Published: Thursday, Sep. 11, 2008 / Updated: Thursday, Sep. 11, 2008 02:19 PM

Clover's birds of prey

CLOVER -- The game was over, and Clover's Ricky Moore was pouring sweat and grinning ear-to-ear.

He'd played nearly every down in the Blue Eagles' 48-42, come-from-behind win over South Point from Belmont, N.C.

A great way to start a new season after winning the Class AAAA Division II state championship last season. A great game that answered a lot of questions, including one that Moore quickly answered.

Moore said this year's offense is "better than last year's."

"The lineman were knocking holes I could drive my truck through," he said.

The numbers are higher than those after last season's first three games. Clover, a run-first team, had 1,011 yards rushing last year. This season, they're at 1,325.

The Blue Eagles got off to a good start against South Point, running for 527 yards with two new starters -- Tyron Douglas and Max Elliott -- lined up beside Moore. They also had a new quarterback, Aaron Miller, running Clover's double-wing, wing-T offense, who ran it like he's been doing it all his life.

The wing-T is a good offense based on motion and deception that keeps opposing defenses guessing. The only team that's been able to slow it down the last two years is South Pointe of Rock Hill, which gets a third crack at beating Clover on Friday night at 7:30.

South Pointe is 2-0, Clover 3-0.

Two years ago, Clover's first in Class AAAA, the Blue Eagles made a huge defensive stop outside their end zone and held on for a 6-3 win.

Last year, Clover surprised everyone in the Stallions' stadium with a rare swing pass that turned into a 27-yard touchdown in a 10-7 come-from-behind win.

"We play each other tough,'' Clover coach Jet Turner said Wednesday. "We went into the season with a lot of holes to fill, but our young kids stepped in and are getting better every day.

"We just hope we can stay on the same field with South Pointe. They have a lot of good athletes."

Turner's team can do that if it can find a way to slow down the Stallions' powerful offense. And it can if Clover continues to run the ball as the Blue Eagles have in the first three games and keep from putting the ball in the air against South Pointe's talented secondary.

That part starts up front on the offensive line. But it shifts quickly to Moore, Douglas and Elliott, who have combined for 1,152 yards and 15 TDs.

Douglas, a junior and part-time starter last season, leads the way with 450 yards and seven touchdowns. Moore, a senior, has 422 and six. Elliott, another junior, has run for 280 and two TDs.

"All of them are different,'' Turner said. "Ricky, well, he's a football player. If you need three yards, he'll get you four. If you need 20, he'll get you 21. And you won't find a better kid than him.

"Tyron is a combination of speed and strength. He's a slasher and is hard to bring down. Max is wide-open. When he sees an opening, he runs to it and is hard to catch once he gets there."

Elliott was the top running back on the junior varsity team last season and is a transplant. His dad, a pilot for U.S. Airways, moved the family to Clover from Phoenix two years ago, and Elliott said it's the best move they could have made.

"We moved here at the end of my freshman year, and I played on a high school team that also ran the wing-T," Elliott said. "But it didn't have as much motion as we have here.

"We were only in Phoenix one year and didn't like it as much as we thought we would. My dad looked at locations in both Carolinas because of his job, and we settled on this area. We love it here."

Douglas and Moore have been around Clover most of their lives. Because of the success the Blue Eagles have had since Turner came to town from Ware Shoals in 2003, Douglas said "little'' kids tell him they want to be a Blue Eagles' running back when they grow up.

That's like music to Douglas' ears. He knows the feeling after following in the footsteps of older brother, Chris, for years. When Chris Douglas was injured last season, Tyron filled in.

"We have a young team that runs the wing-T, and they are beating teams like 60-0," Douglas said. "I stopped by to watch them recently and showed the running backs how to get low when they run and how to pick their holes.

"I want to help any way I can. Chris always helped me, but was tough. When I do something good, he'd tell me how to do it better. But when I was having trouble with the playbook last season, he'd talk to me in the huddle and straighten me out."

Moore is the Blue Eagles' hero in residence. In last year's state championship game, he bulled his way into the end zone for a couple of short TD runs in Clover's 23-14 win over Beaufort.

"At first, I didn't think we would be that good this year because of all the people we lost," Moore said. "We struggled in the preseason, but when we scrimmaged Ardrey Kell at York, we spread our wings and started to soar.

"The offensive line came together, we saw we could count on Max and Aaron Miller was running the offense well. We don't have 10 Division I players like some teams or go into the shotgun. We have a bunch of guys who like to play smash-mouth football."