Catawba Ridge defense shines in 21-7 victory over defending state champion South Pointe
Catawba Ridge forced two turnovers and held South Pointe to 160 yards of total offense Thursday night as the Copperheads beat the defending 4A-state champion Stallions 21-7.
Catawba Ridge quarterback Tyler Fikis, in his first game back since suffering an ankle injury in August, had a touchdown through the air and on the ground.
The Copperhead defense held the Stallions to fewer than 2.5 yards per play. Catawba Ridge head coach Zac Lendyak has praised his defense all season and said this performance was just another master class by them.
“Couldn’t be more proud of the way they played tonight,” Lendyak said. “Everything they did, we asked them to do. They gave up one on that one play, but man, defense was just lights out.”
In the windy conditions, the Copperhead offense leaned on its run game, with Fikis and running back Tyler Jones combining for over 160 yards on the ground.
“Our run game has been pretty explosive all year long,” Fikis said. “We kind of expected them to come out in man and keep one high, so we were planning on trying to attack them in the passing game and just win our matchups. But it was a little windy tonight, so we couldn’t take as many deep shots as we would have liked. But we were able to kind of push it down the field with short, quick hitters and pounding the ball to keep them honest.”
It was a frustrating game for the South Pointe offense.
Coming into the season, they had been held under double-digits just three times in the past seven years. Thursday night marked the second-consecutive game the Stallions mustered only seven points.
Despite the defense shutting out the Catawba Ridge offense in the second half, the Stallions offense scored only seven points in seven drives. Three of those drives ended with punts, two with turnovers-on-downs and one with a pick-six that gave Catawba Ridge a 21-0 lead in the third quarter.
A recipe for disaster for a team whose defense played as well as it did.
“Our defense gave up 14 points in the first half,” South Pointe head coach Bobby Collins said. “We threw a pick-six in the second half, so our defense only gave up 14 points in the game. So we just got to play better offensively. Bottom line.”
South Pointe’s lone touchdown came with 29 seconds left in the third quarter when quarterback Malachi Marshal threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to Demari Kendrick.
Beating the defending-state champions is a feat for any program, especially one as young as Catawba Ridge. Lendyak said he would let his team enjoy this moment but then it’s right back to work Monday.
“Any time you can beat a team of that caliber with the type of talent that they have year in and year out, you’re really excited about it,” Lendyak said. “We want to enjoy it this weekend but understand that we got to come back to work. We got York coming next Friday to us, and it’s going to be a big game right there too.”
Catawba Ridge (6-0, 1-0) will continue the best start in program history as the Copperheads move on to a home region contest against York. South Pointe (4-2, 0-1) is looking to avoid the program’s first three-game losing streak since 2014 as the Stallions head on the road to Lancaster.
Both games are Oct. 7 with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.
This story was originally published September 29, 2022 at 11:11 PM.