Fairfield Central at Clinton

By WORTHY EVANS

Contributing Writer

CLINTON – Clinton's Austin Boyd scooped up a Fairfield Central fumbled kickoff return and took it 23 yards to the end zone just before halftime at Wilder Stadium Friday night. 

With the senior cornerback’s effort, Clinton scooped up an opportunity to stay two possessions ahead of the Griffins and close out a 32-21 2A upper state championship victory.

“It was an awesome job, our kids, our fans,” Clinton head coach Corey Fountain said. “We talked about who’s going to want it more. It was 32 degrees at the start of this game, you’ve got to have some grit, you’ve got to have great effort and toughness, and the game of football will reward you for that.”

The Red Devils’ win puts them in their first state championship game since 2009, when Clinton beat Myrtle Beach 35-26 to win the 3A state championship that year. 

Coach Fountain, who won two state titles at Lamar before taking over at Clinton in 2019, led the Red Devils to an upper state championship appearance in 2022. 

This year, his team advanced to the final game with a solid ground attack. The Red Devils rushed for 320 yards and passed for 104. Javen Cook led the way with 18 carries for 113 yards. Quarterback Tushawan Richardson had seven carries for 103 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to throwing touchdown passes to D.J. Clark and Devin Swindler.

Besides timely stops on defense, Boyd’s timely scoop-and-score in the last minute of the first half helped put Clinton over the top.

“That’s a great football team, there are great kickoff returners that can score at any time,” Fountain said of Fairfield Central. “And to get that on special teams was huge. Our kickoff team did an excellent job of containing them all night long.”

Senior running back and Shrine Bowl pick Ty’Darion Grier led Fairfield Central with 212 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries. Quarterback Kaden Diggs had a 19-yard touchdown run and 76 yards on13 carries.

The Griffins, who won back-to-back 3A state championships in 1996-1997, went to the upper state championship in 2012. This time around Fairfield Central came close to finally returning to a state final, but it was not to be.

“If you would have told me back in May that we would have made it to the upper state championship, I would’ve looked at you like you was crazy,” 14-year head coach Demetrius Davis said about his team’s surprise year in which the Griffins caught fire early. Fairfield Central lost its opener to 5A Ridge View, but reeled off 12 straight victories before heading to Clinton.

“This team played like heck. This defense played, and let me tell you, man, I’m super proud of these kids,” Davis added.

Clinton took the opening kickoff and went straight to work, moving the ball from midfield to set up Richardson’s 22 touchdown pass to D.J. Clark.

The Red Devils bottled up Fairfield Central for most of the first half. The Griffins finally put a drive together on the strength of Grier runs, his last one being a 28-yarder untouched to the end zone at the 4:58 mark of the second. 

Clinton made it 13-7 on Richardson’s 1-yard TD run with 1:10 to go in the half. Then came the Griffins’ calamity. The Fairfield Central returner dodged two tackles before coughing up the ball to Boyd at the 23-yard line. Eleven seconds after the Red Devils’ go-ahead score, they were up 19-7, a lead they took into intermission.

Fairfield Central opened the second half on offense, but there was Boyd again, this time picking off one of Kayden Diggs’ few pass attempts on the night.

The Griffins stopped the Red Devils on the next possession, then drove 56 yards on nine rushing plays. Diggs capped the drive with a 19-yard TD scamper at the 3:29 mark of the third to make it 19-14 Clinton.

Richardson’s 7-yard touchdown run six seconds into the fourth quarter put the Red Devils up 25-14, a 2-possession lead that lasted all of two minutes.

Grier’s 38-yard run put Fairfield Central at the Clinton 1-yard line, and Grier pushed through for the Griffins’ final score with 9:49 left. Down 25-21, all they needed was for the defense to stop Clinton’s rushing attack.

Fairfield Central succeeded at tying up the Red Devils midway through the fourth quarter—almost. With Clinton facing a fourth-and-10 at the Fairfield Central 17, the Red Devils opted for the death blow rather than a field goal. Richardson took the snap and found Devin Swindler on the run. Swindler finished that catch-and-run with Clinton’s final score with 6:33 to go.

“We couldn’t get a turnover, and we couldn’t get off the field when we needed to get off the field,” Davis said about his team’s defensive struggles. “Kudos for coach (Fountain) right there on fourth and 10. If we could’ve stopped them, we could’ve won the game. They went for it and scored and that’s what won the football game.”

On their drive after the score, the Griffins went from their own 23-yard line to the Red Devils 33 before Clinton’s defense stiffened. Diggs threw two incompletions to the right corner of the end zone on third and fourth down, and Fairfield Central turned the ball over on downs with 3:06 left.

Clinton drained the clock and clinched the upper state championship with two first downs and a possession that went to the Griffins’ 3-yard line by the time the clock ran out.

Now Clinton sets its sights for Orangeburg, where they will take on Barnwell for the 2A state championship. The Warhorses (13-1) stopped Manning 37-14 Friday night to reach the final game at South Carolina State’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium Thursday at 2 p.m.

“We’ve got a hell of a ball club, and we’ve got a group of guys that play together as a team,” Fountain said of getting ready for the championship game. “It’s business as usual. You’ve got to prepare for this game like any other game. It’s a short week, so we’re going to have to get it going Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and hopefully we’ll be able to come in early and do our walk-through that we normally do on Thursday, and take off for Orangeburg.”

Fairfield Central      0         7         7         7         –         21

Clinton                       7         12       0         13       –         32

First Quarter

C - D.J. Clark 22 pass from Tushawan Richardson (Lukas Kuykendall kick) 11:19

Second Quarter

F - Ty’Darion Grier 28 run (Erik Martinez kick) 4:58

C - Richardson 1 run (run failed) 1:10

C - Andrew Boyd 23 fumble return (run failed) :59

Third Quarter

F - Kaden Diggs 19 run (Martinez kick) 3:21

Fourth Quarter

C - Richardson 7 run (run failed) 11:54 

F - Grier 1 run (Martinez kick) 9:49

C - Devin Swindler 17 pass from Richardson (Kuykendall kick) 6:33 

FCHS CHS

First downs           16            15

Rushes-yds     40-304.   42-320

Passing yds          81           104

Att-Com-Int      8-3-1      5-3-0

Fumbles-lost        1-1         0-0

Penalties-yds     12-71      10-90

Punts-avg         2-34.0    2-40.0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

F - Ty’Derion Grier 22-212, Kaden Diggs 12-76, Kingston Peay 1-3, Team 2-13.

C - Javen Cook 14-113, Rhett Gilliam 13-93, Tushawan Richardson 7-103, D.J. Clark 3-2, Angelo Cromer 1-5.

PASSING

F - Kaden Diggs 3-8-1.

C - Tushawan Richardson 3-5-0.
RECEIVING

F - Jayden Boyd 2-41, Ty’Derion Grier 1-40.

C – Devin Swindler 2-82, D.J. Clark 1-22.