Lamar carries Clarksville past Mitchell in sectional opener

CLARKSVILLE — There weren't any Napoleons around, but the visiting team had an England at quarterback, and the home team had a whole bunch of Generals.

Sure enough Mitchell met its Waterloo on the football battlefield at Clarksville Friday night, falling 41-20 to the Generals in the IHSAA Sectional 39 opener. 

The first play from scrimmage was ominous enough for Mitchell when Clarksville tailback Robert Lamar galloped 50 yards for a touchdown. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come for the Bluejackets as they bowed out of the 2021 tournament with a 3-6 record. 

Mitchell had a nice highlight as senior back Nick Mundy ran for 102 yards on 18 carries to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark for the season, but it was offset by Clarksville outscoring the Bluejackets, 27-7, in the second half

"It's always tough to say bye to seniors, and we were really hoping that Clarksville would be the team that got their heads down and were on the bad side of this thing, but we just couldn't make it happen," said Mitchell head coach Troy Pritchett. "We just haven't been a very good second-half team in a lot of games this year. I was hoping this one would be different, but we had a couple of mistakes, dropped our heads, and couldn't get much going in the second half."

Tough to lasso Lamar

Lamar, Clarksville's terrific junior tailback, came into the game with 1,789 rushing yards while averaging 8.6-yards per carry, and he was the commander of this contest. The 5-10, 175-pounder lived up to his billing by scooting, gliding and dashing for 255 yards and five touchdowns on 26 carries, while also picking off a pass and running it back 45 yards for another score to account for 36 of Clarksville's points.

He stunned the Bluejackets following a failed onside kick by Mitchell to start the game when he swept right, broke a couple of tackles, and sailed in from the 50 to score on the first play from scrimmage.

Mitchell had some outstanding efforts defensively with defensive back Rayce England making a ton of tackles, while Trey Craig blocked an extra-point kick and was stout up front with Ayden Tolliver.

But the Bluejackets could not keep Lamar under control.

"We made a few backs look great this season, but he is a very good back," said Pritchett. "We had him several times, had hands on him, but we just couldn't get him bottled up and he got away from us for some big first downs and touchdowns. We weren't consistent with our tackling and it hurt us."

Bluejackets counter with ball control

Mitchell answered right back after Lamar's score, but in far different fashion. The Bluejackets, as is Pritchett's style, used a ball-control ground game to not only keep it away from Lamar, but also find the end zone.

Their initial drive was 70 yards in 10 plays for 4:11, keyed by a 27-yard connection from quarterback Kale England to wide receiver Keaton Pritchett. Mundy had a nice run, and three tough runs by England set up an 11-yard TD toss to Pritchett.

England and Pritchett also hooked up on the two-point conversion to give Mitchell an 8-6 lead at 7:33 of the first quarter.

The Bluejackets forced a punt, and kept the ball for nine plays and four more minutes before England crashed across from the 1 to make it 14-6. Clarksville answered with a 16-yard scoring dash by Lamar and converted its two-point try on a pass to Morgan Capps. The Generals then picked off a pass to prevent Mitchell from taking a halftime lead.

"We gave up a tough one there in the second quarter, but we had them right where we wanted them at halftime," Pritchett said. "We controlled the ball with long drives and kept it away from them, but we also converted except for the interception.

"That could've been big if we had punched that one in, but we were still in great shape going to the second half because we had the ball first."

Bluejackets didn't keep ball long

Mitchell needed a score to reclaim momentum starting the third quarter, but instead had its shortest possession of the game. Return man Kade Wigley got the kickoff back only to the 10, and Mundy bobbled a pitch on first down, and the Bluejackets booted it away.

Lamar and fullback Maxwell Scowden ran it down the throat of the Mitchell defense with Lamar cashing in from the 4. Another Capps conversion made it 22-14. The Bluejackets suddenly-stagnant offense tried to convert a 4th-and-1 but got stuffed. 

Lamar made it hurt when he capped a short drive with a 9-yard TD run and the Generals had all-important two-score separation. 

"It's kind of hard to figure what happens to us in the second half, but we had some mistakes there early and we just can't seem to get back up and bounce back," said Pritchett. "I hope that these players learned more from this game about battling back and not giving up than it showed at times because we really struggled in the second half so many times."

Lamar ended virtually all doubt about the outcome moments later with his pick-six. England fired a pass to wide receiver Richie Gaines, who appeared open only to have cornerback Dakota Capps come over for a brilliant knockaway. The all popped up and Lamar grabbed it before sprinting 45 yards for the back-breaking TD.

Bluejackets keep fighting

Mitchell kept clawing in the face of the adversity, even after a 55-yard scoring burst by Lamar made it 41-14. Wigley returned a kickoff 67 yards, and Mundy did the rest on a 23-yard scoring sweep with 6:05 showing. The Bluejackets then recovered a fumble, and England found Gaines for 42 yards on a middle screen, and Mundy carried twice for 31 yards to reach the Clarksville 3. But a penalty helped the Generals deny the drive, and they were able to run out the clock.

"We worked hard all week on controlling the line of scrimmage and the ball, and on eliminating mistakes," Pritchett said. "We did it for a half, but we couldn't keep it up. We just have to come back and get better next year."

Contact Times-Mail Sports Writer Jeff Bartlett via email @jeffb@tmnews.com, or on Twitter @jeffbtmnews.