The Clinton Central Bulldogs fell to the Cloverdale Clovers 42-14 in the first round of Sectional football action on Friday.
“Cudos to Cloverdale,” Clinton Central coach Jeremy Fendley said. “We say every week, ‘everybody has a coaching staff,’ and they were prepared and ready, and they were able to rise to the occasion in the second half. Super proud of our boys’ effort, we fought the whole game.”
The Bulldogs started with the ball, but quickly turned it over with a fumble. The defense for Clinton Central returned the favor, picking off Cloverdale quarterback Landon Duncan to give the ball back to the offense.
On the ensuing possession, the Bulldogs faced a third and long when quarterback Creed Mennen found receiver Luke Shelley for a 27-yard touchdown, and the Bulldogs took an 8-0 lead.
The next two possessions did not result in scores, but the Clovers got on the board late in the first quarter when Duncan kept an option for a 34-yard touchdown to make it 8-7.
Clinton Central responded with a 47-yard touchdown pass from Mennen to Shelley to make it 14-7. The two touchdown passes i. the first half matched the season total for Creed Mennen.
Clovers’ running back Keshaun Taylor finally got things going on the next possession. He broke multiple tackles en route to a 30-yard touchdown run.
After three straight turnovers, two by the Bulldogs and one by the Clovers, Taylor got in again from three yards out to make it 21-14 going to halftime.
It was Clovers, however, in the second half, as the Bulldogs turned it over three more times, and Keshaun Taylor added two more rushing scores to push his season total to 22 rushing touchdowns, a Cloverdale single-season record.
Cloverdale won 42-14 and advances to take on Indianapolis Tindley in the sectional semi-final.
The Bulldogs finish the season 3-6.
“We’ve always known since we’ve been here that we were trying to reestablish the culture and bring the program back to life,” Fendley said. “Our senior class was the catalyst for all of it.”
Seniors Creed Mennen, Amrin Barrett, Levi Jacobs, Elijah Gunderson, Jordan Wolfe and Byron Matrinez played big roles for Clinton Central throughout their careers and will leave a lasting legacy on the program.
“They are going to be the reason Clinton Central football survives,” Fendley said. “I told the team last night, in my first year, when we had 17 players, we could have bowed out, but that’s not who we are at Clinton Central. We don’t give up when the world is against us. And because of that class’s resiliency and resolve, we’ve doubled the numbers in the program, been able to reestablish our JV program and we’ve been able to reinvest in our youth and junior high programs, which both won their championships this year.”
