Cloverdale strolls to win over Southside Homeschool

CLOVERDALE — Dominating does not describe the football game between Cloverdale and Southside Home School on Friday night.

The Clovers racked up 400 total yards and held the Crimson Knights to a negative 32 total yards. Cloverdale rang up 49 points in the first quarter alone until, by coaches agreement, the second quarter started the running clock in a 71-0 win.

For the first time since 2010, the Clovers are two games above .500 as they improved their record to 3-1. Southside dropped to 0-5 on the season as the Clovers ran 13 plays in the first quarter and scored seven of the eight times they possessed the ball.

“I am very proud of our kids' approach. They haven’t gotten too high or too low,” Cloverdale head coach Tyler Lotz said.

The Clovers wasted no time after Conner Smith recovered a Crimson Knight fumble at their own 33-yard line. Tayt Jackson went 23 yards for the score and then kicked the PAT for a 7-0 Clover lead.

Southside went three-and-out and had a bad punt snap that allowed the Clovers to gain possession at the 16-yard line. Landon Duncan hit Marcus Boyd with a 16-yard touchdown pass on the next play for a 14-0 lead.

Southside, after punting the ball, seemed to get a break when it recovered a fumble and got the ball around midfield. The first play the Crimson Knights ran after the turnover was an Ashton Evans interception, giving the ball right back to Cloverdale, which in turn threw an interception to the Crimson Knights.

Again, Southside fumbled and the Clovers scored quickly on a two-play drive with Jakob Compton scoring from one yard out for a 21-0 lead.

The Clovers were not done yet in the first quarter. Duncan weaved his way for a 43-yard touchdown and the Clovers began liberally substituting in players, though that did not seem to matter with Cloverdale leading 28-0 with 5:09 left in the first quarter.

Duncan ran for his second touchdown pass of the year after another Southside three-and-out. Jackson again struck quickly next as the versatile senior scampered 43 yards for another Cloverdale touchdown and a 35-0 lead.

Late in the long first quarter saw Jackson haul in a pass from Duncan to take a 42-0 lead but the Clovers were not quite done as Southside had a player allow the ensuing kickoff to come to rest on the five-yard line. An alert Clover, Ashton Evans, scooped up the ball and scored to set the final margin of the first quarter at 49-0.

“We saw on film that we were bigger than (Southside) was. We just played physical and tough,” Lotz said.

Duncan’s third touchdown pass of the night brought a lot of attention to the junior as he set the single-season touchdown pass record with his 14-yard toss to Ben Campbell.

The Clover quarterback was 5-of-6 passing to efficiently carve up the Crimson Knights to go along with his touchdown run.

“(Landon) has done some really good things this year. He just came out this year after not playing since he was in the sixth grade and to get where he is at is amazing,” Lotz said of his junior quarterback.

Cloverdale then took the second half kickoff and, trying to stay with the running game, drove 51 yards in six plays to boost the score to 64-0 as Campbell scored from 16 yards out.

The running clock ate up much of the final Clover drive as its junior varsity squad marched down the field to get a one-yard run by Evans and the final 71-0 score.

In addition to Duncan breaking the touchdown passing record, the Clovers got another efficient day out of Jackson. The senior touched the ball four times on the night and scored a touchdown with three of those touches. He had 39 yards receiving and another 66 in rushing to be that ever-present threat.

“We are such a better team when Tayt does not have to play quarterback. We have started to figure this out right now. He is such a weapon,” Lotz said.

Cloverdale gets tested next week as the Clovers will travel to North Putnam for a game against the undefeated county rival Cougars.

“Next week, going up against great defensive coaches like (Scott and Brian) Moore, I am sure they will have something to try and slow down Tayt. We will be tested,” Lotz said.

1st Qtr

CHS – Tayt Jackson 23 run (Tayt Jackson kick), 7-0, 11:37.

CHS – Marcus Boyd 16 pass from Landon Duncan (Tayt Jackson kick), 14-0, 10:06.

CHS – Jakob Compton 1 run (Tayt Jackson kick), 21-0, 6:15.

CHS – Landon Duncan 54 run (Tayt Jackson kick), 28-0, 5:09

CHS – Tayt Jackson 43 run (Tayt Jackson kick), 35-0, 3:47.

CHS – Tayt Jackson 20 pass from Landon Duncan (Tayt Jackson kick), 42-0, 1:32.

CHS – Ashton Evans 5 fumble recovery (Tayt Jackson kick), 49-0, 1:29.

2nd Qtr

CHS – Benjamin Campbell 14 pass from Landon Duncan (Artrevion Henderson run), 57-0, 10:51.

3rd Qtr

CHS – Benjamin Campbell 16 run (Tayt Jackson kick), 64-0, 6:08.

4th Qtr

CHS – Ashton Evans 1 run (Tayt Jackson kick), 71-0, 1:18.

Statistics

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Southside: Lucian Kirkwood 1-(-1), Carter Bell 5-(-45), Rhys Diaz 2-(-1), Nathanael Williams 5-(-22), Britton Siebert 4-(-25), Kahl Craney 1-(-2), James Schwitzer 2-20, Cloverdale: Tayt Jackson 2-66, Landon Duncan 2- 46, Jakob Compton 2-5, Levi Johnson 2-46, Evan Mann 4-30, Ashton Evans 10-63, Benjamin Campbell 1-16.

Passing: Southside: Carter Bell 0-5-0 0, Britton Siebert 2-10-3 44, Cloverdale: Landon Duncan 5-6-1 99, Evan Mann 2-3-0 29.

Receiving: Southside: Thomas Mullins 1-46, Rhys Diaz 1-(-2). Cloverdale: Marcus Boyd 2-46, Tayt Jackson 2-39, Benjamin Campbell 2-33, Mason Mourning 1-10.