Blue Eagles to face Blythewood Friday

Closing its nonregion schedule, the Clover High School football team will host Blythewood Friday before the Region 3-AAAA opener next week at Fort Mill.

A large crowd is expected for Friday’s homecoming clash at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.

“They are extremely athletic and very fast,” coach Chad Smith said about the Bengals, from northeast Columbia. “They’re probably most similar to Westwood, but not quite as big.”

Smith said that Blythewood head coach Dan Morgan is a former Northwestern player.

“They’ve got a good program going,” said Smith. “Blythewood won a state championship the first year the school opened. There’s no shortage of athletes there. But at the same time, if we play disciplined and play hard, we’ll go out with a really good shot Friday.”

Smith said a win Friday night would provide a spark for the region opener.

“If we could go into the region with two wins under our belt and have a week to prepare for Fort Mill, when they’ve got Northwestern the week before they play us, it would be a dream scenario for us,” said Smith.

Smith said the Blue Eagles enter Friday’s game a bit beat up.

“That was one of the issues last Friday,” he said. “Quarterback Noah Lindsay came down with a stomach bug before the game and fought through it.

“Right now, we’re having a hard time getting a break from the injury bug. Chase Griffin is banged up a little bit, and probably out for a couple weeks. Cody Payne will be out again this week.”

Pausing to reflect on last week’s 41-13 loss to White Knoll, Smith weighed in on the pros and the cons.

“White Knoll is quality football program,” Smith said. “We didn’t perform to our expectations, but at the same time, there were some good things that came out of it. We had our best offensive performance of the season, including a 17-play, 11-and-a half minute drive that was fantastic.”

Lindsay had a productive game as quarterback despite the stomach bug, rushing for 30 yards and a touchdown and completing two of seven passes for 50 yards and a touchdown.

The Blue Eagle offense amassed 209 yards rushing, with fullback Tanner Tolson leading the way with 78 yards on 19 carries. Other rushing totals included Willy Clark, 47 yards rushing; Terion Hubert, 29 yards rushing; and Tenchi Her, 21 yards rushing.

Clark was on the receiving end of Lindsay’s 43-yard touchdown toss.

While he was pleased the offensive output, Smith said the Blue Eagles had a hard time maintaining the intensity level. “We didn’t feed off that at all and that’s something we’ll work on this week,” he said.

Smith said senior leadership is crucial to the team’s success at this critical stage.

“Senior leadership is extremely important,” he said. “We have a small group of seniors right now. We need them to step up and really take hold and lead the team.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Blue Eagles to face Blythewood Friday."