ALEDO – Argyle’s 17-0 win over Clyde on Friday night probably wasn’t one the Eagles’ offensive players will remember too fondly, but at this point of the season, they’ll take it.

The Eagles (9-3) finished with just 320 total yards, a pedestrian effort by their standards, but the Argyle defense was able to pitch its first shutout of the season, while holding the Bulldogs’ potent rushing attack to just 149 yards on their way to a bi-district championship.

“No it wasn’t [pretty],” said Argyle head coach Todd Rodgers. “You give credit to Clyde when they do something like that. Clyde did a fabulous job of taking away our strengths and the things we do so that’s a real credit to them. …They [Argyle] were frustrated because they’re used to scoring every series but that wasn’t the case.”

The Eagles were scoreless in the first and third quarters, and had two would-be touchdown passes dropped in the end zone.

“Some of those things could’ve really broke the game wide open early on if we would’ve been able to do that,” Rodgers said. “That’s just part of the game though.”

Argyle quarterback JJ Harp was sacked six times and faced pressure all night, but the offensive line was able to hold Clyde (7-4) when it counted, despite the loss of starting right tackle Riley Ledbetter last week, giving way to Chas Eads.

Harp finished the night with 271 yards passing, completing 21-of-31 attempts including two touchdown passes to Justin McGuffey and Tyler Sweatt. His leading receiver was Brady Brown, who caught 10 balls for 117 yards.

Of all the big performances from Argyle defenders, the best might have come from Ben Parks, who plays linebacker and defensive end aside from being a Division I prospect at kicker and punter.

Though he was just 1-for-3 on his field goals on a windy night, Parks had two punts downed inside the Clyde 10-yard line, including one 47-yarder downed at the 1 to help his defense’s cause. He averaged 42.5 yards per punt on four attempts.

When he was on defense, Parks had a big night, too. He was the catalyst of one of the key plays in the game for Argyle’s defense en route to its shutout.

Trailing 10-0 with about six minutes left in the game, Clyde’s Jeremy Gordon caught a 33-yard flea flicker from quarterback Jacob Gonzales to give the Bulldogs the ball at the Argyle 48-yard line.

On the next play, Gonzales was pressured and sacked by Parks, who forced a fumble that was recovered by Argyle’s David Johnson to give the Eagles the ball at the Clyde 34-yard line.

Two plays later, Harp found Sweatt down the middle for a 25-yard scoring strike to give Argyle a 17-0 lead and put the game away with 5:41 left.

“A lot [of talk] about our defense comes with the fact that we’re a passing offense and we’re not a physical team,” Parks said. “I think the fact that we can shut out a team that’s 80 percent run says a lot about our defense. It was huge for us to shut them out.”

Clyde was led by running back Curtis Kevil, who came into the game with 1,410 yards and 20 touchdowns on the season. He was held to 98 yards on 21 carries.

“It’s [the win] very good for the defense,” Rodgers said. “The defense has gotten a bad rap. They’re good. They play hard and for them to come out and shut down Clyde -- we feel pretty good about it.”

The shutout almost didn’t happen, as Clyde was calling timeouts on its final drive with the game well in hand for the Eagles.

An Argyle pass interference penalty gave the Bulldogs the ball at the Argyle 4-yard line with two seconds left, and Parks said his defensive teammates spoke up in the huddle.

“We were dead tired but we all just told each other to dig deep and we’ve got seven seconds left to pitch a shutout to send a message to the state of Texas,” he said. “This was a great win.”

Argyle will face the winner of today’s Graham-Dalhart game next weekend in the Class 3A Division II area round. If Graham beats Dalhart, Argyle would play the Steers on Saturday at Tarleton State University in Stephenville. Earlier this season, Graham beat Clyde 12-0.

Briefly…

Argyle running back Kyle Frizzell made a deal with his offensive linemen and quarterback JJ Harp, and he almost had to pay up after Friday’s win. The catch is, he would’ve been happy to.

Frizzell is now five yards short of 1,000 yards on the season and said he’d buy steaks for his linemen and Harp if he gets there.

Harp said he ruined the free meal for himself and his front line.

“If I wouldn’t have pulled the ball on one of our runs, he would’ve gotten it, so I’m gonna be kissing up to him all night.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.

Argyle 17, Clyde 0

(at Bearcat Stadium, Aledo)

Scoring Summary

Clyde   0            0            0            0            --            0

Argyle  0            10            0            7            --            17

Scoring summary

Second Quarter

A – Justin McGuffey 26 pass from JJ Harp (Ben Parks kick), 7:34

A – Parks 45 field goal, 0:00

Fourth Quarter

A – Tyler Sweatt 25 pass from Harp (Parks kick), 5:41

Team Statistics

            C            A

First downs            17            17

Rushing yards            37-149            29-49

Passing yards            148            271

Total yards                        297                        320

Comp-att-int            14-29-1          21-31-0

Fumbles-lost            2-2            1-0

Punts-avg            4-40.3            4-42.5

Penalties-yds            8-63            9-84

Individual Statistics

Rushing: C – Curtis Kevil 21-98, Wes Liles 9-23, Jacob Gonzales 7-28. A – Kyle Frizzell 18-65, JJ Harp 9-(-19), Brady Brown 1-9, Matt Handler 1-(-6).

Passing: C – Jacob Gonzales 14-28-1-148, Curtis Kevil 0-1-0-0. A – JJ Harp 21-31-0-271.

Receiving: C – Wes Liles 5-42, Zack Winters 1-16, Kelci Gonzales 1-11, P.J. Martinez 2-17, Jeremy Gordon 1-33, Curtis Kevil 2-8, Derek Mar 2-21. A – Brady Brown 10-117, Matt Handler 3-35, Justin McGuffey 4-65, Kyle Frizzell 1-20, Garrett Jones 2-9, Tyler Sweatt 1-25.