East Clarendon takes 7-3 record into AA football pla

             By Dennis Brunson’

             hssr.com Associate Editor

      Turbeville – The East Clarendon High School football team is going into the AA state playoffs with a 7-3 overall record. The Wolverines finished 4-2 in Region 7, good for second place.

     ECHS head coach Larry Cornelius believes his team has the ability to make deep run in the playoffs. It will open with a home game against Andrews on November 15 at Shad Hall Field.

            “We’re definitely capable of winning every game,” said Cornelius, who is in his second season at East Clarendon. “Our three losses have come by a combined 10 points. One thing this team does is compete.”

           The Wolverines suffered a 21-20 loss to AAAA Lakewood after opening the season with three wins. The two region losses came by a 15-12 count to Manning and 24-18 in overtime to Mullins.

           Cornelius said his team has played up to its expectations.

           “We’re where we thought we would be,” he said. “We’ve been competitive in every game and we’ve had a chance to win them all.

   “We’ve got a lot more diversity than we did last year,” added Cornelius, who led East Clarendon to a 5-6 record and the second round of the Class A playoffs in 2023. “We’ve got a lot more people to throw the ball to, we’ve got several ball carriers on the team. Each week it’s like we have a different leading rusher.”

The Wolverines are averaging 234.4 rushing yards a game. They have five players with at least 292 yards. Jay Webb, who missed most of the last two games with an injury, leads the way with 684 yards and five touchdowns on 107 carries. Quarterback Takoda Cornelius has 486 yards and 10 touchdowns on 79 carries.

Tyquan Wilson has 429 yards and two scores on 51 carries, Hunter Mixon has 358 yards and seven TDs on 63 carries, and Syrus Brown 292 yards and eight scores on 47 carries.

Takoda Cornelius has completed 89 of 142 passes for 901 yards and 10 touchdowns. His favorite target has been Whit Nesbitt with 34 catches for 547 yards and eight scores. Dawson Beard has 29 catches for 319 yards and one touchdown.

Coach Cornelius said ECHS needs to get off to better starts.

“Our issue has been the first half,” he said. “That’s been true on both side of the ball, both on offense and defense. We’ve played well in the second half, but we can’t hang out hats on that.”

The East Clarendon defense is a big play defense as it has 105 tackles for loss, 16 interceptions and 13 fumble recoveries.

“Defensively, we thought our D line was going to be a strength,” Coach Cornelius said. “Our linebackers have been good and our defensive backs have stepped up. We’ve done a great as we Increased turnovers.”

Linebacker Mixon has 20 TFLs among his 59 tackles to go with three fumble recoveries. Linebacker Colby McKenzie leads in tackles with 60 and has 10 tackles for loss.

Outside linebacker Darius McCray has 11 TFLs to go with 34 tackles, defensive lineman Jordan Wright has 10 TFLs, defensive tackle Xavier Smith has 29 tackles and nine TFLs, linebacker Mike Woods has 51 tackles and nine TFLs, and defensive lineman/linebacker Jesse Floyd and outside linebacker Ke’haun Porter had eight TFLs.

Defensive backs Picasso Brown, Cornelius and Nesbitt each have three interceptions. Wright leads in sacks with 3 ½ while Mixon and McCray have 2 ½.