Mother nature did not wreak its expected havoc Friday night in northwest Tennessee, but a prolific and relentless rushing attack did — as Clarksville moved to 4-0 in a 35-14 win over Hopkinsville.
The Tigers (1-3) got a yeoman’s effort from senior quarterback Aiden King, who finished 14-for-27 and 192 yards passing with one touchdown and one interception, and added eight rushes for 19 yards and a short score late in the first quarter to knot things at 7-all.
But the Wildcats ripped off 28 points from that point, including a concussive 21-point third quarter, and by the final clock had managed more than 375 yards rushing on 50-plus carries behind a dodgy triple-option and multi-quarterback system.
“We battled, man,” noted first-year Tigers coach Dustin Lopez. “We had chances. You’ve just gotta… whenever you get chances, you’ve got to take advantage of them. And we didn’t. We didn’t have a really good first quarter, and we didn’t have a really good third quarter. And that’s how it ended up.”
A Wildcats fumble, one of five in the contest, was recovered by the Tigers with less than nine minutes left before halftime.
On the ensuing drive, though, King’s pass was picked by Jamarcus Watkins with 8:07 to go. Watkins has an offer from Vanderbilt.
After the break, the Wildcats pounced.
“We just aren’t consistent enough, and it’s a little bit of our inexperience on both sides of the ball,” Lopez added. “On the touchdown to make it 21-7, we brought a backer off the edge. He kind of freezes. And instead of just taking the quarterback right there, because we just added an extra edge guy to give that problems, the quarterback just gets in there and scores.
“Then, we go three-and-out, and then they’re able to throw a pass, catch it, and break a tackle. And we kind of just lost our fight a little bit. And I think we kind of felt sorry for ourselves. But then we kind of bucked back up a bit in the third quarter. And I don’t think we play terribly defensively. We just played inconsistent.”
Now 20-16 all-time against Hopkinsville, Clarksville got rushing touchdowns from four different players: two from James Dalrymple, one from Jack Wyatt, one from Watkins, and one from Cayden Fletcher.
Rural King
On Hopkinsville’s final drive, King completed six passes, eventually leading to his touchdown to DeAvery Ramey.
Lopez called it a strong, strong drive, and an impressive answer on an otherwise difficult evening.
“You look at everybody we’ve played, and there have been no ‘gimmies,’” noted Lopez. “Greenwood beat Logan County 21-3 tonight. But with Aiden, it’s just about us. A lot of his inconsistency comes with us not running routes. Sometimes we don’t run routes with consistent depth every time. That last drive? Clarksville had their first-string linebackers and secondary still in, and we drove it down the field. We’re a solid team. For us to get over the hump to be a good team, we have to be more consistent with the details. And that would make Aiden better.
“I’ve always known that, too. I’ve seen him play since I was refereeing Bud Hudson games when he was playing. And I say that about all of our guys. Our potential is there. But we’re not consistent enough to beat the good teams yet. And until we improve on our consistency and overall play, we’re going to still struggle against those good teams. But the potential is there, we’ve just got to keep fighting and holding on.”
Next Up
Talk about “no gimmies.” The Tigers will host district foe Paducah Tilghman (4-0) next Friday for Homecoming at the Stadium of Champions.
Not only is it a vaunted Class 4A, District I matchup, but it’s against a Blue Tornado team that possesses a realistic chance at a title berth. With Troy commit Jack James at quarterback, Kentucky commit Martels Carter at wideout and defensive back, Vanderbilt commit Vanzale Hinton at running back, and other FCS and FBS specimens around them, it will be an unfriendly task.
With Sean Thompson at skipper, they already have wins against Henderson County, Mayfield, McCracken County and Graves County — and none of the contests close.
“They’re elite,” Lopez said. “They’re a top five team. Probably top three. I don’t want to shortchange anybody. They’re super well-coached. One of my mentors, Coach Steve Lovelace, is defensive coordinator. And when you have three, four, five SEC guys, you usually have a pretty good team.
“I’m looking forward to it. There’s no pressure on us. To be the man, my boy Ric Flair said it, ‘you have to beat the man.’”
CLARKSVILLE 35, HOPKINSVILLE 14
Tigers (1-3) 7 0 0 7 — 14
Wildcats (4-0) 14 0 21 0 — 35
SCORING
CLARK — James Dalrymple 41 rush (Wiggins PAT), 7-0, 10:50 1Q
HOP — Aiden King 1 rush (Jones PAT), 7-7, 4:44 1Q
CLARK — James Dalrymple 1 rush (Wiggins PAT), 14-7, 2:25 2Q
CLARK — Jack Wyatt 17 rush (Wiggins PAT), 21-7, 6:27 3Q
CLARK — Jamarcus Watkins 18 rush (Wiggins PAT), 28-7, 3:02 3Q
CLARK — A. Galbreath 27 pass from Kayden Pledger (Wiggins PAT), 35-7, 2:14 3Q
HOP — DeAvery Ramey pass from Aiden King (Jones PAT), 35-14, 1:54 4Q
STATISTICS (Provided by Long-time Hopkinsville Statistician Roy Keller)
PASSING LEADERS
HOP: Aiden King 14-27-192-1-1. CLARK: Kayden Pledger 2-4-33-1.
RUSHING LEADERS
HOP: Aiden King 8-19-1, Artavius Moses 3-4, James Bradley 9-1. CLARK: James Dalrymple 13-98-2, Jack Stein 8-96, Jack Wyatt 5-47-1, Jamarcus Watkins 5-46-1.
RECEIVING LEADERS
HOP: Treston Kay 4-60, Tremayne Clay 3-58, James Bradley 3-35, DeAvery Ramey 2-35-1. CLARK: James Dalrymple 2-12, A. Galbreath 1-27.
MISCELLANEOUS
First Downs: HOP 11, CLARK 22.
Rushing: HOP 21-26, CLARK 53-380.
Total Offense: HOP 48-218, CLARK 58-419.
Punting: HOP 4-35.3, CLARK 1-30.
Turnovers: HOP 2 (One INT, One Lost Fumble), CLARK 3 (5 Fumbles, 3 Lost)
Time of Possession: HOP 21:59, CLARK 26:01.
