Dawgs advance with 28-7 victory over Sale Creek

By THOMAS P. WEAVER

Horizon Editor

CELINA-For only the second time in over three decades, a Bulldog football team will be playing in the TSSAA’s version of the Sweet 16 here Friday night, as Clay County welcomes Whitwell to town for the second round of the Class A playoffs.

The Region 4-A Champion Dawgs improved to 9-2 and advanced to face the Tigers by winning their sixth-straight playoff opener by a score of 28-7 over Sale Creek here on a foggy John Teeples Field last week.

The last time the two teams met was two years ago in the only other second-round game played here since 1991, when the Celina High School Bulldogs lost to Franklin Road Academy 33 years ago.

“It’s a big one, and it’s huge we get to play it here in front of our home crowd,” Clay County head coach Bruce Lamb said.  “We’ve got a good football team coming in here and having our fans behind us will be big.”

And Lamb will be hoping for the same result he got in 2022, when his Dawgs eliminated Whitwell en route to the Class A State Championship game.

“They are a really good football team with some really good football players,” he said of the Tigers.  “They’ve got a big strong kid that’s really a running back, but plays quarterback, that is up for Mr. Football.

“He does a really good job of controlling the offense and he’s a player.”

Lamb has his own Class A Mr. Football Semifinalist in Clay County senior two-way star Nate Adams, who joins Whitwell’s Bennett McDougal and three others in contention for the award (see related story), but the veteran coach knows he’s going to need his entire team to step up in order for the Dawgs to survive and advance.

“Each game is going to get a little tougher, and we are going to have to start picking it up a little bit,” he said.  “They are extremely sound in what they do fundamentally, and we are going to have to play a lot better than we did last week, but I think our kids will be ready.”

Whitwell enters the elimination game with an 8-3 record, after beating Jo Byrns 52-14 last week.

The Tigers worst loss came to Region 3-A Champion South Pittsburg (9-2) by a score of 49-7 two weeks ago, and they also fell 29-28 to Region 2-A Champion Oliver Springs (9-2) and 28-12 to Class 2A Bledsoe County (10-1).

The winner between the Dawgs and Tigers will advance to face the winner of Friday night’s matchup between the Pirates and Chattanooga Prep (8-3) to be played in South Pittsburg.

Clay overcomes

1st-half miscues

to beat Panthers

In order to set up this week’s rare second-round contest at home, Clay County had to overcome four first-half turnovers, which led to them heading into halftime tied 7-7 with Sale Creek last Friday night.

Two interceptions and a pair of fumbles cost the Dawgs points early, but they flipped the script in the second half and put the Panthers away by running the football.

“They were doing a good job and schemed us up really well in the first half, and we just needed a little momentum change,” Lamb said.  “Ayden Soto and Worm Smith, they hit the hole and ran really hard.

“The offensive line did a great job and they kinda liked it, they were fired up, and we drove it right down their throat.”

Soto broke free for a 24-yard score, where he bullied his way into the end zone to break the tie midway through the third quarter, and Smith capped a 64-yard Clay County scoring drive, where he carried the ball six times, with a one-yard rushing touchdown to surge the Dawgs ahead 21-7 early in the final frame.

Following the senior running backs’ breakthroughs, Nate Adams—who added to his record numbers with another 300-yard passing night, then hit senior Lance Burchett for a 32-yard touchdown for good measure.

The scoring strike, paired with senior kicker Manny Hernandez’s fourth made extra-point of the night, resulted in the final 21-point margin and helped push Burchett’s receiving total over the 1,000-yard mark for the season.

Burchett and junior Nolan Adams, who accounted for Clay County’s only first-half score with a six-yard touchdown catch, both have reached the receiving milestone this year.

Burchett currently has a school-record 1,100 yards (10TDs), while Nolan Adams boasts 1,097 yards and a school-record 18 receiving touchdowns.

Nolan’s first-quarter score was immediately answered by Sale Creek’s lone touchdown, which came via a Khari Escobar 50-yard run.

A punt and the turnovers, including a fumble through the end zone resulting in a touchback, stopped Clay County’s other five first-half possessions.

Outside of Escobar’s explosive run, the Dawg defense held the Panthers out of the end zone the remainder of the opening two quarters, before pitching the second-half shutout to seal the victory.

“It’s nice when you can do that kind of stuff,” Lamb said of his defense keeping his team in it and the run game getting going.  “The offense lineman loved it when we drove it down the field and ran the football, and the defense played great.

“They were all fired up and that makes me excited to know we are not going to back down, and we are going to do what we need to do to win the football game,” he continued.  “We had uncharacteristic turnovers in the first half, and you can’t do that in the playoffs, and defensively we can’t give up the big plays that we’ve giving up the last couple of weeks.

“We can’t do that—both sides are going to have to play well this week.  We are going to have to play some sound, physical football Friday night.”

Bulldog stats

Clay County did put up an impressive 497 yards of total offense on 66 plays, including 150 rushing yards (2TDs) on 32 carries and 347 passing yards (2TDs).

Nate Adams accounted for all of the yards through the air on 24 of 34 passing (2TDs/2INTs) and Burchett was the leading receiver (11/185 yds./TD).  Nolan Adams (5/54 yds./TD), Reece Adams (4/55 yds.), Soto (3/47 yds.), and junior Waylon Cherry (1/6 yds.) also had catches.

Soto was the leading rusher (19/112 yds./TD), while Smith (8/49 yds./TD), Nate Adams (3/0 yds.), and Nolan Adams (1/-3 yds.) also had carries.  The team was also credited with -8 yards.

Smith (FF), Reece Adams, and junior Bryson Sharp (TFL) led the Dawg defense with five tackles apiece; Nate and Nolan Adams (TFL) each made four stops; Soto, Burchett, and junior Cole Eads all had three; and senior Hayden Adams (2TFLs), junior Kolton Brown (TFL), and sophomore Roland Holaway made two each.