What We Saw: Clovis East-Clovis North

Based on its 38-21 victory on Friday at Lamonica Stadium over defending CIF Central Section D1 champion Clovis North, thoughts of Clovis East doing the same for 2024 — including going 13-0 through the section playoffs — were impossible not to arise. The Timberwolves displayed a very effective short passing spread offense that could not be stopped by the Broncos, especially after a first half in which both teams had a lot of success.

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The CIF Central Section No. 1 vs No. 2 showdown on Friday night at Lamonica Stadium in Clovis was one of those games in which in the first half the passing offense of one team was looking almost impossible to stop while the rushing attack of the other team was equally impressive.

Clovis East of Clovis, which was No. 1 at 9-0 coming into the night and also was No. 17 in last week’s State TOP 50 overall rankings, had the passing game. Clovis North of Fresno, which was 7-2 and was No. 22 with its two losses to CIF Southern Section powerhouses JSerra of San Juan Capistrano and Los Alamitos, had the rushing.

In the second half, however, while the Clovis East passing kept on clicking the Clovis North rushing started getting stuffed. After a series of possessions, a slim 17-14 lead by the Timberwolves was extended to 31-14 early in the fourth quarter and they went on to grab a 38-21 triumph.

Clovis East wrapped up a 10-0 regular season for the first time in school history and won an outright title in the Tri-River Athletic Conference for the first time since 2002. Almost everyone talked to believes that Clovis North (7-3) will still be the No. 2 seed for the upcoming D1 section playoffs (with a third TRAC team, Central of Fresno, seeded third). Therefore, the probability of a rematch in the section title game (similar to what Clovis North had to do last season when it beat both Clovis East and Central twice in winning the championship) is what many expect.

“This means a lot,” said Clovis East senior quarterback Tyus Miller. “We spent a long time working on this in the summer. I have loved to see it all come together. Our defense was huge in the second half tonight. They played with their hair on fire.”

Miller, a three-year starter who has committed to UC Davis but who is planning to do two years of missionary work for the Mormon church before that, was pin-point accurate all night long. He completed his first 11 passes and finished 19 of 22 for 165 yards (by our own totals). The way in which the Timberwolves spread out the defense and then ran the ball up the middle to off-set the passes was similar to the spread offenses we’ve seen for so many years at Centennial of Corona. Senior running back Taemell Horton took advantage of those lanes and ran it 20 times for 162 yards. He isn’t usually the leading rusher, either. Junior teammate and leading rusher Lindsey Graves was out with an injury.

The best player on the field wasn’t from Clovis East, which made the win perhaps more impressive. Clovis North senior McKay Madsen, who was our 2023-24 State Athlete of the Year for the boys after winning the CIF state track meet titles in both the shot put and discus to go with his football accomplishments, had to take almost all of the reps at running back while playing linebacker on defense. Madsen had two long touchdown runs in the first half, added another in the second half after the Broncos had fallen behind 38-14, and we had him with 24 carries for 259 yards.

Teammate Jackson Cinfel, who was Clovis North’s leading rusher the past two seasons, was in blocking positions for almost the entire game. We were told that injuries elsewhere in the lineup had caused him to have to be used differently than planned.

Clovis North drove for 62-yard touchdown on its first series in 15 plays that was capped by Horton going into the end zone on a one-yard plunge. Madsen answered right away for Clovis North with 45-yard touchdown run.

The Timberwolves also scored on their second possession and it was another long one of 13 plays, but on that one a sack in which Miller slipped while trying to get away from Clovis North’s Ross Cinfel resulted in a 19-yard sack that eventually caused them to try a field goal. Francisco Damas kicked a 28-yard field goal for a 10-7 lead.

Neither team scored on their next series, but then just before halftime Madsen took a handoff and broke numerous tackles on his way to a 69-yard touchdown. That gave Clovis North its only lead of the night at 14-10, but in the final three minutes before halftime the Timberwolves used a 58-yard scamper by Horton to set themselves up for another score. They got it on what was the biggest play of the night, a fourth-down situation from the 1-yard line with just 30.2 seconds on the clock in which Miller was able to reach the ball just past the plane of the goal line.

Trailing 17-14 after halftime, the Broncos did get the ball first to start the second half, but the Clovis East defense began to stuff the running game. Madsen had six carries but for just 11 yards. The Timberwolves’ offense, on the other hand, continued to march down the field. Miller guided them down to the 2-yard line where he once again completed a drive with a short touchdown run that increased the lead to 24-14.

The game then was clinched by Clovis East with another defensive stop and then another scoring drive, that one was went for 74 yards in nine plays. Miller completed an 8-yard TD pass to Donyell Booker Jr. for the touchdown that extended the lead to 31-14. The Timberwolves then put even more distance on their lead when Oshea Webb stepped in front of an ill-advised pass into the middle of the field at his own 10-yard line and then had smooth sailing all the way to the other end zone for a 90-yard touchdown.

The final score of the night came on a 5-yard run by Madsen with 3:54 on the clock. He had another long run of 49 yards on that drive in which he appeared to hit his head hard on the ground on his own team’s sideline at the end of it. He stayed in the game to carry two more times, including the one for the score.

“I think in a game like this some of our guys get excited and they were just not quite in the right positions,” said Clovis East head coach Brandon Nagle about how it changed on defense in the second half. “We just got back to being in the right spots and made plays, plus it’s not easy to tackle McKay. I’m really proud of how our offensive and defensive lines played tonight.”

So what are the odds that there will be a rematch in three weeks?

“Pretty good,” Nagle said. “When we lost in the semis last year to them it really made us work hard to get better. We have a lot of seniors and that has been a big difference as well.”

Assuming that Clovis East can indeed match what Clovis North did last season in winning the section title and then going into the CIF regional playoffs at 13-0, what could perhaps happen after that? The other part of what Clovis North did last season also was to play at De La Salle of Concord in the NorCal D1-AA regional final and lose 40-0. That would probably drop the Timberwolves down to D1-A since not only is DLS steaming along at 9-0 in the CIF North Coast Section but also is projected to play state No. 11 Pittsburg (only loss to St. John Bosco) in that section’s Open Division final.

It’s also a near certainty that Folsom (No. 10 in the state) is going to win the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 title. If DLS beats Pitt, it would then go to the CIF Open Division state title game, then Pitt would likely play Folsom for the NorCal D1-AA crown and then Clovis East likely would play the CIF Central Coast Section Open Division winner (projected to be St. Francis of Mountain View as of now) for the D1-A regional title. Since Clovis North was on the road for its regional game last season, then this year if Clovis East ends up in the same position it would be in line most likely to have its regional game at home.

In short, if all goes well for Nagle and his squad, the next time the boys get on a bus may be to head down to Saddleback College in Mission Viejo for the CIF D1-A state championship game.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports