The Clarke Central High School varsity football team fell to the Carrollton High School varsity football team on Nov. 10 for the first round of the GHSA AAAAA playoffs. The Trojans won 35-16.
The Carrollton High School Trojans hosted the Clarke Central High School Gladiators on Nov. 10 at the Gresham Stadium on the Historic Trojan Field for the first round of the GHSA AAAAA state football playoffs. This game determined which team would go on to the next round of playoffs.
With five minutes and 58 seconds left in the first quarter, Trojans kicker successfully attempted a field goal making the score 3-0 CHS. Then Gladiator kicker Zander Dale missed a snap resulting in a safety. Glads trailed by five. Trojans running back Jaylen Thomas scored the first touchdown of the night on a running play. Instead of the extra kick, the Trojans went for a two-point conversion making the score 13-0 Trojans, at the end of the first quarter.
Starting off the second quarter the Trojans had a successful field goal, making the score 16-0. The Glads come back with Janoah Mack scoring the first touchdown of the night for the Glads. One minute later, the Trojans fumbled the ball but CCHS center back Kapres Forbes recovered the ball and CCHS quarterback Jack Mangel ran the ball for a successful touchdown. CCHS kicker William Downs goes in for the extra kick but it is blocked, making the score 16-13 Trojans. After Mangel’s touchdown, he was taken out of the game for a few minutes due to a rolled ankle. With four minutes and 36 seconds left in the 2nd quarter, Downs’ attempts a field goal but is not good, making the score 16-13 at the end of the second quarter.
“I mean we played hard, we got behind the eight ball early, bad start and then Jack’s ankle really hampered us on offense,” Clarke Central High School head coach David Perno said. “A big part of our offense was him running the ball tonight and we think we could’ve got some mileage on it, and the one play we did, he got hurt but that made it tough and then we didn’t catch some balls. Ultimately the penalties doomed us.”
Halfway into the third quarter Downs’ field goal was complete, tying the score 16-16. With 39 seconds left in the quarter, the Trojans come back with a touchdown making the score 23-16. 10 seconds later, Thomas scored another touchdown, but the PAT was not good, to gain a 13 point lead against the Gladiators going into the fourth quarter.
With two minutes and 27 seconds left in the game, the Trojans scored another touchdown but the PAT was not good. The Glads fell 35-16 at Carrollton in the first round of the 2017 GHSA AAAAA State Playoffs, ending their season with a 7-3 regular season record and a 0-1 postseason record.
“I mean it’s tough. I mean they’re talented but I mean we never could get the monkey off our back with the penalties. It was something that has haunted us a long time, you know all season we had a tough time with penalties in these type of games and we’ve had a tough time coming out of the half. We were in the Winder (Barrow High School) game and we just didn’t play well in that third quarter and we’re in this game and we just didn’t play well. They had a 95-yard drive and 45 of it was penalties, it turned the whole game and you know at that point we shut down and we had two linemen go down. We just didn’t have the depth that we were hoping.”
Looking onto the 2018-19 season, Perno hopes to work with the team on discipline.
“It’s just never turned the corner on that, and being able to control them. It’s not like (CHS) is innocent, but they just do a better job of it and our kids are loud in their retaliation and we got dinged for it. We’ll start next week and build our senior class for next year and create a higher level of discipline and expectations,” Perno said.
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