CELINA-John Teeples Field will play host to the biggest home football game in Clay County High School history tonight, as the Bulldogs welcome Gordonsville to town with the Region 4-A title and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs at stake.

The Dawgs, who improved to 8-1 on the season with a 44-14 manhandling of York last week, have never won a region crown or earned the opportunity to call the CCHS campus home throughout the postseason.

Standing in the way of history are the 7-2 arch-nemesis Tigers, and to the victor go the spoils.

“They’ve waited 12 months for this and these guys are ready for it,” Bulldog head coach Bruce Lamb said of his team.  “Especially these seniors—there’s a lot on the line and they understand what this is about.

“They understand they don’t have many more and they made a statement last week,” Lamb continued.  “We’ve tried not to talk about it a whole lot all year long, but it is here, and Friday night after the game, Gordonsville came up.

“You could look in their eyes and see that they would have played another game right then.  I think they are ready.”

Lamb said he was expecting another epic battle between the two teams, whose last pair of contests ended with the Tigers winning 21-14, and he talked about how crucial a capacity crowd here at Joe Neal Eads Stadium would be to Clay County’s success.

“I know they are going to be fired up and I know we are going to be fired up,” he said.  “I look for it to be a great game and I hope the home crowd is ready to go Friday night, because it would be absolutely huge for everybody to get behind this team.

“These boys have worked extremely hard and they want to make people proud.  We talk about the tradition and the people that have come before them all the time, and I hope everybody will come let these guys know you are behind them.”

Lamb, who is in his 29th season coaching and first at Clay County, praised Gordonsville when asked what challenges they will present here at week’s end, but he also knows his team is just as formidable.

“They are extremely well coached.  They are fundamentally sound.  They do a lot of things good and they’ve got athletes,” Lamb said of the Tigers, whose only losses have to come to Smith County and Watertown, “but when I say that, it sounds like us.

“So, I think a lot of it is mental, but I also think our kids have a different mentality. I think before it may have been ‘can we do it?’  I think this year, it is ‘we are going to do it.’  I think there’s a big difference, and I don’t think there is any doubt in our minds that we can go out there and do it, if we execute and just go play football.”

Dawgs down

the Dragons

That is exactly what the Dawgs did against York, with their senior leadership setting the tone.

Keaton Arms returned to the starting lineup for the first time at quarterback after missing three games, and the senior signal-caller had all of his talents on display, while he and his classmates stonewalled the Dragons on defense.

Arms ran for a touchdown and threw three more, all to senior All-State utility man Alec Kerr—who finished with eight catches for 100 yards.

The first Arms-to-Kerr score was of the eight-yard variety, and it came on Clay County’s opening offensive possession.  Senior tailback Joseph Marcom then added a two-point conversion run, and the Dawgs jumped out 8-0 early.

Marcom, who became only the 12th Bulldog to reach the 1,000-yard-rushing mark with his third 100-yard game in a row against York, also surged his team ahead by two scores with a 35-yard touchdown run before the first-quarter buzzer sounded.

Sophomore Nate Adams followed the highlight-reel rush with a two-point pass to Kerr, and Clay County led 16-0 heading into the second stanza.

There, both defenses battled to a draw, before the Dragons cut the Bulldog lead in half with a long touchdown pass, which immediately provoked an answer.

With just over two minutes left in the half, Arms engineered the response.  He found senior wideout Jimmy Burchett for 34 yards and hit Kerr for a 24-yard scoring strike, to send Clay County into intermission up 23-8, following an extra-point kick by senior Levi Garrett.

Then in the third quarter, the Dawgs invoked the TSSAA mercy-rule running clock on York with two more scoring drives.  The first ended with an Arms’ rushing touchdown (5 yds.), paired with a two-point pass from Marcom to Burchett, while the second was capped by Kerr’s last score (8 yds.) and a Garrett kick.

With the clock ticking and the scoreboard reading 38-8 in Bulldog favor, York added six more points, before Marcom accounted for the final margin with his second rushing touchdown (14 yds.) of the night.

Senior Night

and statistics

Seniors Ricardo McElroy, John Hamilton, Hunter Kyle, and Stone Lynn join Arms, Kerr, Marcom, Burchett, and Garrett to make up a nine-player senior class to be honored Friday night prior to the Gordonsville game.

The class is looking to make their fourth-straight appearance in the second round of the playoffs and currently ranks tied for third all-time in wins with a 33-12 overall record to date.

McElroy led the Dawgs defensively against York with five tackles (TFL), while Hamilton recorded four; Kerr, Garrett, and Marcom had three each; Kyle and Burchett made two apiece; and Arms had one.  Junior Weston Birdwell and freshman Cole Eads were the only underclassmen to make a stop, and they both had two.

Lynn starts at center alongside guards Garrett and Kyle, and a mix of junior tackles Haydyn McGee, Wyatt Browning, and Parker Smith.  The group is responsible for aiding Marcom in reaching the 1,000-yard milestone, and also helped him lead the team in rushing against the Dragons with 132 yards on 16 carries (2TDs).

Like Marcom, Arms had a good night on the ground behind the push of the offensive line (12/79 yds./TD), while Kerr (1/2 yds.) and Burchett (1/3 yds.) also had carries.

Arms threw for 139 yards on nine of 12 passing (3TDs), while Marcom (1//3 yds./2PT) and Adams (1/3 yds./2PT) also completed passes.  Kerr caught eight balls for 100 yards (3TDs/2PT) and Burchett hauled in three receptions for 45 yards (2PT).

In all, Clay County racked up 361 yards on 45 plays, including 216 rushing yards on 31 carries and a total of 145 passing yards.

Coverage of the battle between the Dawgs and the Tigers begins at 6 p.m. with the Horizon Sports Network’s pregame show at www.dalehollowhorizon.com.  Live audio and video can also be found on the Dale Hollow Horizon Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dalehollowhorizon.