CLOVERDALE
No one said playing football with heat indexes hitting triple digits at kickoff would be easy. It wasn’t. The Edinburgh Lancers left it all on the field Friday night, but host Cloverdale came out on top 20-6.
On a night to remember in high school football annals for the excessive heat and humidity, Edinburgh fought through as much as it could.
The Lancers (0-2) put the first points on the board on their second drive courtesy of Jackson Hartwell, a 47 yard jet sweep in which he broke through a face mask penalty and took it to the house.
“Jackson just ran hard, that’s what he’s got to do the whole time. If we don’t run hard, we don’t score,” Edinburgh coach Tyler DeSpain said. “A lot of kids are not going to be able to stop Jackson Hartwell.”
Edinburgh’s defense was just as effective, allowing zero points in the first quarter and most notably sacking Cloverdale quarterback Tayton Jackson back-to-back times to force fourth and 21.
It was around this point in the game that the heat had obviously gotten to the 25-man Lancers, and a Cloverdale player cramping up on midfield supported the obvious heat exhaustion.
“Halfway through the second quarter — realistically, we probably should have played on Saturday,” DeSpain said. “About halfway through that second quarter the kids got gassed. It’s tough; we have 25 kids, and two are hurt.”
Cloverdale (1-1) quickly found its stride early in the second quarter after Jackson completed a 34-yard pass to senior receiver Jaxton Helton, who was stopped on the 1-yard line. Jackson took it to the end zone to tie the score at 6-6 on the very next play to start the second quarter.
The Clovers struck again on their next drive, as Jackson kept the ball for four rushes. On a big third and 15, Edinburgh seemed to have the Clovers in trouble, but Jackson ran for 27 yards to the 2-yard line. The Clovers’ QB then kept the ball for his second touchdown two plays later.
“Our kids had heart in that first quarter, and that first half,” DeSpain said. “It was rough, but we have to fight through it. Not a huge deal. We just have to go back through and fix our mistakes and get ready for South Decatur.”
Edinburgh had their chance to respond to the 14-6 deficit. Late in the second, a 41-yard Caleb Murphy-to-Jared Myers pass made things interesting, but an interception in the end zone with a minute to play in the half ended the Lancer threat.
The third quarter, it was still anyone’s game. Cloverdale started with the ball and was in the midst of a promising drive before throwing an interception to Hartwell. Edinburgh failed to take advantage of that big play, though, and a few drives later threw its second interception of the game.
Defense kept Edinburgh in the game throughout the night. Cloverdale consistently had good field position, but the Lancers kept forcing punts.
Cloverdale put the final nail in the coffin with 1:08 to play in the fourth, when Jackson rushed for his third touchdown of the game.
Hartwell had a big night for Edinburgh with 117 yards rushing on 14 carries, while Murphy was 10 of 16 passing for 95 yards. Bailey Totten came in late and provided a spark with 42 yards on the ground on just six carries; Myers was the top receiver with 79 yards.
“It’s just fundamentals,” DeSpain said. “It’s just fundamentals of pulling, fundamentals of hitting the right gap, fundamentals of calling the right play when it’s given. We had a lot of mixups. It’s a new offense, but we can only use ‘it’s a new offense’ for so long.”
