Benton Academy’s newfound confidence from having won their first game of the year a week ago did not carry over in their 32-0 loss to Clinton Christian on Friday night.
The loss dropped Benton’s overall record to 1-4 on the year.
Clinton Christian came out ready to play and scored on their second offensive play of the game to take a 7-0 lead.
They never looked back from that point forward, outscoring Benton 32-0 in four quarters.
Benton Academy head football coach Kenny Burton believes he did not do a very good job of getting his team to rebound from their first win of the year.
“The best way I can say it is that I didn’t do a very good job of getting them ready after a win,” Burton said. “You have to enjoy the win and come back ready to play. We didn’t do that well.”
One of Benton’s biggest problems in the loss was their five turnovers, which is something Burton believes cannot happen if you expect to win.
“We had 261 yards of offense and five turnovers,” Burton said. “It’s not like we weren’t moving the football. Every time we had ourselves in a good position, we would turn it over, get a penalty or have a bad play to put us in 2nd-and-long or 3rd-and-long. We did that all night.”
That’s not to take anything away from Clinton.
On the contrary, Burton thought they came to win.
“I thought they came out and played hard,” Burton said. “They hit us in the mouth. We just didn’t respond.”
On a brighter note, Burton saw what he needed after the game.
“It bothered our guys to lose that game,” Burton said. “You could see they were hurt in the locker room. That was good to see as a coach. We can work with that.”
The Raiders will recoup and try to get back on track when they travel to face Sylva Bay Academy on Friday night.
Sylva Bay is 2-3 on the year after dropping a 51-12 contest to Columbia Academy on Friday.
According to Burton, Sylva Bay will run a lot of different formations on offense, and that could pose a problem for the Raiders.
“They aren’t a bad team,” Burton said. “They’re another multi-formation team. They do a lot of things, and they will throw a lot of things at you.”
Kickoff between Benton and Sylva Bay is set for 7 p.m.
