What We Saw: Clover 36, Boiling Springs 21

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>BOILING SPRINGS </strong>| Clover came to Spartanburg Co. for the second straight week for their final tuneup before region play begins next week.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>And it was an explosive third quarter that helped the Blue Eagles overpower Boiling Springs 36-21 on Friday night.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“It was back and forth in the first half. It was kind of that way in the second half. We were able to get a break and make some plays so our kids did great. We put ourselves in the position where we need to be going into region play starting next week. We've still got some things to clean up but we did better,” Clover head coach Perry Woolbright said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Clover running back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1012627' first='Landon' last='Stone']</strong> (pictured above) got most of the leg work early on the opening series with some hard running in between the tackles and on the outside. That would be a theme throughout the evening. The Bulldogs would stiffen down in the red zone as they stopped a quarterback keeper with 6:32 to play in the first quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Boiling Springs would come out with the run game of their own with running back <strong>Javen Chinn</strong>, who had a huge run to set up the Bulldogs first score of the night, capping it with a short run to give them the first lead of the night at 7-0 with 4 minutes to play in the opening quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Jaylon Hoover</strong> is elusive in making plays with his feet. Example No. 1 came on a 3rd down play where he found <strong>TJ McCluney </strong>in the hole of the zone defense. That led to Clover's first score of the night, a Stone touchdown run to make it 7-6 with 8:58 to play before the half. The XP was no good.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/1BStockdale/status/1705370577840611599","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/1BStockdale/status/1705370577840611599 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“([player_tooltip player_id='1012627' first='Landon' last='Stone']) is a workhorse. He's getting a lot of carries and the last two weeks he's had 30 plus carries, over 230 yards both weeks. I'm sure he was close to that tonight with his carries so he's done a good job. His vision's gotten better and better in what we're doing offensively and stuff like that. It's tough to stop because a lot of plays can hit and it's something different every night and our guys up front have done a great job creating those lanes and everything for it,” Woolbright said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Examples No. 2 and 3 came on a scoring drive just before the half as Hoover found <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1743683' first='Carson' last='Pinti'] </strong>on a big catch and run before finding <strong>Isaac Allen </strong>for a 31-yard score to give Clover a 13-7 lead at the halftime break.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Chinn exploded for a 79-yard touchdown to open the third quarter for the Bulldogs to take the lead at 14-13 with 11:37 to play.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>“A football game is like roller coasters”</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The next sequence for the Blue Eagles would be the story of the game. After a Bulldog 3-and-out, Stone would punch it in from 15 yards out for his second score of the night to give the Blue Eagles the lead at 20-13 with 4 minutes to play.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Following another Bulldog 3-and-out, McCluney took the punt back down the Clover sideline for an 80-yard TD to give the Blue Eagles a 26-14 lead with 3:03 left. On the ensuing kickoff, Clover pooch kicked it and they reacted quickly to recover the live ball.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hoover would connect with Allen for the second time on an acrobatic 33-yard catch on a post route to the end zone to make it 33-14 Clover with 1 minute to play in the third to cash in on the takeaway.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>That was a 20-point swing for the visitors from northwestern York County.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“A football game is like roller coasters, you're going to have high moments and low moments and the key is to stay even through them all. When you're real high, you can't get real high. You got to stay even. Our kids did a good job there and we responded and we were able to get the break on the kickoff right there and respond again and that was big for us.”</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Hayden Maddox </strong>would knock through a 31-yard field goal late before <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1012707' first='Lincoln' last='Huskey'] </strong>connected with Chinn on a catch and run to close the scoring in the 4th quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>BOILING SPRINGS STANDOUTS</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>JoJo Barrett </strong>|<strong> </strong>DB – Barrett was one of the bright spots as he made tackles on a lot of the outside running plays. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Javen Chinn </strong>| RB – Chinn was explosive at the running back position as he found huge gaps to run through in the first half and knew where the green grass was.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->