Clinton Arrows open season at home on Friday, August 29
By Danny C. Davis
Fall drills are ending, and the Clinton Arrows will open their 105th football season Friday night at home against their old rival, the Warren Central Vikings. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. The two teams are meeting for the 61st time since 1965, with the Vikings leading the grudge match in wins, 33-28. Friday night marks the first time the two teams will have played at Arrows Field since the 2020 Class 7A North semi-finals won by Clinton, 18-14. Clinton pulled off the upset at Viking Stadium last year 26-20.
Clinton played the Vicksburg High Gators in a preseason scrimmage on August 22. The scrimmage format was first quarter junior varsity play, which ended 0-0. In the varsity second quarter, the Arrows fell 7-3 to the Gator varsity.
Preseason game scores do not count, but the Arrow defense was dominating against the run and only gave up one long pass play for a touchdown. 
The Arrow offense this season consists of mostly sophomores and juniors that have never played in a varsity game. The offense had bright spots on the offensive line and in the running game, but struggled in the passing game.
“It was good to play a preseason game with all the young players we have starting,” said new Arrows head coach Hamer Morgan. “We knew our defense would be ahead of our offense with all the sophomores and juniors starting on offense and a lot of starters back on defense.”
New offensive coordinator Ben Shelton agreed.
“I thought our offensive line, where we have three starters returning, played well,” said Shelton. “We also ran the ball well, with two sophomore running backs playing their first varsity action, Braylon Lowry and Cayden Albert.”
“We didn’t execute the passing game very good and will be making corrections this week,” said Shelton. “They [the Vicksburg defense] was playing us man to man, and we were just pressing too much trying to throw the ball,” said Shelton.
“Sophomore quarterback [Jayden Jones] has improved his throwing so much in the past two weeks and is really going to be good. He got a lot of reps, and he and our receivers know what we need to fix,” said Shelton.
“We really needed to play someone else, and we got a lot of film to review and make adjustments this week,” said Morgan.
“The good thing is, we got to see everybody play, and no one got hurt. But Friday night, we will turn the lights on at Arrow Field against Warren Central – and the game is for real and counts.”
