Published: Friday, Oct. 16, 2009 / Updated: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009 12:57 AM

Rock Hill 34, Spring Valley 29

Rock Hill played poorly and squeaked out a 34-29 Homecoming win over Spring Valley on Friday at District Three Stadium. The 8-0 Bearcats looked a lot more like Region 4-AAAA's second-ranked team than the No. 2 team in the state.

Sure, Rock Hill broke some big offensive plays in the game. Randall Dixon threw the ball for 239 yards. Xavier McFadden caught three touchdown passes. Jamal Tyler and Jatavius Stewart both went over 100 yards rushing on the night. The offensive stats were to be expected against Spring Valley, now 2-6 on the season. The Vikings were 0-10 in 2007 and then improved to 1-10 last year.

The Bearcats might have been anticipating a blowout win. It's time to regroup.

McFadden finished with eight catches for 187 yards. He spoke to his coach, Joe Montgomery, before the team huddled together after the game to receive their postgame talk. The wide receiver told his coach he was going to hold a senior meeting to talk things out and get everyone on the same page.

“People played lazy. There was too much individual attitudes tonight,” McFadden said. “We are going to have a talk. We really gotta come together.”

The Bearcats turned the ball over three times against the Vikings.

Leading 17-8 late in the first half, Rock Hill was driving for another score when Dixon floated a pass a little too deep for his intended receiver in the end zone. The ball was intercepted by Calvin Coleman, and Spring Valley closed out the half down by nine.

Rock Hill fumbled the ball away twice in the second half and was outscored 21-17 after intermission. The first fumble resulted in a quick 56-yard touchdown pass from Dwayne Duckett to Tobias Young, and Spring Valley trailed 27-22.

Rock Hill put together its longest drive of the game in the fourth quarter and capped it off with a 2-yard scoring run by Stewart. But then the Bearcats' defense broke down again.

Spring Valley went with some razzle-dazzle when Duckett threw a lateral to Young who then threw a long pass to a wide-open Andrew Levy for a 47-yard touchdown with 2:46 left in the game.

Rock Hill needed a 50-yard pass play from Dixon to McFadden in the final minute to be able to run out the clock and escape with the win.

Montgomery seen a little bit of everything in 37 years of coaching football, and he's had many good football teams. He has won state championships and knows he has a team capable of making a run this year.

This Rock Hill team is the best since the 2004 squad won the Division I state championship. The ëCats now have two wins in Region 4-AAAA, but the wins have come against opponents at the bottom of the region standings. The Bearcats whipped Ridge View 63-0 last week. The Blazers were 2-5 going into Friday's game against South Pointe.

Montgomery didn't get too excited talking to his team after the game..... but he got his point across. This team is going to have to play harder and smarter to get to a state championship game.

“I can't push you up that ladder. You have to want to climb it,” Montgomery told his players all knelt on one knee in front of him.

Rock Hill's next game is a Thursday night affair at Lancaster. The game originally was slated for Friday night, but Friday is a mandatory furlough day for teachers in Rock Hill School District Three. Both schools have agreed to move the game up a day.

Lancaster will surely see how Spring Valley was able to spread the field on Rock Hill. The Bruins will take note of how many times the Vikings gave the ball to wide receivers on end-arounds for big gains.

It won't just be Lancaster, either. Rock Hill hosts Blythewood and South Pointe to close out the regular season. All three teams are sure to notice that 2-6 Spring Valley ran the ball seven times for more than 10 yards and threw two long touchdown passes against the speedy Rock Hill defense.

ROCK HILL 34, SPRING VALLEY 29

Spring Valley.....0.....8.....14.....7.....--.....29

Rock Hill.....10.....7.....10.....7.....--.....34

SCORING SUMMARY

RH -- Xavier McFadden 20 pass from Randall Dixon (Fernando Gonzalez kick)

RH -- Gonzalez 30 field goal

SV -- Tobias Young 26 pass from Austin Hill (Markese Mason run)

RH -- McFadden 21 pass from Dixon (Gonzalez kick)

RH -- McFadden 16 pass from Jatavius Stewart (Gonzalez kick)

SV -- Mason 1 run (Kevin Knapp kick)

RH -- Gonzalez 43 field goal

SV -- Young 56 pass from Dwayne Duckett

RH -- Stewart 2 run (Gonzalez kick)

SV -- Andrew Levy 47 pass from Young (Knapp kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

.....SVHS.....RHHS

First downs.....16.....24

Rushes-yards.....33-168.....38-252

Comp-Att-Int.....9-24-2.....14-23-1

Passing yards.....169.....255

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

Penalties-yards.....5-35.....7-45

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Spring Valley: Markese Mason 14-37, Austin Hill 6-3, Tobias Young 2-7, Dwayne Duckett 9-64, Baylen Blocker 2-57. Rock Hill: Jamal Tyler 23-117, Jatavius Stewart 12-125, Randall Dixon 3-10.

PASSING -- Spring Valley: Hill 5-17-58-2, Duckett 3-6-74, Young 1-1-47. Rock Hill: Dixon 13-22-239-1, Stewart 1-1-16.

RECEIVING -- Spring Valley: Young 3-88, Andrew Levy 3-55, Leroy Coad 1-12, Tommie Doxie 2-24. Rock Hill: Xavier McFadden 8-187, Kirob Sims 1-14, Stewart 2-20, Tyler 3-34.

RECORDS: Spring Valley 2-6, 0-2 Region 4-AAAA..... Rock Hill 8-0, 2-0