Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The Bruce Lamb era in Celina got off to a roaring start on Friday, as the Clay County Bulldogs took down Jackson County 40-0 in Gainesboro.
A scoreless game at the end of the first quarter, senior Keaton Arms got the scoring started early in the second quarter with his 26-yard rushing touchdown. After getting a stop on defense, the Bulldogs then doubled their lead on the strength of an 18-yard rushing touchdown from senior Joseph Marcom.
The Blue Devils seemingly put some momentum together late in the first half, as Alex Johnson picked off Arms in the end zone and gave Jackson County the ball with just over a minute remaining in the half. Just 40 seconds later however, the Blue Devils fumbled the ball away and Clay took advantage with a 18-yard touchdown pass from Arms to senior Nate Adams.
This gave the Bulldogs a 20-0 lead at the break.
CCHS closed the game down early in the third on an Adams pick-six and a 35-yard touchdown from Marcom on the next Clay possession, pushing the lead to 33-0.
Marcom added one final 49-yard touchdown run to push the lead to its final margin, as Clay County opened their season with a 40-0 win over the Blue Devils.
“I thought we played hard,” Lamb said following his first win as the Bulldogs’ head coach. “We’re not perfect and we’ve definitely got some stuff to clean up, but for game one, we saw some great things…our kids stepped up and made plays when they needed to.”
Arms and Marcom formed a powerful 1-2 punch on the ground, something that will be a big part of Clay’s game-plan moving forward. As the season wears on and those two continue punishing defenses, Lamb knows it’ll lead to big plays.
“That’s what we want to do with those two,” Lamb said. “The offensive line is getting better each week, they’re doing better about opening those holes up…it was tough at first, but Keaton completed some passes and that really helped us too.”
A shutout on defense looks to be a near-perfect performance for the unit as a whole, though Lamb already knows he’ll find different elements to clean up when he takes a look at the film.
“We played well defensively and it’s hard to say anything, but when we watch film, we’ll see those mistakes,” Lamb said. “As an old coach once told me, the big eye in the sky doesn’t lie. We’ve just got to keep getting better, so we’ll keep working hard.”
The Bulldogs will be back on the road next Friday, as they head to Kentucky to take on Clinton County. Jackson County will look to rebound in Jamestown against York Institute.
