By MONTE DUTTON

Okay, it wasn’t even a full game. The clock ran the entire second half.

Javen Cook, in particular, and the Clinton Red Devils, in general, made the best of a 56-14 Region 3-2A victory over Landrum (3-5, 0-2 region) on Friday night in front of, oh, 3,800 fans or so at Wilder Stadium.

The score was 50-7 at halftime. Cook, all 5-6 of him, averaged 25.7 yards for each of the 13 times he ran the football. Clinton (6-3, 3-0) has had a few runners in its time. Babies in District 56 are born to run. Cook, aptly nicknamed Zoom, dashed, darted and dominated for 334 yards and five touchdowns.

The whole second half took half an hour.

“The reason we’re getting better every week is we work hard every day,” said Cook., “from the weight room to the practice field. We grind every day, Monday through Thursday.”

If I hadn’t been standing there, on the sideline with a camera hanging from my neck, I would have thought it was a dream of a video game.

Who had a better Friday night than Zoom? Shohei Ohtani, maybe?

Down on the sideline, as photographers mingled with cheerleaders and scribblers, the chief rooting interest was for Clinton to pull 42 points ahead. That would keep the clock running in the second half. What followed was the closest approximation of a clutch play in the game.

Clinton ran only 39 plays all night, held possession for only 17 minutes, 18 seconds, and managed to squeeze 555 yards out of them. The Red Devils rushed for 533 yards, averaging 15.7 yards a carry.

The only statistic that made the total yards look sparse were those generated by Cook, who looked like the Road Runner confounding Wile E. Coyote. In 13 carries –13 carries! – Cook rushed for a school-record 334 yards and scored a record-tying five touchdowns.

The only goal worth having was getting that clock going so everyone would get home in time to watch High School Red Zone. Cook scored his third touchdown on a seven-yard run, by far his shortest of the night. With 1:17 remaining in the first half, Pablo Hernandez’s extra point put the Red Devils up, 43-0.

Then Landrum’s Trey Nesbitt ran a kickoff back 91 yards.

Oh, no!

Cook came to the rescue as if he were Underdog. Or Batman. Or Zoom.

After the kickoff, on the second play, with 17 seconds remaining in the half, Cook took it to the proverbial house from 79 yards away. It wasn’t even his longest touchdown of the game. Cook scored on runs of 52, 58, seven, 79 and 81 yards.

Clinton led, 50-7, at halftime. The second half was only 51 seconds old, clock ticking merrily, when Cook embarked on his 81-yard voyage. Fountain played 21 junior-varsity players – Landrum and Blacksburg are not presently fielding JV teams — and the Red Devils charitably curtailed their 100-point pace.

Clinton head coach Corey Fountain called it “awesome.”

“Those guys come to practice every day. They work hard, and being able to get them in the game was great for us.”

Landrum quarterback Ty Foster completed 16/31 passes for 153 yards, but three were intercepted by Clinton’s Zy Butler, Noah Garrett and A’Javian James.

Braylon Revis caught eight passes for 65 yards. Foster led the Cardinals in rushing with 59 yards.

The great Brian Kingsborough rushed for 292 yards against Riverside in 2006. Last year quarterback Tushawan Richardson averaged 10.3 yards a carry on Clinton’s state championship team. Through nine games, Cook has 1,284 yards in 116 carries for an average gain of 11.1. Four Red Devils – Cook, K.J. Vance, Angelo Cromer and Jaiden Jeter – averaged at least 10.8 on a foul Friday for the Cardinals.

“Our line did a great job, and our receivers also made some great blocks that made all those yards possible,” Fountain said.

Cook tied the five touchdowns scored by Kingsborough in the same 2006 game in which he rushed for 292 yards, won by Clinton, 42-0.

Gosh knows how many yards and points Clinton would have produced had the clock ever stopped in the latter half.

The Red Devils visit Blacksburg (1-7, 1-1) next Friday in the final regular-season before Clinton takes its bye before the playoffs. The Wildcats were off Friday.

In four straight victories, Clinton has scored 60, 49, 50 and 56 points.

The old record for team rushing yards was 526 yards against Woodruff in 2022. Cook has already scored 25 touchdowns and two two-point conversions for 134 points. Kingsborough’s 2006 record is 216 points in 14 games for an average of 15.3 points. Cook’s current average is 14.9.

Cook zooms on.

Wren (6-2, 3-0 Region 1-4A) performed as expected at Laurens (1-7, 1-2), though the Raiders made a few waves of their own against the Hurricanes.

Thanks to Jake Owings’ three touchdown passes, Wren won, 45-28. Muntu Brown rushed for three scores, capped by a 75-yarder in the fourth quarter.

Nehemias “Nemo” Fernandez rushed for two touchdowns to lead Laurens, which travels to Anderson next to take on Westside (4-4, 3-0).

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