Blue Eagles primed for region opener at Fort Mill

With an extra week to prepare for Friday’s Region 3-AAAA opener, the Clover High School football team will travel to Fort Mill Friday for the 7:30 p.m. game.

“We accomplished some things during the bye week,” coach Chad Smith said. “We’re a little bit more healthy. We have one kid that was banged up during bye week, but at the same time, I think we’re the healthiest we have been for awhile. We were able to clean up some things and work on our physicality.”

Smith has no problem having an extra week of practice before region play.

“It’s my favorite time to have a bye week,” he said. “It kind of lets everybody take a breath and sit back. Honestly, this is the first week I didn’t feel like we were preparing per se for anything since July. It was a much-needed rest for our kids.”

Smith views Fort Mill as a challenge despite the Yellow Jackets’ 56-6 loss to Northwestern last week.

“That score is more indicative of how well Northwestern played than it is Fort Mill,” said Smith. “Northwestern right now is on a different level than a lot of teams.”

Smith is familiar with the task at hand.

“Coach Ed Susi has done a great job at Fort Mill,” he said. “They are a quality football team that had a 4-1 record going into the Northwestern game, just like they were last year. You know what you’re gonna get from Fort Mill. You’re gonna get tough kids that will play disciplined. Coach Susi and his staff will have them in the best position to make a play.”

Senior Gavin Jenkins, right guard along the offensive front, said Friday’s game is special.

“It’s my last first region game,” he said. “We want to go out there and win the game. Going into the game, we’re basically 0-0. We (offensive line) take pride in opening things up for the double wing.”

Elijah Plummer, a defensive end/tight end, feels confident about a Blue Eagle win.

“A win would be good for us going into the region as underdogs,” he said. “The key for this team is having clear heads, not worrying about whether they’re gonna do this or that; just playing ball how they coach us and taking it to Fort Mill.”

Running back Cody Payne healthy after the bye week.

“Fort Mill is a beatable team,” said Payne. “They had a hard week against Northwestern and we had a bye week. We’re mostly healthy with a lot of energy and enthusiasm about playing this team. We need to open the region on a good note, get some momentum going.”

Quarterback Noah Lindsay, a three-year starter at the position, feels positive vibes this week.

“There’s a lot of energy going into Friday’s game, everybody, fans, our team,” said the confident signal-caller. “The week off helped. We had time to work on our fundamentals and being more physical.

Lindsay’s message to his teammates: “If we go out and smack them in the mouth, do our thing, we’ll come out on top.”

Smith likes the team’s positive mindset.

“The key is to be the more physical team and to make less mistakes than Fort Mill,” said Smith. “The team that blocks the best and tackles the best, that’ll be the team that wins.”

The season, Willy Clark has had 281 yards rushing and a 6.85 average per carry. He also is the leading pass receiver with 156 yards and three touchdowns.

Lindsay has 19 completions for 343 yards and four touchdowns this season.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Blue Eagles primed for region opener at Fort Mill."