Clarksdale High School opened the 2021 football season with scrimmage wins at home against Rosa Fort.
The Wildcats varsity defeated the Lions 14-0, while the junior varsity won 18-0.
Amari Gipson had two touchdown runs for the varsity – one from 30 yards and another from close to eight yards. Justin Davis connected on the PATs.
“I’m proud of them, man,” said Clarksdale coach Henry Johnson. “We kind of picked up where we left off last year. We’ve got a goal. We’ve got work to do. We’ve got to keep working. That’s all we can say.”
The Wildcats won the district championship in 2020, but there is still work to be done.
“We ran the ball well,” Johnson said. “We’ve still got to work on our passing game. We had one turnover. You never want a turnover. We had a fumble. Other than that, we’ve just got to continue to be disciplined and hard working and playing with effort.”
Johnson thanked everyone for coming to the game.
“I appreciate the community support tonight,” he said.
Corey Harris Jr. caused the fumble that Rosa Fort recovered.
“It probably was, but my biggest thing is we didn’t show any type of effort tonight,” said Rosa Fort coach Kwame Jackson. “That’s what I teach the guys and what I preach to them. You’ve got to show some type of effort and that’s what we didn’t do. Physically, I knew it was going to be a tough game. We haven’t played in two years, but I don’t want to put it on that because we have to be strong mentally and physically.”
Clarksdale hosts Center Hill at 7 p.m. Friday to open the season.
“We’ve got to line up with them,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to be ready. We aren’t going to back down. We’ve got to put on more steam. We’re going to put some more steam on.”
Jackson said the Lions will do well, but they just have a lot to work on. Rosa Fort hosts Greenwood at 7 p.m. September 3.
“I told the guys we’ve got to work mentally,” he said. “We have to get stronger physically. We’ve got to get better technique wise. It showed tonight. Technique wise, it wasn’t there. That’s something we work on during the week, but we got out here, the technique wasn’t there tonight. Back to the technique and fundamentals.
“The potential is there. We have a lot of big guys who have the potential, but they’ve got to want it.
“It starts in the trenches. That’s what I told the guys and they have to want it to be physical."
In the junior varsity game, Meco Maiden had a 60-yard touchdown run for Clarksdale, Tyrese Lewis caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from D’Marion Stapleton and Jordan Maddox threw a touchdown pass for nearly 40 yards to Keuntre Gardner.
