Clay County has Week 2 trip to Westmoreland Friday night
By THOMAS P. WEAVER
Horizon Editor
CELINA-Nate Adams did what Nate Adams does last Friday night.
The sensational senior quarterback, who now owns virtually all of the program’s passing records, put the Clay County Bulldogs on his back and led them to a 42-30 season-opening victory over York Institute here on John Teeples Field.
“Nate was on top of his game, and what a performance—you know, 26 for 38, 319 yards, and five touchdowns, and then had two picks on the defensive side,” Bulldog head coach Bruce Lamb said of the program’s do-it-all star, whose numbers broke (yardage) and tied (TDs) Bulldog single-game records. “Just an amazing accomplishment by him.
“But if you go down the list, and look at Lance (Burchett) and Nolan (Adams), and (Waylon) Cherry—we had three different receivers catch passes for touchdowns.
“We had some big plays on defense—Bryson Sharp laid the wood in his first game, Worm (Smith) played well, Cole Eads’ pick-six was huge, Roland Holaway, and, in the offensive line, I thought Kaden Strong played the best I’ve ever seen him play in three years,” the veteran coach continued. “People stepped up and played well—Reece (Adams) driving his man 15 yards down the field, and he whipped him all night long.
“That is exactly what we have to have. I can go on and on, and brag about these kids, because there were so many that played well.”
The performances by the names Lamb mentioned, combined with those of an entire team he said “didn’t back down” and “kept believing,” resulted in Clay County starting the season 1-0.
They will now take their unblemished record into a Week 2 matchup at Westmoreland as the #9-ranked team in the Tennessee Sports Writers Association (TSWA) Class 1A Poll.
And Lamb said he hoped the experience his team gained in their victory over the Dragons will translate into a road win Friday night.
“They are kinda like York,” he said of the 0-1 Eagles, who fell 31-7 to highly-touted Class 4A Macon County over the weekend, “They are physical, and they are going to line up and hit you in the mouth just like York did.
“Hopefully we are up for that challenge again, just like we were this past week. We are going to have to be more physical than them, try to make more plays, and kinda limit them in what they do.”
Westmoreland beat the Dawgs 13-6 here last season and 20-19 the last time Clay County made the trip west into Sumner County. Clay County won the two prior, with a 21-14 victory in 2021 and by a score of 27-22 in 2020.
The average margin of victory for either team in the last four contests was five points, adding fuel to what has become a rivalry of late between the two schools.
“I know it’s going to be tough, because it’s been that way for awhile, and it’s never easy when you have to go there,” Lamb said of playing the Eagles on their home field, “but I know what we can do now, I know how hard we can play, and I expect that every week now.
“We will be ready.”
Tune in to Horizon Sports Network coverage of Friday night’s game at Westmoreland for an interview with Lamb during the H&H Auto and Equipment Parts Pregame show starting at 6 p.m., one hour prior to kick off at 7 p.m.
Hear more thoughts on the Eagles from the coach and much more, online at www.dalehollowhorizon.com or on the Dale Hollow Horizon Facebook page.
Dawgs refused
to lose to York
The Dawgs eventually used their home-opener with York as a tune-up for their road trip to Westmoreland, after falling behind 6-0 to the Dragons three plays into the ballgame and also trailing at halftime.
“We were down twice in the game, at the very first and then we were down right before half, but they just kept fighting man—they are fighters,” Lamb said of his team. “They love playing this game, they never had any doubt, and they believed in themselves.
“At halftime, you could see it in the kids eyes, and I felt the same way—that we weren’t going to lose that game.”
Behind 22-21 at the break, Clay County opened the second-half with 21 unanswered points to put the game away.
Nate Adams completed two of the three touchdown passes his brother Nolan hauled in on the night in the third quarter, before Eads picked off an Eagle pass and ran it back for the other score.
Clay County kicker Manny Hernandez also booted two of his four made extra points, and Reece Adams caught a two-point pass to surge the Dawgs ahead 42-22 heading into the fourth quarter.
Landon Robbins did tack on a 41-yard touchdown run and York added a two-point conversion to open the final period, before Clay County ran out the clock on the 12-point victory.
In the first half, Nate Adams, who was already the Bulldogs’ all-time leading passer heading into his final season—after becoming the program’s first-ever 2,000-yard passer in 2023, broke Steven Arms’ longstanding career passing touchdown mark (46) when he found Burchett for his first score through the air—which covered 31 yards.
The touchdown pass answered Blake Voiles’ two-yard rushing score, which was set up by the big York special teams play to open the contest.
A Hernandez kick came after the Adams-to-Burchett strike and put Clay County up 7-6.
The Bulldog kicker was then true again on the heels of Nate Adams finding Cherry in the back of the end zone on the Dawgs’ next drive from four yards out.
Clay County had claimed a 14-6 advantage with four minutes left in the opening period, but York answered with a 13-yard rushing touchdown from Logan Pannell and added a two-pointer to knot the game up early in the second stanza
The Dragons then took a one-score lead following a Bulldog three-and-out, as Pannell found paydirt again with six minutes left in the half, and the Dragons added another conversion to reclaim a 22-14 advantage.
But Clay County again battled back.
After the ensuing Bulldog drive stalled in York territory, Nate Adams picked off a Dragon pass and threw the first touchdown to his brother Nolan the next play.
The 20-yard score, paired with another Hernandez kick, pulled the Dawgs within one point of York, 21-22.
Nate Adams then made sure the tally stayed the same at intermission, when he tracked down his second defensive interception to end the half.
With two picks in the contest, he only lacks one to tie the school’s career interception mark of 27 held by his uncle Brian Burchett, and he is also tied with three others when it comes to the single-game program record of five touchdown passes in a contest.
“I’m glad he’s on our side,” Lamb said of his star. “It’s just uncanny what he can do.
“When he gets out of the pocket, and he and Nolan, Lance, and those guys ad-lib a little bit, he continues to look downfield, and, as accurate as he is, he’s hard to handle.”
When asked about the importance of coming out with a victory over the Dragons to open the season, Lamb said it was “huge” for his team’s confidence.
“In the long run, it doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “It’s not a region game, but being 1-0 in our minds keeps us believing in what we are doing, and that is key.
“They all played extremely hard, and we’ve just got to keep believing.”
Bulldog stats
The Dawgs racked up 402 total yards of offensive on 60 plays against York, including 83 yards rushing on 22 carries and 319 passing yards.
Nate Adams accounted for all of the yards through the air on 26 of 38 passing (5TDs/INT), while his brother Nolan was his leading receiver (9/153 yds./3TDs) with an outstanding outing of his own.
Senior Lance Burchett (8/87 yds./TD), junior Waylon Cherry (4/41 yds./TD), and junior Reece Adams (5/38 yds./2PT) also had catches in the contest.
Junior Nolan Adams was also the leading rusher (5/53 yds.), while senior Ayden Soto (11/19 yds.), senior Worm Smith (3/10 yds.), and Nate Adams (5/1 yd.) each also had carries.
Reece Adams led the way defensively with eight tackles (TFL/FF), Soto had six stops, junior Cole Eads (INT-TD/FR/TFL) and junior Bryson Sharp each had five, and Smith (FF/FR) and Nolan Adams recorded four apiece.
Sophom*ore Roland Holaway made three tackles; Burchett, senior Hayden Adams, and junior Kolton Brown all had two stops; and Cherry, senior Manny Hernandez, and Nate Adams (2INTs) each had one tackle.
