BOILING SPRINGS, SC - In front of a large home crowd the Boiling Springs community looked forward to celebrating a homecoming victory but Landon Stone and the Clover Blue Eagles had different ideas as they defeated the Bulldogs 36-21 on Friday night.
A game that was back and forth between the two teams turned into a Clover win after back-to-back special teams plays went against the Bulldogs in the third quarter. "When you write down mistakes on your play sheet and it takes up a whole column and you're playing good people, you have very little shot of winning," said Bulldogs head coach Matt Reel. "We had some good things going early but we got behind the chains and Clover's numbers 10 and 18 (Jayden Bryant and Brody Rowan) were better than we were. We had an opportunity to get a two-score lead and we didn't which allowed them to grind it out on us." Clover was led by their junior running back Landon Stone who rushed the ball 32 times for 157 yards and two touchdowns. Boiling Springs took the first lead of the game when junior running back Javen Chhim took an 11-yard run up the middle for a score to take a 7-0 lead. Chhim set up the scoring drive with a 54-yard run down the left side of the field earlier in the drive. The Blue Eagles cut the Bulldogs lead to 7-6 when Stone scored his first touchdown run of the game on a three-yard run over the right side of the line before the extra point was missed from a bad snap as the play was ended after a tackle by Bulldogs senior defensive lineman Calvin Jackson. Clover took their first lead of the game when senior quarterback Jaylon Hoover found senior wide receiver Issac Allen along the right side of the endzone to take a 13-7 lead with just over a minute to go in the half, it was a lead that they took into halftime. On the first play of scrimmage in the second half, Boiling Springs running back Javen Chhim struck again taking a handoff 79-yards down the left side to give the Bulldogs a 14-13 lead over the Blue Eagles. Chhim finished the night with nine rushes for 176 yards and two touchdowns while also adding four catches for 57 yards and a touchdown. "Javen has played well all year for us," said Reel. "The only thing he hasn't done is get in the endzone, but he has played really well for us. He turned plays that should have been just a few yards into bigger plays, and I have nothing but respect and admiration for that kid. He shows up and plays hard every day whether it's a game or practice. He's an unreal human being and I love him to death." Clover responded on their next drive with a 14-yard touchdown run by Stone to go up 20-14 over the Bulldogs with just under six minutes to go in the third quarter. At the three-minute mark of the third quarter, two big special teams plays by Clover changed the whole game in favor of the Blue Eagles. The run started with a 72-yard punt return by junior TJ McCluney down the right side of the field to push their lead to 26-14 over the Bulldogs. On the ensuing kickoff Clover kicked a sideline kickoff that wasn't fielded by any Bulldogs player but recovered at the 22-yard line by a Clover player. The recovery turned into points on a fourth and 22 play that was converted when Hoover found Allen for a 33-yard touchdown pass in the back of the endzone to go up 33-14 over the Bulldogs. Clover added to their lead when they connected on a 31-yard field goal to push the lead to 36-14 with just over four minutes left in the game. Boiling Springs added another score when junior quarterback Lincoln Huskey found Chhim down the right sideline for a 45-yard touchdown to put the Clover lead at 36-21 over the Bulldogs. Huskey finished the game going 12 of 20 passing for 118 yards and a touchdown while adding 20 yards rushing. Kyle Patterson led the Bulldogs in receiving with five catches for 49 yards. On defense the Bulldogs were led in tackles by senior JoJo Barrett who had eight tackles while junior Campbell Johnson (5.5), sophomore TJ Collins (5.5), senior Omar Cotton (5), and senior Calvin Jackson (5) all registered at least five tackles while Jackson added two sacks and Collins had a sack as well. Reel says his team will move past the loss and will look to get back on track next week in their region opener. "It's a new season next week and we don't have the luxury of playing any bad teams where you can still get a win on an off night," said Reel. "We don't have games like that on our schedule and we'll probably never have games like that on our schedule. That's the challenge I give to our kids to be great every night. I tell them every day to chase perfection and see where you end up at. In the games we've loss, we've had turnovers and big mistakes. There's things I have to get better at and our team has to get better at and when we eliminate the times we beat ourselves we have a chance of winning any game." Boiling Springs will return to action next Friday at Dorman in their first region matchup of the season as the Cavaliers fell to River Bluff 29-28 on Friday night. Comments are closed.
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