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Friday, Sep. 19, 2008

South Pointe 76, Fort Mill 0

No Wherry, no problem.

Playing without senior running back Devin Wherry, who was forced to sit out after receiving a one-game suspension, South Pointe steamrolled Fort Mill 76-0 Friday at District Three South Stadium.

Without its featured running back, South Pointe (4-0) was still able to pile up the rushing yards. The Stallions finished with 279 yards on the ground, led by junior CC Jones, who finished with 83 yards on four carries, including a 60-yard scoring run on the first play of the fourth quarter for his second score of the game.

It was not all offense for South Pointe. The Stallions, led by their stifling defense, jumped out to an early 14-0 lead after scoring twice in less than a span of 15 seconds midway through the first.

With Fort Mill (0-4) facing a third-and-16, senior quarterback Danny Till was picked off by Pat Burris, who returned the interception 46 yards for the opening score. Burris later added his second score on a 99-yard kickoff return to open the second half.

Lee Yard and Bobby Hemphill forced Yellow Jackets running back Max Simons to cough up the ball on Fort Mill’s next play and South Pointe’s Brandon Hinton recovered on the 4, where Jones carried it in for the touchdown and the 14-0 lead.

Asa Kryst gave the Yellow Jackets their best starting field position after returning the kickoff to the Fort Mill 42. After a strange course of events, Fort Mill picked up a new set of downs after Jadeveon Clowney intercepted Till and fumbled after a short return giving the ball back to the Yellow Jackets. Fort Mill was unable to advance beyond its 44 and was forced to punt.

Seven plays later, Raphael Ratliff carried the ball 1 yard for the Stallions’ third score of the night just before the end of the first quarter.

“Other than turning the ball over, I think we did a couple things,” Fort Mill coach Ed Susi said. “You just can’t give them anything. I was pleased that a lot of our young guys got a lot of reps against a very good team, so that’s only going to help us down the road.

“It’s tough to do that right now and it’s not an excuse for anything. We’ll get better from it.”

Fort Mill’s young, inexperienced squad continued to plug away, but the veteran Stallions’ were just too much.

“Coach Susi is just going through some growing pains. He lost a lot of seniors,” said South Pointe coach Bobby Carroll. “I just feel for coach (Susi) because I know what he’s going through.

“It wasn’t that long ago when we didn’t have anything but 10th-graders here and a few 11th-graders. It’s tough. But it’s good for our kids. We went out there and played hard and executed. We didn’t play well on certain series, but for the most part, we played good football.”

Good football, indeed. South Pointe forced six turnovers, with all but one leading to scores.

Staring at an insurmountable 48-0 hole, Fort Mill again put the ball on the ground and Clowney scooped up the loose ball and ran in from 8 yards to put the Stallions ahead 55-0 with 7:30 left in the third.

Devonte Hollomon, who had been relatively quiet throughout, revived the South Pointe fans with an electrifying 63-yard punt return for a score less than two minutes after Clowney’s score.

SOUTH POINTE 76, FORT MILL 0

Fort Mill.....0.....0.....0.....0.....—.....0

South Pointe.....21.....13.....21.....114.....—.....76

SCORING SUMMARY

SP — Pat Burris 46 return (Graham Tuttle kick)

SP — CC Jones 4 run (Tuttle kick)

SP — Raphael Ratliff 10 run (Tuttle kick)

SP — Stephon Gilmore 37 run (kick failed)

SP — Corey Rawls 1 run (Tuttle kick)

SP — Burris 99 return (Tuttle kick)

SP — Breon Jackson 8 pass from Gilmore (Tuttle kick)

SP — Jadeveon Clowney 8 return (Tuttle kick)

SP — Devonte Hollomon 63 return (Tuttle kick)

SP — Bobby Hemphill 31 run (Tuttle kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

.....FMHS.....SPHS

First downs.....6.....13

Rushes-yards.....31-45.....27-279

Comp-Att-Int .....7-18-4.....8-11-0

Passing yards.....15.....113

Fumbles-lost.....3-2.....1-0

Penalties-yards.....5-35.....9-64

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — South Pointe: Gilmore 4-48, Jones 4-83, Quinten Darby 8-59, Ratliff 5-38, Burris 1-5, Corey Rawls 4-15, Hemphill 1-31. Fort Mill: Max Simons 10-27, Danny Till 5-(-8), Asa Kryst 4-(-2), Dwayne Grainger 5-25, Josh Peck 1-1, Malik Jackson 2-7, Joshua Gist 1-(-6), Bo Britt 2-1.

PASSING — South Pointe: Gilmore 8-11-113-0. Fort Mill: Till 7-15-18-4.

RECEIVING — South Pointe: Jackson 4-53, Charles Holmes 3-51, Ryan Heitkamp 1-9. Fort Mill: Peck 1-9, Dylan Thomas 1-6, Simons 1-4, Trent Butler 1-(-1).

RECORDS — South Pointe 4-0, Fort Mill 0-4.