Farmington gets win over Clarksville

FARMINGTON 61, CLARKSVILLE 41

FARMINGTON – Mike Adams knew it was going to be a tough task Friday night for his Farmington Cardinals to slow down the unique single-wing attack of the Clarksville Panthers.

The Farmington coach’s plan was to simply try to outscore the opposition with a torrid ground attack of his own.

Despite being out-gained on the ground 365-342, it was the Cardinals who won where it counted, posting a 61-41 Homecoming victory over Clarksville in the 5A-West Conference opener for both teams at Allen Holland Field.

“That was a hard-fought ball game,” Adams said. “You know, coach (Khris) Buckner does a great job with those guys, and the thing that they do is hard to prepare for, because it is so hard to simulate in practice.”

Farmington (2-2, 1-0) took control early, opening the game with a steady 9-play, 72-yard drive. Senior Caleb Williams took the ball around left end for 18 yards, with a nifty cutback near the goal line for the touchdown.

That was just the beginning of a busy night for Williams, who carried the ball 27 times for 222 yards and four touchdowns.

Clarksville (1-3, 0-1) wasted little time getting its single-wing in motion. The Panthers kept in on the ground for all seven plays of their opening drive, culminating with Colton Gregory 8-yard run. The successful point-after game the Panthers an early 7-6 lead with 5 minutes, 29 seconds left in the first quarter. The Cardinals then put up three consecutive touchdowns to take control.

After Williams scored again from 12 yards out, quarterback Trey Waggle then completed two scoring bombs – the first a 74-yarder to Xavier Staten, followed by a 64-yarder to Drew Sturgeon.

“We had some big plays early and got ahead, then we wanted to slow things down and run the clock as much as we could,” Adams said. “But those guys never quit and kept coming right at us.”

A 59-yard scoring run from Nicholas Buckner, a sophomore who is the coach’s son, sparked Clarksville midway through the second quarter, and kept the Panthers within striking distance.

With a slim 39-24 lead heading to the fourth quarter, Farmington got some breathing room early in the final quarter, when Jared Oskey hauled in a 12-yard touchdown pass on fourth down.

Two minutes later, the Cardinals’ Michael Sellers blocked a Clarksville punt, which was fielded and returned 24 yards by Jae Woods to make it 54-34 with 7:23 remaining.