FOOTBALL: Admirals get humbled by Corbin

Published 10:44 am Saturday, September 10, 2016

Corbin had a game plan and executed.

The Redhounds’ goal was to wear down the Danville defense, and they did just that, owning the line of scrimmage en route to a 28-7 victory.

Danville coach Clay Clevenger said intensity in practice before the game wasn’t where it needed to be. After the game, he told his team that they got exactly what they earned on the field.

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“They came out and did exactly what I thought they were going to do,” Clevenger said. “They came out and came right at us. They were trying to wear us down, they play a lot of kids one way. It was a good, humid night to try to come right at us and wear us down, and they did that. But we needed that. We needed somebody to line up and knock us in the mouth. Now, we’ve got to figure out how to fix it and respond to it.”

Danville’s electric offense was held in check all night. Both teams started slow — Corbin’s first touchdown came with 36 seconds left in the first quarter on a Dylan Brock run inside the five-yard line. A 40-plus yard run by Tucker Jewell, the longest offensive play of the quarter, set up Brock’s touchdown run.

Danville’s offense couldn’t respond, and the Corbin offense continued to click. The Redhounds used misdirection and a strong point of attack to negate the Admirals’ team speed.

“Danville is really well coached, they’ve got a lot of speed over there, defensive line, linebackers,” Corbin coach Justin Haddix said. “That was part of it. Our guys made plays when they had opportunities.”

Corbin scored again on its next drive, capped by a five-yard quarterback sneak by Cameron Sizemore on fourth down.

Haddix said he and his coaches emphasized the need for their wide receivers to be physical against a Danville secondary that plays both ways.

“We’ve really been on our receivers to get the edge and block in the secondary,” he said. “With them playing seven guys both ways and their secondary people having to play receiver and that, we wanted to come out and be physical with them. We were really proud of them.”

The Admirals were driving in the middle of the second quarter when Zach Dampier was intercepted for just the third time this season. He hit David Walker on a slant, who was then tackled from behind. The ball popped free and DJ Murphy reached out and made the play.

At halftime, Corbin led 14-0.

“Sometimes you’ve got to get humbled,” Clevenger said. “You start to feel like you’ve arrived. You’re a sophomore or junior in high school, that’s not a good place. We’ve got three seniors on our football team that’s been around. We don’t have a lot of that senior leadership, and so right now, sometimes you’ve just got to get knocked down a little bit and get humbled.”

Danville lost yardage multiple times last night due to high snaps to Dampier in the gun or low snaps that resulted in a sack, something that was a smaller problem against Boyle County one week ago.

“That’s just one of those things,” Clevenger said. “Trust me, we work on it. It doesn’t rear its head in practice, so when we get out here, the last two weeks really, it’s kind of been a surprise. It’s a young man playing a position that’s really, really tough, to snap and block and all the things we ask our center to do. We’ll work on getting it fixed.”

Danville didn’t score until the end of the third quarter on a Donlevy Harris touchdown run. Corbin responded in the fourth quarter with its fourth score of the night, solidifying a three-score victory.

Clevenger said he was worried with the way his team practiced this week.

“We didn’t have a real sharp week of practice,” he said. “We kind of got caught up in our own headlines. That happens with young football teams, when you start out the season 3-0 and you have a big, emotional win over your crosstown rival. Sometimes you let down a little bit. I was afraid of it, I was hoping it wasn’t going to happen, but I had that feeling, and we kind of came out and that’s what we got. Hopefully it’s a learning experience. This game in the big scheme of things doesn’t mean a lot, other than it’s an L, a mark in the loss column.”

It’s a learning experience for the Admirals, who will look to get back in the win column in two weeks against Green County (1-3). Danville has a bye this week.

Clevenger told his team that a loss could be the best thing that happens to them at this point of the season.

“I think we have to get back to understanding what it’s going to take for us to be a really good football team,” he said. “You’ve got to block, you’ve got to tackle, and we didn’t do either one very well tonight. And you’ve got to play with a certain amount of intensity, that we definitely didn’t do tonight when we’re going out here to play. You want your team to understand, you don’t want to play with ups and downs. This week was definitely a down. We’ve got to fix that.”

Follow Matt Overing on Twitter @MOvering