GETTING THE JOB DONE

In their District 5-3A, DII opener, the Class 3A, DII Clifton Cubs make long road trip to dominate Eastland, host Early Friday

It wasn’t pretty, and it certainly wasn’t as easy as the score indicated. But the Clifton Cubs met the challenge of opening District 5-3A, Division II competition on the road, and walked away with a convincing victory.

Junior quarterback Jackson Ritz ran for one touchdown and threw for another by connecting with junior Eduardo Garcia on a 24-yard scoring strike while the bend-but-don’t-break Cub defense keyed Clifton’s solid 28-6 victory over the winless Eastland Mavericks last Friday at Maverick Stadium.

“It is always good to start off district with a win,” Clifton football head coach Brent Finney said. “Everyone has a clean slate and gets to start over at 0-0. We knew Eastland would be a tough game on the road.

“But like we told the kids, stats and points don’t matter anymore – only Ws and Ls. We need to keep taking each game one week at a time, enjoy being 1-0 this week and keep our home win streak alive.”

This week, the Cubs (1-0 in district, 5-1 overall) come home to host the Early Longhorns (1-0, 2-4) in a key district game at 7 p.m. Friday at Cub Stadium. Snapping a four-game losing streak, the Longhorns upset defending district champion Tolar, 43-14, in their district opener last Friday night. Both teams have a common non-district loss to the Hamilton Bulldogs.

As a dual threat running and passing the ball, Early sophomore quarterback Caden Wilson has rushed for a team-high four touchdowns while throwing five scoring strike, four of those going to junior wide receiver Andrew Reedy. But the Longhorn defense comes into the game surrendering 31.2 points per game.

“Early will be a huge challenge,” Finney said. “They have some very dynamic playmakers on offense and some really good size. They will be rolling in with a lot of enthusiasm after beating Tolar.”

Against Eastland (0-1, 0-6), the Cub defense put Clifton on the scoreboard first as Garcia scooped up a Maverick fumble and raced into the end zone for the touchdown. While the Eastland triple option running attack proved to be a challenge at times, the Cubs created three turnovers and came up with timely stops.

Senior Jared Ramirez led Clifton with 12 tackles and two caused fumbles, followed by junior Cade Zint and junior Jose Arcos with eight takedowns apiece, and senior Deacon Williams with seven. In addition to the fumble recovery for a score, Garcia pulled down an interception and made five tackles, while sophomore Rico De La Hoya picked off a pass and senior Zach Sedberry caused another fumble.

“Eastland has played hard all season,” Finney said. “And schematically what they do is hard to prepare for. You do not see the flex bone triple option very often, and it takes a few series to get used to it. We thought our defense did a good job limiting big plays and forcing them to drive the ball.”

After the defense gave Clifton an early lead, the Cubs scored 21 points offensively and did a solid job of controlling the ball with a balanced attack when they needed to do so. While running only 37 plays on offense, the Cubs produced 167 total yards, led by Ritz with 62 yards rushing while completing seven of 11 passes for 65 yards.

Senior running back Judd New added an efficient 37 yards rushing on only seven carries, Garcia finished with two receptions for 43 yards, including a 24-yard scoring drive, while senior Elyjah Rodriguez powered his way for a two-yard touchdown run.

“With the turnovers, we typically had a short field offensively,” Finney said. “They ran the play clock down every snap, which limited our offensive snaps as well. We were able to make some plays in the passing game which really helps when teams are focused on stopping our running game.”