By Steve Carter
Taking every advantage offered to them, the Clinch County Panthers defeated the Irwin County Indians, 24-7, Friday for the public school Class A state championship.
Irwin lost two chances in the red zone and on an interception and with Clinch holding on a fourth down play.
Meanwhile Clinch scored on 3 of its 4 chances in the red zone.
The first of those red zone chances came when Clinch's Chauncy Manac blocked a punt by Irwin's Nathan Tucker. Panther teammate Marcus Hodges recovered on Irwin's 29.
Seven plays later, Clinch's Shannon Young scored from one yard out. A try for two failed.
After the teams traded possessions, Clinch pinned Irwin back at the Indian 7 on a punt.
Indian running back Ziaire Andrews broke around the right end and raced 93 yards for a touchdown. Austin Pettis kicked the point after and Irwin was up 7-6 at the end of the first.
Clinch took the ensuing kickoff and drove 63 yards for a score. The touchdown came on a 2-yard run by Shannon Young. After a try for two failed again, Clinch was up 12-7 with 8:44 left in the second quarter. Irwin had another scoring opportunity in the first half.
Using the running of DJ Pollard, the Indians drove to the Clinch 3. But after running the ball for 10 plays and 62 yards, Irwin called for a throw that was intercepted by Clinch.
The Panthers took the second half kickoff and drove 68 yards on six plays for another score.
Trezman Marshall got the touchdown on a 5-yard run. Try for two again failed and Clinch was up 18-7 in third quarter.
After that score, Irwin again used see strong running by Pollard and Andrews to go to the Clinch 33. On a 4th and 4 play from the 33, Irwin tried a flea flicker, but the pass was incomplete.
Charles McClelland added what amounted to a meaningless touchdown on a 36-yard run to end the Clinch scoring 3:33 left in the game.
McClelland led Clinch with 173 yards rushing on 10 carries.
Andrews had 132 yards rushing for Irwin on 9 carries.
Pollard had 89 yards on 17 carries. The senior holds the single season rushing record after gaining 1,957 yards in 2015.
Pollard also had 10 total tackles, giving him 123 total on the year.
Javon Stanley also had 10 total tackles for Irwin.
Other leading tacklers for Irwin were Daniel Yawn with six, and Zyon Ross with five.
Irwin ends the year with a 10-3-1 record.
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Posted by Tiftarea Sports on Friday, December 11, 2015
