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Clovers earn first win in emphatic style over Lancers, pitch first shutout since '14
EDINBURGH — Cloverdale has plenty of experience with a running clock in football games.
Friday, however, was the first time since the 35-point mercy rule was enacted in 2019 that the Clovers were the side activating the second half speed-up, not on the receiving end of the treatment.
Cloverdale went so far as to pitch its first shutout in over a decade while picking up its first win of the season in a 62-0 thrashing at Edinburgh.
“We told them the hot practices and all the work they put in this week, that’s what it was all for,” Cloverdale head coach Tyler Lotz said while looking at the scoreboard. “It’s not always the most fun thing, coming out and busting your tail every single day, but it’s for games like tonight and every Friday night we get to play.
“Our hard work paid off. We haven’t been on this end of the stick a lot of times but I was proud of the way the kids stayed focused, didn’t allow themselves to get satisfied and kept fighting for things, a lot of which comes down to our senior leadership.”
Cloverdale’s run game wasn’t quite up to speed but Landon Duncan more than made up for it in the passing game, hurling five first-half scores and adding a sixth in the second half.
The first went to Tayt Jackson two minutes into the contest, a 46-yard score that gave the visitors a 7-0 lead.
Edinburgh came out for its first offensive series and was hit for a delay of game while the first snap came with just a second left on the play clock.
The Clovers forced a quick three-and-out but punted back right away, though the Lancers only managed a first down before the next punt attempt bounced off the hands of Elijah Bryant and was recovered by Ashton Evans.
Five plays later, Duncan hit Jace Gardner for a 12-yard score to double the lead to 14-0 with 1:39 left in the opening quarter.
A fortuitous bounce on a fourth-and-one play kept Cloverdale from turning the ball over on downs and Duncan made amends for missing the snap earlier with a 68-yard pass to Ben Campbell to make it 21-0 three minutes into the second quarter.
“With Landon at quarterback, we can do a lot of different things,” Lotz said regarding the junior signal caller. “He can run and throw the ball, makes good decisions and improvises when he gets out of the pocket.
“Once he got going, we got going. That’s how it usually goes.”
A 30-yard pass to Jackson and 42-yard swing pass to Levi Johnson resulted in one-play drives before the Lancers finally found some mettle.
Hard running from Bryant secured a first down while Caleb Murphy hit Samson Parkhurst for 43 yards and Jared Myers on fourth-and-20 for 32 yards to bring the hosts to the Clover five-yard line.
Jayden Elliott got Edinburgh to the three-yard line but a bad handoff was recovered by Johnson to keep the home team out of the endzone.
Jackson thought he had scored on a 92-yard jet sweep, only for the play to be wiped out by a holding penalty.
On the next snap, Jackson went left instead of right on the sweep and scorched the Lancers for a 96-yard score for a 41-0 halftime lead.
“We talked all week that we wanted to give it to (Edinburgh) on defense,” Lotz said on keeping the hosts out of the endzone. “We wanted to keep at them and not let them score.
“It was a big goal for us to keep them off the scoreboard and one I’m happy these guys accomplished.”
Duncan completed his touchdown spree after hitting Gardner for a 30-yard score on third-and-16 before tempers boiled over on the next series.
A five-yard Elliott run ended with a full-blown skirmish, resulting in a lineman from each team being ejected from the contest.
Edinburgh rode the momentum deep into Cloverdale territory but once again failed to find the endzone and Evan Mann scored the last offensive touchdown of the game with a 90-yard run.
There was enough time for one more tally which Mann was directly involved in, knocking the ball free from Kevin Garcia with Evans in the area to pick up the loose ball and scamper 20 yards for a touchdown.
“I was glad to see the young guys take their opportunities when they got out there tonight,” Lotz said about his reserves and their efforts. “Evan had a big night for us, making big tackles on kickoff, scoring the big touchdown late and making the play at the end to force the fumble. He had a big game for us.”
The 62-point outburst was the most since a pair of victories in 2010 when Cloverdale defeated Princeton 67-8 Aug. 27 and Turkey Run 74-8 two weeks later on Sept. 10. It was also more points than the team scored in the entirety of the 2021 season, when the current seniors were freshmen, having only scored 54 points in that campaign.
| Cloverdale | 14 | 27 | 7 | 21 | 62 |
| Edinburgh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Scoring
1st Quarter
C — Jackson 46-yard pass from Duncan (Jackson kick) 9:37 0-7
C — Gardner 12-yard pass from Duncan (Jackson kick) 1:39 0-14
2nd Quarter
C — Campbell 68-yard pass from Duncan (Jackson kick) 8:45 0-21
C — Jackson 30-yard pass from Duncan (Jackson kick) 7:29 0-28
C — Johnson 42-yard pass from Duncan (Jackson kick) 5:47 0-35
C — Jackson 96-yard run (XP no good) 0:43 0-41
3rd Quarter
C — Gardner 30-yard pass from Duncan (Jackson kick) 4:12 0-48
4th Quarter
C — Mann 90-yard run (Johnson kick) 5:33 0-55
C — Evans 20-yard fumble return (Johnson kick) 1:20 0-62
Statistics
| … | Cloverdale | Edinburgh |
| Total Offense | 30-467 | 46-139 |
| Rushing | 215 | 46 |
| Passing | 252 | 93 |
| 1st Downs | 5 | 7 |
| 4th Downs | 1-1 | 1-4 |
| Turnovers | 0 | 4 |
| Penalties | 3-20 | 6-35 |
| Ejections | 1 | 1 |
Individual Statistics
Rushing
Cloverdale — 16-215, 2 TD — Johnson 6-13; Compton 4-2; Jackson 2-97, TD; Duncan 2-9; Mann 1-90, TD; Boyd 1-4
Edinburgh — 29-46 — Elliott 9-56; Bryant 5-13; Luis-Orosco 5-(-2); Smock 3-7; Murphy 2-(-6); Ackerman 1-13; Parkhurst 1-0; Team 3-(-35)
Passing
Cloverdale — Duncan 11-14-252, 6 TD
Edinburgh — Murphy 6-17-93
Receiving
Cloverdale — Jackson 5-87, 2 TD; Gardner 3-50, 2 TD; Campbell 1-68, TD; Johnson 1-42, TD; Boyd 1-5
Edinburgh — Myers 3-52; Parkhurst 3-41