Cloverdale falls 47-0 to Monrovia

CLOVERDALE -- The Clovers knew what to expect from speedy Monrovia's Wing T offense Friday night. Be able to stop it was, unfortunately, a different story as Monrovia moved to 2-1 in the WCC with a workmanlike 47-0 shutout of the Clovers. The loss dropped Cloverdale to 1-2 on the season.

"Everyone on this football team has a job to do," emphasized first-year Head Coach Kyle Winkler at the game's conclusion. "Our outside guys chose tonight not to do theirs."

Outside defensive containment was Cloverdale's achilles all evening, as the Bulldogs utilized former Clover Dylan Stone at the fullback position to either ram it down the Clover's collective middle, or as a decoy to suck in Cloverdale's backers to gain yardage on the outside.

After the Clovers went three-and-out on their opening possession of the ballgame, Monrovia concluded a tidy three minute drive with six points, as quarterback Eric Sampson scored on a 17-yard bootleg to put the Bulldogs on the board at the 5:57 mark of the first quarter. Robert Martin's successful run on the two-point conversion gave Monrovia all the points it would need at 8-0.

In the second quarter, the Bulldogs capped a ten-play, 75-yard drive with Garrett Johnson's 24-yard TD run at the 10:13 mark. Johnson's two-point conversion upped Monrovia's lead to 16-0, a margin that would hold until the halftime intermission.

It took Monrovia less than a minute to find paydirt in the third quarter, as Jeremiah Byrum scored on the evening's longest play from scrimmage, a 55-yard run at the 11:06 mark. The two-point conversion attempt failed, and the Bulldogs led 22-0.

From that point it became academic, as Monrovia stayed on the ground with clock control on its mind, primarily with Stone leading the way. The bruising back amassed 86 hard-earned yards on 26 carries, and kept the Cloverdale D-line and linebacking crew occupied the entire evening.

Monrovia opted to keep its offensive first unit in the game in the fourth quarter, despite its overwhelming lead. This enabled the Bulldogs to rack up an additional 25 points in the final stanza. The first strike came when Monrovia was able to gain field possession deep in Clover territory after Cloverdale failed to convert on fourth down.

A quick three-play scoring drive culminated in Johnson's 20-yard TD scamper at the 9:23 mark. Another two-point conversion try failed, and the Dogs were on top 28-0.

Stone was rewarded for his efforts on the evening with six points as he found the Clover end zone on a one-yard run up the middle with 4:20 left. A failed conversion left the score at 34-0.

On the ensuing Cloverdale possession, a Jordan Hayden pass was intercepted by Monrovia's Logan Steward and returned 34 yards for yet another Bulldog score with 4:09 remaining. Byrum's PAT kick made it 40-0 Dogs.

Much to the chagrin of the hometown crowd, Monrovia did not elect to run the clock out on its final possession, choosing instead to pad its already insurmountable lead. When Jake Hadley found the end zone at the 2:13 mark, and Byrum connected again on the PAT, the Bulldogs led 47-0, the game's final margin.

Perhaps the lone bright spot for Cloverdale came on Nick Keefer's interception of a Sampson pass as the first half was drawing near, snuffing out a sustained Monrovia drive.

The Clover offense was virtually non-existent, collecting only 44 positive yards for the contest. Winkler stressed that this week's focus would be on his clubs commitment, attitude and effort, or lack thereof.

"If there's one thing we can take away from tonight's game, it's the realization that the weight room exists. My biggest disappointment with this group is the fact that we had only fourteen guys in the weight room this summer. I had forty guys on the first day of practice, and some of them I had never seen before. You don't get stronger during the football season, you get stronger in the summer."