CLINTON — Clinton couldn’t have asked for a better rushing attack.
Behind the duo of running backs in Jakobe Williams and Aaric Beasley, the Arrows held off a late Starkville rally by beating the Yellowjackets 31-22 at Arrow Field on Friday night in a key Region 2-7A contest.
“The key was to get out to a fast start and get up on these guys and make them uncomfortable and both of our backs ran the ball well,” Clinton coach John Carr said. “We felt like there were some formations we could get in and felt like we could run the ball well and we did that.”
Getting off to a fast start was indeed the difference for Clinton (4-3, 1-0 Region 2-7A).
The Arrows scored on the game’s opening drive as Jakobe Williams powered into the end zone from 5 yards out and a successful two-point conversion gave Clinton an 8-0 lead with 7:33 left in the first quarter.
Clinton extended their lead to 15-0 as Williams plunged into the end zone from 4 yards out with 9:24 left in the second quarter.
After Starkville went three-and-out, the Arrows went 59 yards, all rushing, in 10 plays capped off by a Josef Walker 3-yard touchdown run to give Clinton a 22-0 lead with 4:26 left in the second quarter.
Starkville got on the board on the opening drive of the second half as Jaylen Ruffin found Davis Harrelson on a 12-yard touchdown and a successful two-point conversion cut the Clinton lead to 22-8 with 9:21 remaining in the third quarter.
The Arrows answered with a 21-yard field goal by Braylon Spann with 3:34 left to extend their lead to 25-8.
Aaric Beasley’s 20-yard touchdown run gave Clinton a 31-8 lead with 8:13 in the fourth quarter.
On back-to-back drives Starkville got a pair of touchdown passes from Ruffin to Isaiah Witherspoon from 11 yards and 20 yards out to cut the Arrow lead to 31-22 with 1:29 left in the game.
Clinton recovered the ensuing onside kick to seal the game.
“We had a really good week coming off the Terry game, built off the momentum and the guys are starting to click and playing their best football right now,” Carr said. “We’re in a tough region and gets tougher and tougher each week and tonight our guys beat a really good football team.”
Clinton rushed for a total of 268 yards. Williams had 30 rushes for 155 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Arrow rushing attack, while Beasley added 99 yards on 23 carries.
“The run game tonight was explosive, and I feel like they weren’t ready for it,” Williams said. “Our coaches did a great job of getting us prepared and staying humble every day. When we keep grinding like we do every week we get results like this on Friday nights.”
Ruffin finished 19-of-33 passing for 199 yards with three touchdowns and added 99 yards rushing on 12 carries to lead the Yellowjackets (6-2, 1-1).
“On any level if you can’t stop the run, you’re in trouble and we didn’t do a good job of that. We started off slow and you cannot start slow against a good team,” Starkville coach Chris Jones said. “We didn’t play well enough and coach well enough. We will learn from it and get better. We’ve been in this situation before.”
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