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Kenny Fey

Clinton High School's Taviouzie Booker (44) tries to turn the corner as Seneca's Friar Thompson closes in on the tackle during the Red Devils' 28-7 win over the Bobcats on Friday night at Bobcat Stadium in Seneca.

SENECA — They say that when it rains, it pours, and it looked as though the Seneca High School football team found itself caught in a monsoon against Clinton on Friday night.

Surrendering 543 yards to the visiting Red Devils, including 392 on the ground, the Bobcats could never get their footing in a 28-7 loss which kept Seneca winless on the season as Western AAA play approaches in two weeks against Pickens.

The Bobcats (0-4) surrendered 6.3 yards per carry on the night, and could never find an answer to Clinton’s running back trio of Matt Ligon, Taviouzie Booker and Trobias Brown.

“They’ve got a physical football team, and physically, they took it to us,” Seneca coach Ron Duncan said.

Clinton (2-2) also was able to keep Seneca’s offense off the scoreboard all night, as the rushing attack held the ball for the majority of the game, especially in the second half when Seneca had the ball for just 73 seconds in the third quarter as the Bobcats tried to rally.

“Our offense was our best defense tonight, and I think the defense stepped it up a little bit too,” Clinton head coach Andy Young said.

The Bobcats’ lone score of the night came from the defense when Nick Sims returned a fumble 100 yards for a score as time expired in the first half to bring the Red Devils’ lead to 14-7 at halftime, which could have served as a momentum builder for Seneca.

But as Clinton’s first drive of the second half lasted just over nine minutes, the Bobcats never had much of a chance to get back into the game.

“We told them if we could take it and keep it that quarter, we could probably take the wind out of their sails, and I think that’s pretty much what we did,” Young said.

Ligon, who finished as Clinton’s leading rusher with 163 yards, said his team needed the score to get back on its feet, as the Red Devils felt they could have headed to the locker room at halftime with a comfortable lead.

“In the first half we killed ourselves with penalties, and it could have been 28-0 going into halftime,” Ligon said. “We had some tough breaks, so we knew we had to come out and bounce back in the second half.”

When Seneca did manage to get the ball in its hand, the Bobcats could only muster 76 total yards on the night, and didn’t have a drive last longer than seven plays.

“We didn’t take advantage of our opportunities when we got the ball, and we didn’t run many plays,” Duncan said.

Clinton started the scoring in the first quarter when Booker rumbled in from six yards out with just under five minutes left in the quarter for an early 7-0 lead.

The Red Devils then opted to go to the air for their second score, as quarterback Grant Templeton threw a deep 56-yard scoring strike to Ryan Underwood for a 14-0 lead.

Following Sims’ score for the Bobcats to close the first half, Templeton capped off the Red Devils’ nine-minute, run-oriented drive with a pair of short strikes to Booker before tossing one more touchdown in the fourth quarter.

The Bobcats will close their non-region schedule next Friday with a trip to Blue Ridge, and can only hope to put Friday night’s loss to Clinton behind them and focus on improving in practice this week.

“We’ve got one more week, and we’ve got to try to get ready for the region,” Duncan said. “We want to compete every week, and it doesn’t get any easier. We’ve just got to take it week by week and try to improve.”

Clinton 28, Seneca 7

CHS 7 7 7 7 — 28

SHS 0 7 0 0 — 7

SCORING SUMMARY

First quarter

CHS — Booker 6 yard run (Rogers kick), 4:56

Second quarter

CHS —Templeton 56 yard pass to Underwood (Rogers kick), 8:32

SHS — Sims 100 yard fumble return (Rothell kick), 0:00

Third quarter

CHS — Templeton 13 yard pass to Booker (Rogers kick), 2:54

Fourth quarter

CHS — Templeton 21 yard pass to Ramage (Rogers kick), 7:40

TEAM STATISTICS

CHS SHS

First downs 23 5

Rushes-Yards 62-392 15-(-)5

Passing Yards 151 81

Comp-Att-Int 5-7-0 5-19-2

Punts-Yards 2-72 7-258

Fumbles-Lost 4-1 2-0

Penalties-Yards 9-70 6-28

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — Clinton, Ligon 23-163, Booker 22-147, Brown 10-49, Keit 6-39, Templeton 1-(-)6. Seneca, Sims 7-19, Jones 3-11, TEAM 1-(-)4, McNeely 4-(-)31.

Passing — Clinton, Templeton 5-7-0 151. Seneca, McNeely, 5-19-2 81.

Receiving — Clinton, Underwood 2-104, Ramage 2-34, Booker 1-13. Seneca, Earle 3-31, Galloway 1-30, Hunter 1-20.