First play a bad omen in Indian Land’s season-ending loss

Following the Indian Land Warriors’ 45-14 loss in a 2A playoff game Friday night at Woodruff, Austin Gordon was found along the sidelines covered in blood, sweat and tears.

He was crouched down on his haunches and was being consoled.

“It’s tough,” said the senior. “It had to end at some point, I just wish it would have ended better.”

Gordon has seen the Indian Land (7-4) program grow into a playoff team from his days as a freshman when they went 1-9.

“We weren’t really a team then,” he said. “We’ve gotten close. Now, we are like a family, we love each other. We are like brothers.”

Warriors head coach Michael Mayer gathered his team after the game and thanked his seniors. He told the team, “We’ve come a long way; the best is yet to come.”

In this contest the Warriors fell into the trap they had in their three regular season losses – they fell behind quickly.

On the first play from scrimmage Woodruff (10-1) quarterback Keegan Halloran found Keith Pearson streaking down the left sideline and hit him in stride for an 80-yard touchdown.

The Warriors fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Woodruff recovered at the Indian Land 30.

Two plays later Halloran hit Qua Phelps on a screen and he weaved his way through the Warriors’ defense for the touchdown and a 14-0 Woodruff lead.

“The start was our usual horrendous start,” said Mayer, “giving up a touchdown on the first play and then turning it over.”

Mayer said the game was a case of “missed opportunities and mistakes,” noting the fumbled kick off, as well as pointing to a blocked field goal and a missed field goal in the first half.

The ball also didn’t bounce their way. On one punt Woodruff put the ball on the ground and two Warriors seemingly had their hands on the ball only to see it roll under both of them and into an opponents hands.

It was that kind of night for Indian Land.

They did manage to keep it close in the first half and early into the second.

After Seth Bevans’ third down sack forced Woodruff to punt the Warriors put together a 13-play, 41-yard drive capped by Lee Massey’s 1-yard run. That cut the lead to 14-7 with 2:39 left in the first half.

Woodruff took back the momentum just prior to the half as Pearson hauled in his second touchdown catch, this one for 19 yards and a 21-7 halftime lead.

The Warriors looked to make it a game when they opened the second half with a six-play, 65-yard touchdown drive. David Loughry hit Dillon Mackey from 12 yards out to cut Woodruff’s lead to 21-14 but it was as close as they would get.

The Wolverines went on to score 24 unanswered points with Halloran tossing three more touchdowns to go with a field goal.

While this loss will sting Mayer noted, “The program’s headed in the right direction. We’ve gotten more wins each year over the last four years and we got good kids, hard workers, kids that grind it out.”

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 11:23 AM with the headline "First play a bad omen in Indian Land’s season-ending loss."