Clinton crushes Terry 42-7 to pull to 3-3 on the season

By editor3 | October 17, 2024 |

By Danny C. Davis

After two tough losses against top-10 teams, the Clinton Arrows finished out their non-region part of the schedule, with a convincing 42-7 road win against Class 6A and undefeated Terry.

Clinton then had an open date before facing four Region 2-7A games to close the season. First, CHS hosts defending Class 7A champion Starkville on October 18, followed by a road trip to current #1-ranked Tupelo (as of October 5). Then, a road game at 5-1 and ranked Germantown before closing out the regular season at home against 5-1 and top-10-ranked Madison Central.

But the young Arrows showed plenty of promise on both sides of the football when playing on the road at Terry for the first time since 2007.

“I am just proud we were able to refocus and get a big road win against Terry tonight,” said Arrow first-year head coach John Carr. “We preach every week we want to focus on the next game and go 1-0 that week, and to do that on Terry’s field tonight speaks volumes about our team and their effort tonight on both sides of the ball.”

With starting QB Josef Walker sidelined with an injury, the Arrow offense turned to ninth-grader Jayden Jones, a Terry transfer, who pass completed 7 of 18 passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns. Jones led the Arrows to a 7-0 lead on a six-play 68-yard opening drive. He connected with Jaden Johnson for a twelve-yard TD pass for the score.

“Jayden has a tremendous athleticism and skill set, and it gives us another dimension for him to run the ball. We are very proud of him to come in as a freshman tonight and have a big game,” said Carr.

“Jayden played well tonight,” said senior tight end Phillip Burchfield III, who caught a 35-yard pass from Jones that led to a touchdown. “He is really going to be really good down the road.”

After recovering a sky pooch kick at the Bulldog 34, the Arrows scored again on sophomore running back Aaric Beasley’s seven-yard run to take a 14-0 lead with 7:21 left in the first quarter – and before the Terry offense got the football.

Beasley had a career night – 138 yards on fifteen carries and two touchdowns for the Arrows – and caught two touchdown passes from Jones.

Terry responded with a fourteen-play 69-yard drive to cut the margin to 14-7 with 2:58 left in the third quarter. But that was as close as the game would get.

Terry only had 51 more yards of offense over the final three quarters and was held scoreless by the Arrow defense while Clinton scored 21 more unanswered points.

After that, it was pretty much the Beasley and Jakobe Williams running show behind some big holes opened by the Arrow offensive line.

Williams’ two-yard tally made it 21-7 with three minutes left in the half.

Beasley’s twenty-yard burst with 9:23 left in the third period gave the Arrows a 28-7 advantage.

Four minutes later, Jones threw a sideline pass to Beasley, who went 28 yards down the sideline to score to make it 35-7.

Then, it was Williams’ turn again, and he scored on a three-yard plunge with three minutes left, putting the Arrows up 42-7.

Williams had 22 carries for 100 yards.

The Arrow offense had 62 plays for 373 yards, including 260 yards on the ground.

Credit should also be given to the Arrow defense, which enjoyed ita best game of the year, only giving up one touchdown and holding the Terry offense to 120 yards on 51 plays.

The Arrow defense forced two turnovers. Defensive back Justin Singleton had a pass interception, and linebacker Chad Holiday recovered a fumble.

Junior Davon Merchant led the Arrow defense with nine solo tackles and one assist at linebacker.

Kicker Braylon Spann kicked seven extra points.

“We knew we would have to have a good running game tonight, with a freshman quarterback and our starting quarterback out,” said Beasley, who finished the game at quarterback after a slight injury to Jones.

“We had to do everything we had to do to win this game,” said Williams, a senior. “The defensive line and offensive line executed. We have a lot momentum now going into our district schedule.”

Burchfield agrees. “This is just the kind of game we needed going into our bye week, to give us momentum against Starkville in two weeks.”