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Clovers can't overcome early deficit
It took two days for Cloverdale and Class A No. 10 Rockville to get its football game in after inclement weather forced a 21-hour delay.
Much of the damage was done before play was stopped as the Rox opened the game with a 92-yard kickoff return and never looked back in a 37-8 win over the Clovers.
Cloverdale head coach Jarrod Duff said that despite the early setbacks, the Clovers had a solid first half of play.
"(The kickoff return) didn't really affect anything we were going to do as far as our game plan was concerned," Duff said. "It just put us in a hole on the scoreboard, though after that initial five-to-six minutes, we played a lot better."
Keiontre Wilkey took the opening kickoff the distance, breaking through the middle of the Cloverdale coverage before flying up the Clover sideline for the 92-yard score.
A little over two minutes later, Brandon Cooper connected with Kyle Paddock for a 51-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 13-0.
Cooper's next pass to Wilkey went for 78 yards and another score, leaving Cloverdale trailing 20-0 four minutes into the contest.
The Clover offense found some life, moving inside the Rockville 30 three times before finally getting on the scoreboard.
Nick Winders recovered a fumble on the Rox 18-yard line and Cloverdale needed three plays before Fred Fislar rolled up the right side for an 18-yard touchdown run.
A pair of penalties on the extra point forced the visitors to try for two and Max Secrest made the most of some poor Rockville tackling to score and cut the deficit to 20-8.
Duff said the squad had shown determination to get back into the game.
"We started to tackle on defense and blocked better on offense," Duff said. "That put us in a position to close the gap and we were in good shape.
"We played some pretty good football in the second quarter. We still made some mental mistakes, such as when we were driving the ball on offense and would shoot ourselves in the foot, so we have to keep working on eliminating those mistakes."
The hosts responded with a 14-play drive that ended with a 31-yard field goal by Emil McCarthy-Roed to extend the lead to 23-8.
Rockville closed the half with a third touchdown pass from Cooper, a 33-yard throw to Isaiah Thurman to that bumped the lead to 30-8.
Lightning had been visible for some time and as the half closed, storms eventually forced a postponement that meant the two squads met again at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Both squads looked drained as neither team was able to mount consistent offensive series.
Cloverdale's best chance to score came in the third quarter after Ethan Radford ripped the ball out of Cooper's hands on a busted play.
The Clovers were turned away after reaching the Rockville 17-yard line and would not return to Rox territory.
The hosts capped the scoring in the fourth quarter after Ben Cunningham rammed the ball in from one yard out.
After possession was traded several more times, the game finally concluded nearly 24 hours after it started.
Duff said both side of the ball would need some work before their second road game of the season next week at Turkey Run.
"Our defense played okay," Duff said. "Our offense wasn't very effective.
"We won't do anything different this week preparation wise. We'll have individual time to work on fundamentals and team time.
"We have to get to work this week and figure some things out so we're ready for Turkey Run on Friday."
At Rockville
Cloverdale 8 0 0 0 -- 8
Rockville 20 10 0 7 -- 37
Scoring
1st Quarter
R -- 11:45 Wilkey 92-yard kickoff return (XP no good) 6-0
R -- 9:24 Paddock 51-yard pass from Cooper (McCarthy-Roed kick) 13-0
R -- 7:40 Wilkey 78-yard pass from Cooper (McCarthy-Roed kick) 20-0
C -- 0:09 Fislar 18-yard run (Secrest Conversion) 20-8
2nd Quarter
R -- 5:43 McCarthy-Roed 31-yard field goal 23-8
R -- 1:02 Thurman 33-yard pass from Cooper (McCarthy-Roed kick) 30-8
4th Quarter
R -- 8:38 Cunningham 1-yard run (McCarthy-Roed kick) 37-8
Statistics
Total Yards
Cloverdale 57-111; Rockville 51-322
Rushing
Cloverdale -- 37-57; Boyd 20-35; Fislar 7-19, TD; Hughes 5-(-13); Boyette 3-(-7); Jackson 1-28; Harbert-Davis 1-(-5)
Rockville -- 36-136; Cunningham 17-90, TD; Wilkey 12-36; Cooper 5-13; Ricketts 2-(-3)
Passing
Cloverdale -- 6-20-54; Hughes 3-14-39; Boyette 3-6-15
Rockville-- 8-15-186, 3 TD; Cooper 8-13-186, 3 TD; Rosnett 0-2-0
Receiving
Cloverdale -- Secrest 3-40; Fidler 2-7; Davis 1-7
Rockville -- Paddock 3-71, TD; Wilkey 2-79, TD; Thurman 1-33, TD; Loomis 1-6; Cunningham 1-(-3)
1st Downs
Cloverdale 6; Rockville 13
4th Down Conversions
Cloverdale 1-4; Rockville 0-0
Penalties
Cloverdale 7-55; Rockville 5-40
Turnovers
Cloverdale 0; Rockville 3
Next Game: Cloverdale (1-2) travels to Turkey Run next Friday.