The first two minutes of Friday night’s game against Smithville was hardly what Claymont was hoping for. 

By the time the clock hit the 10-minute mark in the opening quarter, the Smithies had reached the end zone twice and the visitors held a 14-0 lead. 

Claymont scratched its way back into the game, but the Mustangs were never able to get out of that early hole in what would become a 27-12 loss in their home opener. 

“That’s how everything started for us and then we spent the whole game trying to dig out of that hole,” said Claymont coach Buddy White. “They’re a very good football team. I give them a lot of credit.” 

The bad vibes started for Claymont on Smithville’s second offensive play, when senior tailback Mason Haines made it outside to the right sideline and raced 55 yards for a score. With 11:11 on the clock, the Mustangs were already down 7-0. 

Claymont gave the ball right back when it fumbled the kickoff. 

The Smithies were back on the scoreboard when speedy sophomore receiver Isaiah Lee ran a sweep in from 21 yards out to make it 14-0 at the 10:14 mark. 

Claymont stayed close for most of the game, but never got over that early deficit. 

White said the Mustangs are trying to rebuild, while trying to forget the sting of previous seasons. 

“You’ve got to remember, 1-9 (last year’s record) isn’t totally out of our system yet,” the veteran coach commented. “That mentality. That’s what we’re working on, we want to get that 1-9 mentality out of our system. 

“When adversity hits, we seem to revert back. We reverted back tonight in some areas, but we’ll fix that. These kids have worked too hard and they want to win.” 

Claymont got on the board in the first half on a short run by Brandon Muehlen that cut the score to 14-6, but never got closer. 

Tailback Dre’Vonn Searcy had some nice runs and lanky junior receiver Jackson Jinks helped Claymont’s offense move at times, but Smithville got a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns from Haines to stretch the lead to 27-6 late in the game. 

Quarterback Carson Golec had a short touchdown run late in the fourth quarter to account for the final score.

“We wanted to dominate the line of scrimmage tonight and I’m not sure we did,” White said. “We lost to a good team, but our kids are going to respond. We’re going to have a great week of practice to get ready for our next opponent. 

“I told the guys, we’ve got eight games left and they’ll decide how we change the narrative and change the story, but we’re a 1-9 team until you prove you’re not.”