East Clarendon's Fitts bottles up Monarch rushing attack on way to Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week

The East Clarendon football team went into their matchup with Manning on Friday, Sept. 26, with a chip on their shoulders.

The Wolverines were fresh off their first loss of the season, falling to Lake City 20-14 in the previous week. Add a matchup against a major county and region rival, and you'll find a team desperately needing to win.

EC had to wait a little bit longer than planned for that victory, as storms pushed back kickoff by almost two hours before a downpour led to a sloppy night from both sides. In the end, the Wolverines broke away for a 26-12 win. At the heart of that success was linebacker Thomas Fitts, who lived in the backfield for the EC defense with four tackles for a loss and 12 total tackles. That performance was more than enough to earn recognition as the Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week.

"It helps a lot; the support was amazing," Fitts said of the East Clarendon community.

East Clarendon head coach Larry Cornelius knew Fitts was primed for a big game when the Monarchs came to town on Friday. Both teams have similar offensive schemes, so the years Fitts spent working against the EC offense on scout team could really pay off.

"Thomas has been our best scout player for two years, so I was actually joking with him before the game, 'If you don't get 14 tackles, you're fired,'" Cornelius quipped. "He's done such a good job on scout the last couple of years. He always comes in unblocked, and he has a good nose for it when it's a gap scheme. He lived up to what he's been doing on scout."

Fitts went into the annual rivalry game wanting to wash the taste of EC's first victory out of his mouth. While he had to wait a little longer than planned thanks to the weather, Fitts was more than ready when the Wolverines finally hit the field.

"It was just a process of rallying against the loss from the last week and bringing a new mentality into the next game," Fitts said. "We got a little ahead of ourselves going into that Lake City game, but it put us back in our place and let us know we needed to work harder."

East Clarendon was able to bottle up Manning for most of the night. Outside of an explosive touchdown run from quarterback Lovell Stevenson and jump ball catch by CJ Robinson to set up another score, the Wolverines were consistent on defense. Fitts and the rest of the Wolverines were able to win at the point of attack, holding the Monarchs to just 167 yards of total offense thanks to a bevy of tackles in the backfield.

"It was really just studying film; my coaches played a big part in that. They prepare us well for every game," Fitts said. "We just had to keep our foot on the gas; we couldn't let them get another drive to get back to us. We had to keep them down all game."

As the game wore on, the downpour only got stronger. The conditions all but eliminated Manning's passing attack, which allowed Fitts and the Wolverines to pin their ears back and get in the backfield to stop the Manning rushing attack.

"We felt like we had a good game plan. We just needed to execute it on the individual level, and Thomas and the rest of the defense did that," Cornelius said. "For the most part, we kept them behind the chains."

That defensive performance was just the latest in an impressive fall from EC. They lead SCHSL 2A with just 8.7 points allowed per game after opening the season with two consecutive shutouts. Lake City is the only team that has scored more than two touchdowns against them this fall. Fitts credits the team's chemistry to their success on that side of the ball.

"We've all just kinda grown up together, and we're really close," he said. "We've just got a brotherhood from this summer and all the years we've been playing."

After an important region and county victory, the Wolverines get a chance to recover this week, as they have their bye week before closing out region play with four more regular season contests.

"We're just making sure we stay locked in," Fitts said. "We can't let another Lake City happen to us."