State power Clinton knocks Eagles from playoffs

CLINTON -- Shelbyville Central's stay in the TSSAA state playoffs was short-lived as the Golden Eagles fell 35-6 to second-ranked Clinton in the opening round Friday night.

Despite the outcome, the Eagles (5-6) batted till the end against one of the favorites to win the Class 5A state championship.

Clinton (10-0) scored a pair of touchdowns in both the first and second quarters, which proved too much for the Eagles to overcome.

"We gave an effort and played hard enough to win the football game," Shelbyville coach Jason Hardy said. "We came up here and faced a really good opponent and our guys didn't back down. Three or four things early on may have been the difference in the game. We made some mistakes and had a few bad breaks but battled back and I'm very happy with the effort of this football team."

It didn't take the Dragons long to get on the board as they took the opening drive of the game 64 yards and scored on a 25-yard pass from talented senior quarterback Darian Stone to Camion Patrick. Josh Willard connected on his first of five extra points for the 7-0 lead.

A Shelbyville fumble at their 14-yard line set up Clinton's next score.

Four plays later Austin Powell found paydirt on a 2-yard run as the Dragons posted a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Shelbyville responded with an impressive nine-play drive capped off by a 2-yard touchdown run by quarterback Tre Stewart. The kick after failed, leaving the score 14-6 with 8:02 remaining in the first half.

On that drive Julius Smythe hauled in a pair of passes and Will Trice had a 19-yard run to help set up the touchdown.

Clinton closed out the first half with a pair of touchdown passes from Stone to Nick Frazier. The first was a 14-yard strike in the back of the end zone and the second an 18-yard screen pass aided by a number of missed tackles.

Shelbyville's defense settled down and didn't allow a touchdown from that point.

Clinton's only score in the second half came when Frazier blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown.

The Eagle punting game left a lot to be desired. In addition to the block, Shelbyville failed to execute three punt attempts, taking losses behind the line of scrimmage and giving their opponent great field position.

"I just don't have an explanation for what happened in our punting game," Hardy said. "The snaps on those three attempts were not perfect but they were not that bad as well. We just tried to do something with the football we didn't need to do instead of trying to get the punt off and live for another day. It's unfortunate that happened in the last game because we've had a real good year in our kicking game."

Shelbyville's defense put together two goal-line stands in the third quarter.

"You just can't ask for a much better defensive effort than we had in the second half. Our guys played with a lot of heart and made those two goal-line stands and I'm extremely proud of them for that," Hardy said.

Stone, who is considered one of the top quarterbacks in Tennessee, was 10-of-17 for 123 yards and three touchdowns and had five carries for 62 yards in the first half. The Eagle defense held him to two completions totaling 25 yards and only 5 yards on the ground in the second half.

"We said at halftime we had to find a way to stop the quarterback and we could play with them," Hardy said. "He is a good athlete and can hurt with his feet and his arm."

Hardy met with the senior class last Sunday and challenged them to be the leaders they needed to be during the week in preparing for the playoff. They didn't let him down.

"This past week was the best effort of senior leadership that I've seen since I've been coaching," Hardy said. "Hopefully our young guys saw that leadership and that will translate into a full year for our next group of senior leaders. This senior class left their mark on this program by the great leadership they showed, especially during this last week of practice."