McAdory Takes Care of Central

The McAdory Yellow Jackets (3-2) easily defeated the Central High Falcons (3-2) 42-14. The Yellow Jackets were led by quarterback Jacob Clopton, who finished with 138 yards and four touchdowns. The first quarter of the game was quite tight, but in the second quarter, McAdory gained command and never looked back.

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Clopton scored his first touchdown of the night on a quarterback sneak for the Yellow Jackets. On the following drive, Central responded with a 70-yard touchdown run by running back Marquis Thomas.

Both teams did a fantastic job of preventing each other from obtaining an advantage in the game. On McAdory's opening drive of the second quarter, Clopton drove his team down the field where it profited by getting two pass-interference calls against the Falcons, and the quarterback took advantage of the opportunity inside the red zone. Clopton scored his second rushing touchdown on a nine-yard fake pass QB rush.

Central had a few drives in the quarter, but the Falcons were held scoreless. McAdory scored again, but this time Clopton connected with wide receiver Sean Tolbert on a 17-yard touchdown pass. This increased the Yellow Jacket lead to 14.

The Falcons were in trouble, but with only a few seconds left in the first half, they would move the ball well enough to come back into the game but it did not go the way they needed. Central quarterback David McNeil scrambled around trying to find an open man on the final play of the half but forced a ball that was intercepted and returned 75 yards by Antario Washington for a pick-six, sending the game into halftime up 28-7.

After neither team could score at the start of the third quarter, Clopton connected with four-star tight end Jacorey Whitted for a 20-yard touchdown that effectively iced the game for the Yellow Jackets and gave Clopton his fourth touchdown of the game.
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Central scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

McAdory head coach Aryvia Holmes was pleased with how his team performed on the road.

"I thought the team came out and responded really well," Holmes said. "We're trying to figure out who we are identity-wise. We're trying to establish the run a little bit more, trying to help Clopton out and he's done a really good job commanding the offense and limiting the mistakes. So, we still got a lot to work on but I feel like we are kind of trending in the right direction."

McAdory had multiple personal foul penalties against Pinson Valley a few weeks ago, and Coach Holmes informed me after the game that the team would work on such mental errors. Tonight, no mental errors were made, which satisfied Holmes.

"I think I got my point across with that deal," Holmes said. "I think some of the stuff we did in that Pinson [Valley] game was very uncharacteristic of us. So we've really harped on the little things, we made sure that we take care of business character-wise on the field and those guys have responded well."

Jacob Clopton, who scored a total of four touchdowns, was the star of the contest. The other statistics didn't blow you away, but how poised and in control he was with the offense was very impressive.

"He's taken a lot of snaps, he's a warrior, he does everything we asked him to do," Holmes said. "He's been working really hard. He's been kind of banged up a little bit but to watch him come out to practice, get into film study, and understand what other teams are trying to do. He's one of our biggest weapons running and throwing the ball so I am happy to see him doing well."

Clopton informed me that his team needed several elements to be successful, but the first thing he said was energy, followed by leadership.

"A lot more leadership. We just got to keep our energy going, just like we had a lot of energy out here and in the background we got a lot of energy going which is what leads this team," Clopton said.

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