High School Football: Clinton's record performance puts Bulldogs back in title game

The George Washington football team witnessed first-hand how the Cookie rumbles.

Martinsburg quarterback Justin Clinton — otherwise known as Cookie — ran for 198 yards and six touchdowns Friday afternoon to lead the second-seeded Bulldogs to a 63-14 rout of the Patriots in the West Virginia Class AAA semifinals at Cobourn Field.


The win puts the two-time defending champion Bulldogs (12-1) into the state final for the third straight year. They will face No. 1 seed Cabell Midland (13-0) — which beat No. 5 Morgantown 35-28 Friday night — at Wheeling Island Stadium on Dec. 1 at noon.

Martinsburg has won eight in a row since suffering its only loss of the season, 36-33 at Westminster on Sept. 21. That loss ended a 32-game winning streak by the Bulldogs. They have also won 11 straight postseason games.

The game featured two of the leading candidates for the Kennedy Award — presented to the top player in West Virginia at the end of the season — in Clinton and GW running back Ryan Switzer, who won the award last season.

Clinton made a strong case to pick up some late votes in balloting. He scored five times in the first half, and his six rushing touchdowns broke a Class AAA preliminary playoff record.

Switzer, who has committed to the University of North Carolina, did most of the damage — what little there was — for the GW offense.

He ran for 120 yards and a touchdown, caught four passes for 69 yards and threw a 5-yard touchdown pass.

But by the time he ran for his 14-yard touchdown late in the second quarter, Martinsburg already held a 35-0 lead.

Clinton scored on runs of 35, 5, 13 and 5 yards and set up a Trey Boyd touchdown with another long run to stake the Bulldogs to the big first-half margin.

Boyd finished with 80 yards rushing and two touchdowns and Cedric Brown added a 16-yard touchdown run for Martinsburg, which will be appearing in its seventh title game in 12 years.