Clinton falls to Brandon 30-18

By Danny C. Davis    

The 2026 football season has not started off well for the Clinton Arrows.

The Arrows dropped to 0-3 on the season after a disappointing 30-18 loss at home to old-time rival Brandon.

The road doesn’t get easier for the Arrows in the coming weeks. Clinton travels to play Pearl on September 18. The Pirates are 1-2 after a 21-0 win over Florence. Clinton returns home on September 25 to play Petal, who is 3-0 and highly ranked, after impressive wins over Hattiesburg, Ocean Springs and Columbia. Clinton’s final six games include five teams that are ranked in the top 20.

The second half has been a problem in the first three games for CHS. Clinton led at the half against Warren Central, was tied with Northwest Rankin and trailed only 16-11 against Brandon. The Arrows have only been able to score 20 second half points and have given up 65 second half points in the first 3 games.

A big part of that is that the Arrows only returned two starters on defense from last year.

“We are still young on defense but getting a little better every week,” said head coach Hamer Morgan.

“We also had two bad exchanges on the punt team that hurt in the second half against Brandon.”

“But we played well in spots of defense. We had a goal line stand in the first half and held Tyson Robinson to low yardage rushing but gave up big yards to Brandon passing,” said Morgan. “We are so close every game to winning and working hard to get better each week.”

Clinton did come out and star their game strong against Brandon on offense to take the early lead.

The Arrows went 70 yards in nine plays to score on their second possession that was capped off by Boskey Evan’s 24-yard TD run. Then CHS scored a two point conversion with holder John Jackson passing to deep snapper Reese Lott to go ahead 8-0 with 4:01 left in the first quarter.

Brandon answered with a 63-yard drive in eleven plays to tie it 8-8 on a two yard run by Dandy Dozen selection and Michigan signee, Tyson Robinson.

The Bulldogs took the lead for good in the second period, sacking Clinton QB Jaden Jones in the end zone for a safety for two points to go up 10-8.

Robinson caught a screen pass and scored on a 36-yard pass-scoring play to go up 16-8 with 5:44 left in the second.

With just 34 seconds left in the half, Jones connected with Dayson Scott for a 55-yard gain to the Brandon 10 yard line. Arrow kicker Brayden Gough kicked a 27-yard field goal as the first half ended to make it 16-11.

But that was as close as the Arrows would get. Brandon scored 14 unanswered points to go up 30-11. Clinton scored late on Jones’ 27-yard TD pass to John Jackson to make it 30-18 with only 33 seconds left.

The Arrow defense did a pretty good job stopping Tyson Robinson, the top running back in the state, by limiting him to only 38 yards on ten carries, but Robinson had two receptions for 48 yards and a touchdown.

But the problem for the Arrow defense was stopping QB Sladen Shack, a University of Illinois signee, who completed 15 of 21 passes for 256 yards.

Jones was Clinton’s leading rusher, with 87 yards on the ground.  He completed 11 of 21 passes for 107 yards.  Evans had 57 yards on 11 carries and a TD.

Defensively, Montario Braden had six tackles. Trevion Casnel had two solo stops and three assists.  Malik Jackson, Bo Jones, Christian Smith and Jeremiah Barnett had three solo stops and one assist. Devin Harris had a pass interception.

A week earlier, CHS fell to Northwest Rankin, 44-33.

Although the Arrows had 420 yards of offense, Clinton suffered six turnovers in the loss that made the difference.  With the score tied 21-21 at the half, NWR pulled away from CHS to score 23 second half points.

Jones threw a 23-yard TD pass to Matthew Fletcher. Evans ran for a touchdown. Jones scored on a 15-yard run, and he threw a 26-yard TD pass to Dayson Scott.

Evans had nine carries for 90 yards. Braylon Lowery had 11 carries for 63 yards. Scott had four receptions for 83 yards. Fletcher had eight receptions for 60 yards and a TD.

Defensively, Montario Braden had six solo tackles.  Casnel had five solo tackles and one assist.  Tyler Graham had five solo tackles.