Clover captures region crown with 58-21 win against Rock Hill

Perry Woolbright is a first-year head coach at Clover, but he’s not a new face to the Clover community at all.

Woolbright played football for Clover, where he graduated from in 2001, and his father, Marty, was the Blue Eagles’ head football coach from 1993-1997.

Coming into the program after seven years at Lexington High School, Woolbright took over in February, wanting to continue the tradition of excellence at Clover while also implementing his own standards.

Friday night’s 58-21 win against Rock Hill brought Clover its first region title since 2019 and fifth in school history.

But for Woolbright, it’s less about him and more about the talent that the players on the field.

“I couldn’t be more happy for the kids,” Woolbright said. “For me, it’s great, but it’s really great for these kids. Any time you go through a coaching change, it’s tough, especially for seniors. They’ve had the previous coach since their seventh-grade year, and when you have changes, there’s unknowns. You got some teammates that leave, you got some guys that don’t stick around. But the 21 seniors that stuck it out, this is great for them.”

Friday night wasn’t smooth sailing at first for the Blue Eagles.

Clover punted on its first three offensive possessions before a short field led to a 1-yard touchdown run by junior running back Landon Stone broke the deadlock.

After that, it was smooth sailing, with the Blue Eagles scoring the games first 35 points en route to the victory.

Woolbright said coming into the season that he wanted to utilize his power running game to open up big plays for the offense, and Clover did just that by rushing for 280 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. Stone did the bulk of this work with 194 yards and four scores alone.

“He did a good job,” Woolbright said. “That’s what you got to do offensively. You’re not going to get the big run every time. Even in our passing game, we preach we’re not worried about getting a big play every single play. We want to set it up like a slug fest. Body blow, body blow, body blow, and then when they suck up or they get in the wrong gap, that’s when we get our big runs, our big throws and things like that. He does a great job being patient and being okay with the three, four-yard runs early, and then we get the big run after that.”

Defensively, Clover put out a great performance.

Sophomore linebacker Jaylon Holmes and senior defensive back Deonte Starr both returned interceptions for touchdowns in the first half as the defense also recovered a fumble and forced two turnovers-on-downs.

The defense forced more combined turnovers and turnovers-on-downs (5) than Rock Hill’s offense had first downs (4).

“Up front, our guys really got after the quarterback,” Woolbright said. “Our (defensive backs) did a great job doing everything we talked about. (Rock Hill’s) receivers have really gotten behind people, so we really preached playing your assignment this week. Don’t go for the eye candy, don’t go chasing the quarterback. Let our front-seven take care of the quarterback. You take care of the receivers.”

Rock Hill struggles but looks to postseason

Rock Hill head coach Bubba Pittman and his team will lament the early missed opportunities to take control and build momentum.

On the Bearcats’ first offensive possession, senior quarterback Matthew Wilson evaded would-be sackers and flipped a pass up to wide receiver Malik Clark, who dashed down the left sideline for the score. However, that play would be wiped off for an illegal man downfield penalty on Rock Hill. That drive would end in a three-and-out.

On the next offensive possession, Wilson fired a pass down the right sideline to Clark, who was wide open after a double-move sent his defender in the other direction. However, the ball bounced right out of Clark’s hands and onto the turf for an incomplete pass. That drive would also end in a three-and-out.

“We felt like we had to come out fast and get on (Clover),” Pittman said. “Try to get them behind on the scoreboard.”

“Kind of felt like right there, we would have been up 14-0. Defense was playing really, really well in the first three drives of the game. Then, we let them score, and then we throw a pick-six, and then we get another pick-six. I mean, it just kind of snowballed from there.”

Rock Hill’s first score came thanks to a muffed punt by Clover’s punt returner recovered by the Bearcats’ punt team.

With the short field position, Rock Hill marched down and scored with a 4-yard halfback pass from senior Kamari Moore to fellow senior Dante’ Reid.

But the offense’s inability to keep the ball were the main issues Pittman saw with the loss Friday night.

On Rock Hill’s three touchdown drives, the Bearcats picked up four first downs combined. In their other 13 drives, the Bearcats didn’t pick up a single first down, and that caused the defense to be on the field more than Pittman would have liked.

“Our defense, it was a gallant effort by them,” Pittman said. “But (Clover’s offense) just wore on them. Wore on them, wore on them, wore on them, and we couldn’t stop the run. We couldn’t get a first down on offense. For three quarters right there, we could not get a first down.”

“Our offense couldn’t stay on the field. We couldn’t create explosive plays, which we’ve kind of relied on all year long, and we couldn’t do that tonight. (Clover’s) a really good football team. Coach Woolbright’s got a good football team. They were well-prepared, well-coached, and they just beat us up and down the field.”

The Bearcats still have nothing to hang their heads over. Finishing second in the region, Rock Hill will at least start their postseason run at District Three Stadium.

Pittman said that the important thing for his team is to learn from the game and have a good week of preparation heading into the postsesason.

“I think we just got to go back to the drawing board,” he said. “Look at the film, find out the mistakes we made, find a way to get better, practice next week. We got another week. We got a home playoff game, sky’s not falling.”

“(Clover was) the better team tonight, and we got to find a way to get better. We’ll let this one hurt tonight, and then we’ll watch the film. We’ll go back, we’ll study and we’ll prepare for next week.”

Looking ahead

With the top spot in the region, Clover will play the No. 4 team from Region 1-5A at home next week. Rock Hill will play the No. 4 team from Region 2-5A next week.

Clover’s game is scheduled to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 3, but with Rock Hill, South Pointe and Northwestern all having home playoff games next week, the order of games remains undecided.

This story was originally published October 27, 2023 at 10:06 PM.