score.”
Those miscues were part of the reason Arnette felt that his team was down early.
“That taking a touchdown off the board from us and giving them pretty much short field and a touchdown in my eyes,” he explained about the miscues. “They’ve got the momentum, go 16 yards, so they did and they score there. That’s the difference; we can’t make those mistakes.
“Then we got beat a couple of times with a deep ball. Coverage was good on the one that they got in the end zone there. The kid just made a great play and that’s football. The mistakes are the difference, you cannot make the mistakes that we made tonight and win a football game. We went down to Midway and made a lot of mistakes and had a poor showing. We went to Wallace Rose-Hill, eliminated mistakes and pulled out a 7-6 win … played East Bladen, did the same thing and had a big win. Tonight we went back to what we did against Midway and started making mistakes. Bad snaps, off sides, fumbled punts, those things kill you.”
The Dark Horses get a bye next week before they return to action on Friday, Oct. 2 against Pender. The off week gives Clinton a chance to regroup after the loss.
“We’ve got plenty of time,” Arnette expressed. We haven’t played a conference game, I was honest with them, but we haven’t played a conference. Everything we want is still out there is still in front of us. We can win the conference and still make the playoffs, but we’ve got to figure out how to mistakes and that’s all on us as coaches to figure that out. So we will, we got a bye and we’ll be ready.”
Union High School originally was selected as the game of the week, but a inclement delay caused the game to be pushed back multiple times until a 9 p.m. kickoff commenced. See that story in Tuesday’s Sampson Independent.