Bombers fall to Clinton in season opener
The 2000 season didn't open the way Bomber fans had hoped as Big Red was swept away by a twister otherwise known as 4A No. 1 Clinton and the Reds' standout receiver, Brandon Barker. Unfortunately for the Bombers it was all Clinton on Friday night as the Red Tornadoes left town with a 43-0 win.
The Bombers held their own for most of
the first quarter as the two teams exchanged possessions several times in a
scoreless tie. Clinton took the
lead with just under 3:00 remaining as quarterback Rodney Skinner connected with
Barker on a 69-yard scoring strike. The
extra point was good and the Reds' took a 7-0 lead.
For the Bombers, it was all downhill from there as miscues
in the kicking game helped the Reds' extend their lead. The Red Tornado defense
held the Bombers three-and-out when an errant snap on the punt landed in the
endzone with Clinton recovering pushing the lead to 14-0.
The Reds' promptly held the Bombers to another three-and-out before
another missed punt resulted in a safety and a 16-0 Clinton lead after one
period.
After a nine-yard Ross Hines touchdown run with 9:54
remaining in the second, Barker, who earlier had a 60-yard kickoff return for a
touchdown called back on a penalty, added his second touchdown of the night on a
55-yard punt return giving the Reds' a 30-0 lead. Barker capped his 128-yard receiving night with his third and
final touchdown on a diving 11-yard catch with :06 remaining in the half to give
the Reds' a 37-0 halftime lead. The
Reds' added their final score on a three-yard run with 9:10 remaining in the
third.
"We told (our players) going into the game that there
were going to be some big plays in the kicking game and that we couldn't give
them anything there." Bomber head coach Todd Hudson said, "We just
weren't able to get it done. And that's frustrating because we work (the kicking
game) so hard and it looked like we hadn't practiced it much tonight.
I don't know what the reasons were, we work punt cover more than anything
else and it was just a disaster tonight."
The Bomber offense never really got untracked as the Red
Tornado defense held the Bombers to just 113 yards of total offense and five
first downs.
"We're going to give them credit," Hudson added,
"because their defense had a lot to do with that, but there are too many
mental busts. We've got to get a
lot better. Up front we've got to
do a lot better job with our technique and we've got to eliminate mental
mistakes. We've just got too many
busts."
"That football team was too strong and too talented for
us tonight. There's not a 2A
football team in the state that can play with that football team.
I think we got better in the second half, but we've got a lot of things
to work on. Right now, our chief
concern is to get healthy and our execution on offense has got to get better.
We've got a lot of work to do."
The Bombers go back to work on Monday as they prepare to even
their record next week when they travel to Elgin to face the Owls.