Cougars defeat Falcons, host Fort Mill Friday

Riding the momentum of a 42-28 win over Nation Ford, the York Comprehensive High School football team will host Fort Mill Friday night.

Kickoff time for the Region 3-AAAA game is 7:30 p.m. in the YCHS football stadium.

Fort Mill defeated Rock Hill 20-7 last week.

“Fort Mill is an extremely well-coached football team,” said York’s coach Bobby Carroll. “They play hard-nosed football. They run well over a hundred different formations, which is indicative of the kids they have. They are hard-nosed and really want to win.”

Added Carroll: “We’re both 6 and 3 and battling for a playoff spot as the third or fourth team in the region.”

Against the Falcons, the opening kickoff was delayed 30 minutes when a light pole went out at the Nation Ford stadium. When the game started, the Cougars and Falcons traded touchdowns in the first half.

Nation Ford dotted the scoreboard first on a 58-yard touchdown toss from quarterback Cole Martin to Hank Tuipulotu.

The Cougars answered with a well thrown a 57-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Wally Wilmore to Javione Matthews midway through the second quarter.

“It felt good being able to help my team on the offensive side of the ball and scoring the touchdown,” said Matthews after the game. “The win felt good tonight. We had to bounce back after the two losses.”

After Nation Ford had regained the lead, junior defensive back Zion McClinton intercepted the ball and ran it 50 yards to the one-yard-line. Then Wilmore scored to tie the game at 14 with 14.3 ticks left in the first half.

“I saw the outside linebacker was covering the play pretty good,” McClinton said. “I just broke on the ball. It felt great running that far with the ball.”

In the third quarter, Wilmore got things started with a 49-yard touchdown run.

Senior running back Brandon Garvin brought the York crowd to its feet with a 51-yard touchdown run.

“We had to get it together tonight,” Garvin said. “That’s all we’ve got to do. The team and the seniors still have a lot to play for.”

Wilmore closed out the third-quarter with a 1-yard sneak and Tyquan McCray had York’s final score with a 41-yard run.

“We got our nose bloodied the last two weeks,” Carroll said. “These kids persevered and they came back. They played great. They really did. They played lights out football.”

Carroll paused to grasp the enormity of Friday’s win. “Honestly, that team we just defeated beat Gaffney in Gaffney,” he said.

There was one area the team needed to work, Carroll said.

“Defensively, we had our hands tied,” he said. “We were missing our starting corner. We lose an outside linebacker. We lose a safety. We were playing with kids out there that hadn’t played a lot this year. Coach Prince and all of the defensive coaches did a tremendous job.”

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Cougars defeat Falcons, host Fort Mill Friday."