CELINA-When 29-year veteran football coach Bruce Lamb first considered taking the helm at Clay County High School this past offseason, one of the first questions he encountered was could he beat Gordonsville?

Last Friday night, Lamb and his 2022 Bulldogs provided the answer in their regular season finale with a 27-20 epic victory over the Tigers.

Not only did the win result in the school’s first-ever Region 4-A Championship, but it also secured Clay County home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

“That’s our goal,” Lamb said prior to the season starting.  “We want to win the region title.

“You win the region, the State Championship goes through Celina, TN and that’s what we want it to do.”

Lamb was no stranger to region crowns or state titles when he made the statement, having won both while coaching at neighboring Livingston Academy.

“That ranks right up there as one of the biggest wins of all-time for me,” he said of his team attaining their regular-season objective.  “The only thing I can think of that’s any bigger was when we won the State Championship.

“It was awesome to see the kids fight and watch them lay it on the line time after time, after time,” Lamb continued.  “It has been a huge bump in the road and we got over it.

“It is such a positive thing for these young men to turn the corner, not only going through the rest of the year, but through the rest of these kids lives… to know there’s nothing they can’t accomplish.”

Led by nine seniors, who were honored prior to kickoff with a Senior Night ceremony, Clay County went toe to toe with their arch nemesis in front of a record crowd filing Joe Neil Eads Stadium and spilling out onto the track wrapping around John Teeples Field.

The entire team was welcomed into the venue by former Bulldogs participating in a Dawg Walk, where alumni lined both sides of the path leading from the Russell Richardson Dawghouse to offer current players encouragement as they headed to battle.

“I’ve been involved in football since I was in sixth grade when I was 12 years old and that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen before a football game,” Lamb said.  “All those guys up there cheering our guys on.

“I absolutely loved it, and you could see when those kids went through, they came out energized, because they knew they had the support of everybody.”

The stage was set, and the Dawgs stole the show.

While the performance kept fans on the edge of their seats throughout, the climax told the story.

Down seven points, Gordonsville began a methodical march to tie or win the game—much like they had done late in the fourth quarter of their prior two meetings, where the Tigers beat Clay County 21-14.

This time, the Dawgs stopped Gordonsville on a fourth-and-one at their own 12-yard line to seal the victory.

“They were starting to wear us down,” Lamb said of the Tiger downhill running attack. “We were fighting with everything we had, and I was sitting there thinking if we could just have one play.

“One play is all we needed, and Keaton Arms came off the corner, and he made a fabulous play.”

The senior quarterback and linebacker—who also threw for and ran for a touchdown in the game, stood his ground on the outside, shed a blocker, and dropped Gordonsivlle quarterback Matthew Albritton for a loss to turn the Tigers over on downs with just over a minute to play.

“That’s the kind of things we’ve got to have to make it to that next level,” Lamb said.  “Kids doing extraordinary things, and that was one of them.

“We’ve got nine seniors and you can go down the list and every senior did something extraordinary in that game,” he continued.  “They all made a play and it is like it was contagious.

“One would do it, and then another one would do it, and then you had underclassmen wanting to do it. You don’t have to be a big talker or anything like that to be a leader.  You do it by example, and they did that.”

Prior to Arms stuffing Gordonsville, Clay County rallied from a 20-19 deficit created by a long touchdown run by Albritton to open the final frame.

Senior Jimmy Burchett set the Dawgs up with a nice kickoff return, before sophomore Nate Adams found the speedy wideout for a 41-yard gain with a nice throw off a jet-sweep pass to advance his team down to the 12-yard line.

From there, Arms banged ahead for a yard and senior All-State utility man Alec Kerr scored his second touchdown of the night by rushing 11 yards to paydirt.  Arms then powered in the two-point conversion to account for what turned out to be the final margin.

Though the offense scored the deciding touchdown, Lamb explained the defense won the game.

“The old saying ‘offense puts them in the stands and defense wins championships’ held true,” Lamb said.  “They responded and executed at the right time.”

Senior Levi Garrett set the tone for the Dawg defense with a team-high eight tackles, despite injuring his shoulder in the first half, while his classmates Ricardo McElroy, Hunter Kyle, and John Hamilton also made big plays on that side of the ball.

“He was not going to be on the sidelines for that game, no matter what,” Lamb said of Garrett.  “They could have cut a leg off you know.

“That can be said for any of those guys though, they all embody that love for the game.”

Besides holding Gordonsville in check for the most part, the Clay County defense also produced points, as Adams took a pick-six interception 20 yards to the house in the third quarter to swing momentum.

The Dawgs were trailing 14-12 coming out of intermission, when Adams’ score and a Garrett extra point surged Clay County back ahead 19-14.

In the first half, Gordonsville struck first with a 66-yard touchdown pass from Albritton to Kyle Adams, before an Arms’ quarterback sneak behind the push of senior center Stone Lynn capped a Clay County response—which was bolstered by a 41-yard screen pass senior Joseph Marcom carried down to the one-yard line.

The Bulldog two-point conversion failed and the Tigers held a 7-6 advantage heading into the second quarter.

There, both offenses slowed to a crawl, before Arms found Kerr for 15-yard touchdown with just under four minutes left in the half to make it 12-7 in Bulldog favor, but Gordonsville responded with another Albritton-to-Adams score to carry the two-point lead into the break.

Clay County returned to the field with a sense of urgency after being down at the half, as Burchett turned the Tigers back deep in Bulldog territory with an interception on their opening possession, prior to Adams’ pick-six and Kerr’s winning score.

“These guys are phenomenal,” Lamb said of team, before praising his staff.  “They are great to work with, as is my coaching staff.

“When you’ve got experience like these guys I’ve got coaching with me, and you’ve got the players that we’ve got, you are going to do some good things and we are not finished.

“We are going to try to make some noise in the playoffs and we will see what happens.”

Stats

Clay County beat Gordonsville by posting a total of 262 yards on 46 offensive plays, including 30 rushes for 94 yards and 171 yards through the air on nine of 17 passing.

Arms went eight for 16 for 130 yards (TD), while Adams completed the ball to Burchett for 41 yards.  Burchett was the leading receiver (6/105 yds.), while Kerr (2/25 yds./TD) and Marcom also had catches (1/41 yds.).

Marcom was the leading rusher with 47 yards on 13 carries, Arms carried 14 times for 32 yards (2PT), and Kerr had 15 yards (TD) on three carries.

Garrett led the Dawg defense with eight tackles (TFL), while Kerr had seven (TFL), and McElroy recorded six (TFL).  Burchett (INT) made four stops, Marcom had three, and juniors Weston Birdwell and Ben Maxfield had two apiece.  Arms (TFL), Hamilton (Sack), Kyle (Sack), and Adams (INT/TD) all made one tackle each.

Clay County hosts Sale Creek Friday night at 7 p.m. for the first round of the playoffs.  See related story.