Nation Ford’s Jeremiah Hailstock runs up field away from Clover defenders as he looks to move the Falcons into scoring position.

CLOVER – The Clover Blue Eagles came out slinging the football and quickly took advantage of the Nation Ford Falcons going on to get a 35-7 win Thursday night.

The loss by Nation Ford dropped them to 1-5 overall on the season as they lost their Region 3-5A opener to Clover with the game moved up a day early because of Hurricane Ian projected to come through the area Friday night. 

Things started out bad for Nation Ford and got progressively worse in the first quarter for the Falcons. Clover scored the first of three first quarter touchdowns just 1:50 in the quarter as receiver Dion Brown scored two first quarter touchdowns. The Blue Eagles then blocked a punt for their third score of the quarter returning it 30-yards for a score.

Toward the end of the first quarter, Nation Ford had their best opportunity to score at the Clover 3-yard line, but couldn’t punch it in turning it over on downs.

On the opening play of the second quarter, Brown caught a 96-yard touchdown pass for his third score of the game and pushed the Blue Eagles score to 28-0. 

The Falcons’ rushing defense didn’t well, but struggled against the pass as all three offensive scores by Clover were on long passes in the first half. A lot of the slow start issues was that Nation Ford was playing without 10 players, eight of which were out with injuries. That put a lot of younger players in the game.

“We made some mistakes early,” said Nation Ford head coach Michael Allen. “That was where youthfulness came into play.” 

About midway through the second quarter, Jeremiah Hailstock busted out for a 58-yard catch to get Nation Ford into the red zone. That set up Black to Josh Ameo for a 4-yard touchdown pass to get the Falcons on the board. Black was 11-for-29 with one interception for 111 yards. Hailstock caught three passes for 73 yards, but was held to just nine yards on 13 rushing attempts.

Nation Ford got down to the 17-yard line and was forced to settle for a 30-yard field goal by Reed Richardson with about 3.3 seconds left in the half, which came up short. The Falcons had looked to score a couple plays earlier on a touchdown pass, but the ref said the Nation Ford player dropped the ball after he crossed the goal line.

Clover had 306 total yards in the first half, 282 of that coming from quarterback Jaylon Hoover through the air. Brown caught three passes in the first half for 212 yards. For the game, Hoover passed for 357 yards and four touchdowns.

In the third quarter, Clover picked up where they left off. A big pass from Hoover allowed the Blue Eagles to cross midfield just three plays into the second half for them. Clover then went to the ground, but the Falcons’ run defense was able to pancake the Blue Eagles forcing them to turn it over on downs.

Defensively for Clover, they were able to swallow up Nation Ford’s run game, as they made the Falcons effective only on the pass, but that forced Black to have to improvise a lot which led to Nation Ford punting on their first two series. 

A bad snap on Clover’s first punt attempt led to the Falcons recovering the ball at the 9-yard line. However, the Blue Eagles picked off a Black pass as they failed for the third time to score after getting into the red zone in the first three quarters. 

“It comes down to a lack of execution,” Allen said.

Both teams struggled to move the ball in the second half, especially Clover as they weren’t as strong offensively in the third quarter as they were in the fourth quarter. 

Clover started a drive towards the end of the third quarter as they moved the ball well to open the fourth quarter. That drive was capped off on a 10-yard touchdown pass after a nine play, 39-yard drive, most of which came on the ground before the touchdown pass. 

Nation Ford struggled to move the ball in the fourth quarter as they fumbled the ball at about the 40-yard line, which allowed Clover to return the ball back to the 10-yard line. Several plays later it was the Falcons coming up with a turnover as Evan Mitchell grabbed a Blue Eagle pass for an interception. 

Up next for Nation Ford is a return home next Friday, Oct. 7 to play Blythewood to look and pick up their first region win of the season.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep

Nation Ford’s Braydon Flores closes in on Clover quarterback Jaylon Hoover during the Falcons game Thursday night.