Catawba Ridge runs historic win streak to eight games with victory over Lancaster
It was senior night Friday for Catawba Ridge. Everything seemed to go right.
The Copperheads (8-0, 3-0) opened up a 47-0 lead in the first half and beat the Lancaster Bruins 60-14.
Catawba Ridge recovered five Bruins fumbles — three of those in the first quarter — with one returned for a touchdown by senior Jackson Burger. Catawba Ridge scored 26 points off those five turnovers.
“Any time you can win the turnover battle, you’ve got a good chance of winning,” head coach Zac Lendyak said. “But most of those turnovers happened deep in our own end there, so we had a chance to score quick.”
Thanks to the fumble recoveries and great special teams play, seven of Catawba Ridge’s nine drives started in Lancaster territory.
The shorter fields allowed the offense to operate much more efficiently, with the Copperheads punting once the whole game.
“Starting with a short field is the biggest advantage an offense can get,” said quarterback Tyler Fikis, who threw for a touchdown and ran for two more scores. “When our defense can come through like that, it just make it a lot easier for us.”
Tyler Jones chipped in two touchdowns on the ground in the Copperheads’ victory. A 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Jordan Gilliam made the game 54-14 midway through the fourth quarter.
After not scoring more than 41 points in a single game in the the program’s first three years, Friday night marked the second time this season that Catawba Ridge has scored at least 45 points in consecutive games.
“I feel good about it any time you can score that amount of points and do it in a few different ways — offense, defense, and special teams,” Lendyak said. “We scored in all three phases, and that’s what makes the team what they are, so I’m very pleased with the effort tonight for sure.”
The Copperheads celebrated senior night with their most dominant win of the season — Catawba Ridge has 20 seniors on the roster — with Lendyak proud of the fact the team could send them off with a big performance.
“Those guys are special,” Lendyak said. “I know a lot of those guys started this program as freshmen. To come over here and what they’ve done for four years, they deserve to go out on top. We talked to our underclassmen about doing that, making sure we play the right way to represent those guys and send them off correctly. We’re really proud of how they did.”
For Lancaster (3-5, 0-3), Friday night was not their best outing.
Aside from the five turnovers, the Bruins also had a drive end in a turnover-on-downs and had a punt travel one yard past the line of scrimmage. For head coach Marcus Surratt, however, he’s not going to add to the punishment.
“You don’t have to beat up young guys,” Surratt said. “They know their mistakes. They watch film. They hear it from people in the community. They hear it from people in the stands. You don’t have to spend time beating up young guys. The only thing that you can do is show them what they’re doing wrong and give them an opportunity to get it right the next week.”
The Bruins did manage to put a couple touchdown drives together, one in the second quarter and one in the third. Outside of those drives, not much went their way. Surratt hopes his team is able to put this game behind them and finish out the season strong.
“It’s real simple for us at this point in time,” Surratt said. “We’ve done been through the meat of our schedule, and so now, you look at the next two weeks. It’s going to decide whoever the fourth seed is in the playoffs. Either you win the next two or you turn your stuff in on the 28th. If you want it bad enough, you will work for it, and you will go out and achieve that goal. And if you don’t, you will start talking about getting ready for next year.”
Catawba Ridge extends its now-program best win streak to eight games as they go on the road to face Indian Land in region play. Up next for Lancaster, the Bruins will look to snap a four-game losing streak as they face off against York at home.
Both games are next Friday. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 11:41 PM.