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RUTLEDGE – Last year Grainger won easily against Claiborne but in the 2023 season opener on Friday, the two teams battled in a contest that went right down to the wire.

Dawson Fowler rushed for 102 yards and scored three times as the Grizzlies edged the Bulldogs 20-12 at The Den.

Hunter Mallicoat ran eight times for 73 yards and the Grizzlies had a total of 264 yards of total offense.

Cole Jones led Claiborne with 113 yards on 11 carries and on defense, had 8.5 tackles. Jaris Bunch added seven tackles for the Bulldogs and Landen Poore added 5.5. Claiborne finished the night with 193 total yards.

Fowler had the first of his three trips to the end zone when he scored from 11 yards out in the opening quarter. Ray Vences’ point after was good.

The Bulldogs answered when Isaac Daniels found Tyrell Miles for a seven-yard score but the conversion failed as the Bulldogs trailed by one at 7-6. That was the way things stood at the half.

Fowler had another short run, this time from six yards out, and Vences’ kick was true as the lead grew to 14-6.

Cole Jones had the highlight of the night when he got past the Grainger line and was off to the races for a 69-yard touchdown.

Once again the Bulldogs went for two but were stopped short. Fowler’s third touchdown was a 13-yarder but the Bulldog defense was able to get through the line and block the extra point to make the score 20-12.

Claiborne was driving towards a possible tying score but was stopped on a fourth down play. Grainger got the ball and was able to run out the clock for the win.

Grainger head coach Michael Manis was impressed with how better Claiborne is coming into the new season. “They are really improved and have 15 seniors on their roster and their backfield is incredible. It was a learning curve for us as we are really young in some spots and got a little sloppy there at the end trying to finish it up but we have a lot to learn from this moving forward.”

“I’m very proud of our boys as they really battled,” Claiborne head coach Nathan Medlin said. “Games like this are really tough because it could have went either way. Our defense played great and gave us some shots on offense but we just shot ourselves in the foot, I’m not sure if we have any toes left. Overall, I was proud of the way we battled as we had to rely on some kids who weren’t used to having to step up and be the man in some places where we got dinged up.”

The Grizzlies head to Afton to take on Chuckey-Doak next week while Claiborne hosts Union County.