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THE CHRONICLE, Clinton, S. C., September 11, 1969—7-A CHS Blanks Georgetown BILL CURRIE»«li| Mouth of the South ' u ¥ '■ * V The Football Tour This week thirty-eight gentlemen, or at least human beings of the male persuasion, will embark from the Raleigh-Durham air port for what is euphemistically called “Operation Football". It is a breakneck tour via air and bus of the eight campuses of the Atlantic Coast Conference by newspaper, radio and television re porters of the league. A more absolute compilation of ignorance would hardly be feasible. And when they have roared through all the training camps, they will display their abysmal lack of grid iron understanding by voting on the order of finish for the teams. This is done every year, but you never hear of it at the end of the season. Memory fails me when I attempt to recall how many times I have been on the tour. Too many. We used to make it in four and a half day. Now they have extended it to seven, and it is still too much for old people like me. It’s load and unload, hurry up and wait, and never go to bed for a week. Afterwards they could de- vide the group up for some intensive therapy at Wilmuth and Kee- ley Institute. Pre-season coverage of football is ninety-eight per cent hot air and two percent conjecture. If it weren’t for the fellowship and the fun, I wouldn’t go. There isn’t a coach alive who knows or has any idea what sort of team he will field until it plays. Last year was an eon ago. The first game is in the future, and prac tice against one’s own teammates is a poor way to judge profi ciency, strength or desire. Yet, Operation Football has great value. It brings the writers and broadcasters of the Atlantic Coast Conference area into per sonal contact with the coaching staffs and university officials. In times like these, it is well for the sports writer to know the pre sident of the school. When any football game may descend into a riot because of student militants, then pity a reporter who knows how to write only sports and fails in combat description. Skeet Francis, the always efficient publicity man at Wake For est, has moved into the number two position in the ACC office, and he will run the tour. His directive to the troops says, ‘You may not like your roommate, but you must love and respect him." He continues: “Only coffee, tea and milk will be served on the flights. We won’t do into an explanation on that point" Actually some of the scribes and broadcasters arrived at a couple of schools too far in the bag to attend the cocktail party. Gamecocks Are Favored Let me gift-you, the essence oi what we will,learn about the up coming rac^Sbutt'Catfaltal Vjll be fSfvored to win. Duke will be picked, probably second, but certainly the sleeper in the league. Wake Forest and Maryland, with new coaches, will be on the bot tom, with the Terps likely lower than the Deacons. North Caro lina will be seen as considerably improved, and Virginia will be expected to fall below last year’s 7-3 mark. Clem son and State always get a nodding of approval and voted near the top. The writers have seen Frank Howard and Earl Edwards win too many to vote them anywhere out of the first division. This will be the fourteenth Operation Football. It maybe the last. Some of the guys are afraid they’ll have a coronary in meet ing the schedule. Others are having trouble convincing their bos ses that they need to travel a week to write the same drivel they could have gleaned out of the press book in August. PIERCING THE DEFENSE—Thorn- well’s Maynard Pierce (45) shakes off one tackier and prepares to side step another on the final play of the first half last Thursday. Pierce scored on this play from the 15 but the play was nullified by a clipping penalty. However, Pierce scored three touchdowns that counted dur ing the season’s opener. Among those blocking for Pierce are Joe Ad ams (12) David McCary (68) and Mike Briggs (40). Saints Host Hickory Tavern Thorn well Nips Ford As Pierce Scores Three BY MIKE SIMONS The Thornwell Saints will try to make it two in a row this week when they host Hickory Tavern. Last week, the Saints defeated the Ford High Eagles by a 22- 20 count. Coach Ben Crabteee of Thorn- well said that Hickory Tavern lost their season’s opener, and they would be sure to be up for this game. Crabtree noted that Bell St. Wins Opener, Hosts Twin City Friday down in the first quarter as Gre gory Robinson broke over guard and raced 40 yards to paydirt. Bell Street High’s Wildcats opened the season on a winning note Friday, upending Beck 12-0 in Greenville. Wildcat Coach Willie Little commented, “We were particu larly pleased to get this first win, particularly against Beck which is a 3-A school.” Bell St. plays in class 2-A. The Wildcats open their home schedule Friday night, playing host to Twin City. Bell Street struck for a touch- Rogers Placed On -Taxi Squad At St. Louis Clinton native Phil Rogers has been placed on the taxi squad of the St. Louis Cardinals’ NFLpro football team. Rogers, who holds the pass re ceiving records at Clemson, will practice with the Cardinals but will not be on the traveling squad. If one of the Cardinals’ regular flankers is injured, Rogers will move up to the regular squad. Gault Faces ‘Unknowns’ PC Invades Quantico First Game Saturday Presbyterian College’s Blue Hose open their football season Saturday afternoon against the Quantico Marines in Quantico, Va., and PC Head Coach Cally Gault labels the prospects “un known. ” He says he doesn’t know much about Quantico and he isn’t sure how his own squad will react to the game. Gault said, “We have some fine players, individually, but we don’t have much depth or experience. We will be counting on freshmen to supply our depth. We have tried to give them as much experience as possible in practice but we don’t know how they’ll react to game situations. We probably will have several players who will play both offense and defense." Concerning Quantico, Gault said, “We understand they’re go ing to be 200 per cent better than last year. They have sev eral men who played on last year's team." PC defeated Quan tico 10-0 last season. Capt. Ed Heuring, an honorable mention All-American at Mary land in 1956, is the new head coach at Quantico. He succeeds Maj. King Dixon Jr., a native of Laurens County and former Uni versity of South Carolina great Gault said, “We’re in good physical condition and believe we have some pretty good front line players. Before the season, we thought (linebacker) Bobby Nor ris. (fullback) PhilBradner, (tac kle) Ed Paulling and (quarter back) Allen McNeill would be our outstanding players this sea son and we still believe they are the nucleus of our team. * PC has had two scrimmages against other teams. Gault said the Blue Hose looked better in a scrimmage against Newberry than they did last Saturday at Western Carolina. Gault termed the showing at Western “very poor." The Quantico Marine Base is located near Washington, D. C. Gantt said Interstate-8S is the route the PC team bus will take almost all the way to Quan tico, a trip of about 450 miles. The Blue Hose were to leave to day, Thursday. They will work out at Quantico this afternoon and Friday. They also will tour Wash ington Saturday. The Washington tour has been arranged by Pre- sidental Assistant Harry Dent, a PC graduate, and U.S. Sen Strom Thurmond. Game time Saturday is 2:00 p.m. The Blue Hose open their home schedule Saturday week, Sept. 20, against Furman University. In the second quarter, Richard Scott galloped 60 yards on a reverse play to put the Wildcats out front 12-0 at halftime. Beck’s most serious scoring threat came in the fourth quarter when they moved to Bell Street’s 20-yard-line. However, Luke Babb snuffed out the threat by intercepting a pass. Coach Little was pleased with his entire defensive line and said, “The blocking on offense also was good. It would be hard to single out "any one blocker because they were opening holes all down the line." YMCA Flag Football Teams To Organize Organization of the YMCA Flag Football Program will get under way Monday, Sept. 15, at 3:30 p.m. Teams will be formed into two age groups this season and play a series of scheduled games during the fall season. The younger age groups will be composed of boys eight and nine years old and the older age group will be for boys 10 and 11 years old. The eight and nine year-old group will meet Mon day, Sept. 15, at 3:30 on the YMCA Football Field, followed by the 10 and 11-year-old group on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 3:30. Practice and playing schedules will be set at these first meet ings. All boys in the Clinton-Joanna area are invited to play in the Flag Football League but this year you must be a member of the YMCA to participate. If a boy is not a member, a membership may be secured at the YMCA. Four teams will be formed in each age-group and will play a schedule of six to eight games during the season. Jayvees Host Laurens Tonight Clinton High School’s junior varsity football team opens its schedule tonight, Thursday, play ing host to Laurens. Game time is 7:00 p.m. at Wilder Field. JV Coach Preston Cox said his tentative starting lineup in clude s. Ends, George Bodie and Aubrey Smitherman; Tackles, Malcolm Lee and Sandy Saunders; Guards, Steve Rhodes and Walker Wil son; Center, JoeySpillers; Quar terback, Billy Young; Wtegback, RufUs King; Fullback, Lawrence Jones; Tailback, David Mangum. Victorious Devils Visit Tough Bears Hickory Tavern was about the same size as the Saints, and very quick. They are in the same situation that Thornwell faces in that key positions are manned by inexperienced players. Crabtree pointed out that Hick ory Tavern likes to use a mul tiple offense set with much of the load on tailback Quilin Trumblin, a good, fast runner. On defense they use a six-mons ter set-up. Maynard Pierce accounted for all three Thornwell TD’s in the Saints’ conference victory over Ford. His first tally came on a 42-yard run around the right side with 5:43 left in the first period. Kanada Roach ran to the right for the two-point conver sion, giving Thornwell an 8-0 lead. Thornwell increased the lead to 14-0 when Pierce fielded a Ford punt, headed up the side lines and then veered to his right, cutting between would-be tack- lers for a 75-yard touchdown run. Pierce’s run for the extra point failed. Larry Barker’s 23-yard kick off return gave the Eagles good field position, and it took them nine plays to score, with Johnny Mason bulling over from the 13. Ricky Barker ran for the two points after, narrowing the gap to 14-8 with 3:41 left in the half. Ford tied the score in the third stanza, when Ricky Barker went in from seven yards out. His run for the extra point failed, mak ing it 14-14 with 5:45 left in the quarter. Thornwell’s last TD came on a 61 yard run off the right side by Pierce with 8:38 remaining in the game. Roach, with a tack ier hanging on his right leg, passed to Mike Briggs for what turned out to be the winning two points. Ford came back to life when Ricky Barker intercepted a Thornwell aerial and returned it to his own 49. A penalty placed the ball on the Thornwell 36, and Barker carried it over from the nine plays later, with 0:41 left to play. Barker attempted to run for the point after to tie the score, but he slipped and was surrounded by Thornwell defenders, giving the Saints a hard-fought 22-20 win. Crabtree observed that the Saints were able to stop the F ord offense when they had to. He added that four fumble re coveries aided the Saints. He said that one of the keys to the Thornwell offense was being able to run outside on the larger Ford team. Crabtree praised Pierce for his running, and Frank Bruyer, Fred Smith, and David McCarter for their blocking. He also priased the defensive secondary, which allowed only two pass com pletions. The secondary consists of Pierce, Roach, Briggs, and Frank Kellam. Riding the shoulders of cheer ing teammates, Clinton High Red Devil Captain Matthew King ripped a large cardboard sign from the wall ofthe CHS dressing room Friday night. He threw the sign to his teammates who ripped it to shreds. On the sign was written a large number ONE. It repre sented the first CHS football vic tory of the season a 14-0 vic tory over Georgetown in the sea son opener at CHS. This week, another sign went up---number TWO. The sign will remain there until the Red Devils capture their second victory. They’ll be trying for No. 2 Friday night at Belton-Honea Path. Game time is 7:30 p.m. Clinton Coach Keith Richard son is concerned about the Bel ton-Honea Path game. He said, “We’re right scared of Belton- Honea Path. All summer long, we’ve heard how weak they were going to be this season. But last Friday night, they played Greer a good game although losing 6-0. Greer is supposed to have one of the better teams in the upper state. “Belton-Honea Path starts 10 seniors and one junior on offense so they have a seasoned team. They also have good size. They aren’t real big but they have good range size. They’re always tough to play.” In their opener against Georgetown, the Red Devils op erated smoothly and dominated the game. Georgetown got only two first downs during the game and never mounted a serious scoring threat KELLER ROMPS—Clinton Fullback Bob Keller (33) rips off a 12-yard run against Georgetown as Clinton drives for its second touchdown. “Our kicking game was most important in our defensive show ing. (Quarterback) Buzzy Ted- ards’ punting kept them in a hole for most of the game," Richard son said. A blocked Georgetown punt set up Clinton’s first touchdown which came on the Red Devils’ first offensive series. Recov- at the Georgetown 35, the Red Devils marched to Georgetown’s four where tailback Everett Rob bins ripped over for the score. Coach Richardson said, “That scoring play was well executed. >0 1 ^ Ir, Robbins did a good job. He hit the running alley real well and stuck: it in there. Everyone did their job and it clicked." A key play in the short drive was a 14-yard pass from Te’d- ards to end Matthew King. Clinton struck again in the third quarter as fullback Bob Kel ler roared over to score from the five. “The team’s blocking was even more obvious on Keller’s touch*, down,” Coach Richardson said, “It was wide open for him." Keller scored standing up. Tedards kicked both extra points for Clinton. The Red Devils had three other scoring opportunities during the night and was inside George town’s 10 when the game ended. Richardson said that Clinton center Monty Crisp scored the highest of the offensive linemen in carrying out his assignments. The coaches grade the film of the game, stedyfng eaclf player’s performance and grading him it Tackle Haskell Patterson also scored high, according to Rich ardson. On defense, Mike Crawford and C V V CRUNCHER — Clinton’s Everette Robbins (32) buckles the knees of a Georgetown blocker as an other Red Devil comes up from behind to make the tackle on Georgetown’s Linwood Goins (44). In background, CHS players are Lewis Henderson (51) and Matthew King (86) Ronnie Cheek performed weH,- making four individual tackles each. The Yardstick -•j George*-. Clinton tovya-: First downs 9 Id Yards Rushing 134 32 Yards Passing 18 •0 Total Yardage 152 3&>: Passes Att. 9 .To Passes Comp. 2 Passes Intcp. 0 0- Punts 5 n Punt Avg. 27-1/2 19-l/fc- Yards Penalized 20 Score by quarters: . * \ * Clinton---7 0 7 0---14 — Georgetown---0 0 0 0- --0 ' ? * - V YOU CAN AFFORD TO STOP WORKING-CANT YOU? If you stopped work today, and had to continue to live on the amount of life insurance you presently have, how long could you do it? THAT'S WHAT YOUR FAMILY MIGHT HAVE TO DO! Consult: Milton P. Moore 833-3919 Jofftrson Standard Life Insurance Company Home Office/GreenSboro, N. C. Support The Annual Kiwanis Pancake Jamboree SPONSORED BY THE CLINTON KIWANIS CLUB SEPTEMBER 26-27