Cloverdale succumb to Monrovia at home

Saturday, September 5, 2009
Jeff Couse of Cloverdale drags a Monrovia defenders as he moves up the field in Friday's contest.

CLOVERDALE -- The Clovers hosted the Monrovia Bulldogs in hopes of snapping their two game losing streak Friday night, but that proved to be easier said than done.

Monrovia blasted the Cloves 50-0, pushing the Clovers to 0-3 on the season.

"I think our kids came out flat," CHS coach Kyle Winkler said. "They acted like they didn't know how to tackle and who was in what positions. We had 10 guys trying to tackle their running back on one of their touchdowns and we couldn't bring them down.

"I don't know if it was ooh It's Monrovia or ooh were 0-2 or ooh were with out our stud running back Dillin Gray out there," Winkler added. "Where not a one-trick pony show. We have other kids that can carry the ball, we just need to get other lineman out there for four quarters."

The Bulldogs scored on their first three possessions of the night. The first touchdown came just two minutes into the first quarter when Dalton Clements ran back a 56-yard punt return, followed by Austin Parks who completed the two-point conversion. Minutes later the Bulldogs did it again, this time it was quarterback Tim Connor who ran the ball 35-yards for another touchdown with 6:50 minutes left in the first quarter.

After the Bulldogs defense forced the Clovers four-and-out, Parks ran the ball for a 54-yard touchdown on the first play of the series. Connor ran the ball on the keeper for the conversion, giving the Bulldogs a 22-0 lead.

Moments later, the Bulldogs scored again when Evan Jaynes picked off Jordan Brickman's pass and ran it back 35-yards for the TD. After the PAT, Monrovia led 29-0 with 3:05 left in the first quarter.

"Point blank, Monrovia was a better team," Winkler said. "A lot was put on the quarterback tonight in throwing the ball and I don't like throwing the ball."

Monrovia scored one more time in the first half when Connor connected with Watson for a 42-yard touchdown. Then at the start of the third quarter, the Bulldogs forced the Clovers to punt after three downs and marched the ball 53-yards in eight plays, capped off by Connor who rushed for six-yards on the keeper for the touchdown.

Monrovia's last touchdown of the night was when Garrett Johnson scored on a six-yard carry, capping off a 77-yard drive.

Monrovia's defense never let up on the Clovers. It held Cloverdale to a total of 84 yards.

"I'm sure that they saw that Dillion had over 200 yards rushing in the last two games and set up their defense to stop him and when they saw he wasn't out there, it was off to the races, send in the defensive ends and crash everything and make us pitch it," Winkler said. "We didn't even get a chance to pitch it because there were so many guys up field on us."

Cloverdale had one last chance to avoid the shut out with just seconds left in the game when they were on the two yard line. But an offside call pushed the Clovers back five-yards and forced them to pass it instead of running it up the middle.

"We got a little crazy there at the end," Winkler said. "We were running our basic stuff that we run in practice and we were trying to run what we call bone and we get a guy that jumps offsides.

"And that just capped off a fine evening right there," Winkler said.

The Clovers are back in action Friday night when the travel to Turkey Run for a 7 p.m. showdown with Warriors.

At Cloverdale

Cloverdale 0 0 0 0 -- 0

Monrovia 29 13 8 0 -- 50

First Quarter

MO -- Clements 56 punt return 9:53 (Parks 2 yd run)

MO -- Connor 35 yd run 6:50 (2pt fail)

MO -- Parks 54 yd run 5:23 (Connor 2 yd run)

MO -- Jaynes 35 yd run 3:05 (Reeves kick)

Second Quarter

MO -- Connor 42 yard pass to Watson 10:29 (kick fail)

MO -- Connor 6 yd 3:42 (Reeves kick)

Third Quarter

MO -- Johnson 6yd run (Connor 2yd run)

Individual statistics

Cloverdale

Rushing -- Scisney 15-26, Couse 6-8, Brinkman 5 (-4), Boller 5-12

Receiving -- Lockwood 1-34, Moore 1-8

Passing -- Hayden 2-5-42-0-1

Monrovia

Rushing -- Hadley 7-31, Clements 1-56-1, Johnson 8-50-1, Parks 7-122-1, Connor 6-59-1

Receiving -- Watson 1-42-1, McCleerey 1-16

Passing -- Connor 2-58-1

Next game -- Cloverdale travels to Turkey Run next week for a 7 p.m. game.