South Pointe offense causes “tremor nightmares”

Hartsville football coach Jeff Calabrese fell asleep last weekend with his laptop computer on his chest. South Pointe offensive clips played on the screen and were still there when he woke up.

“I had some tremor nightmares,” Calabrese said.

Calabrese, whose team plays South Pointe in the 4A state championship Dec. 2, wouldn’t be the first to suffer.

South Pointe, which moved up to No. 4 in USA Today’s national high school football rankings this week, is averaging 57 points in its four playoff blowout victories. The most recent, the 67-21 dismantling of 12-1 Greer last Friday, showed the Stallion offense in all its glory. Clemson-bound QB Derion Kendrick ran wild, galloping to 164 yards and five touchdowns, prompting Greer coach Will Young to say afterward “If that's not the best player in the state, I don't know who is. Holy mackerel, he's pretty special.”

South Pointe averages 450 yards per game and set the school’s single-season cumulative scoring record last Friday. Behind one of its better offensive lines, the Stallions get 7.9 yards per carry on average. Kendrick and Joe Ervin have rushed for over 1,000 yards, while Marice Whitlock isn’t far off with 753. Five receivers, including big-play threats Steven Gilmore Jr. and Ty Good, have at least 28 catches.

And of course, Kendrick, with his innate ability to freelance and a medieval catapult for a right arm, is in charge of it all. He represents the biggest headache for defensive coordinators because even if the opposing team’s players read their keys and get to where they’re supposed to be, Kendrick can side-step them as if they were ghosts, or sprint past them like they’re speed bumps.

There are so many ways South Pointe’s offense can hurt opponents and offensive coordinator Jason McManus lays them all on the table, especially his trick plays. That’s part of the reason why five different South Pointe players threw passes during the first round playoff blowout of Midland Valley. The next four Stallion opponents -- if things worked out, and they did -- would have much more to consider when building defensive game plans.

“It’s been a lot of fun this year,” said Scott Robinson Jr., the team’s leading receiver. “Coach Mac, he’s letting us play and we just have that chemistry, so when we get rolling it gets fun.”

Hartsville’s offense is no sunny picnic to prepare for either. The Red Foxes’ run-focused scheme churned out nearly 400 yards in last year’s title game loss to South Pointe and in Tiyon Evans, Hartsville has one of the best players in school history. The junior running back recently broke the school’s rushing record with another year of high school left, and his 504 receiving yard total is also a school record. Evans has scored 37 total touchdowns this year and South Pointe defensive lineman Keshawn Veal said the Stallions’ defensive focus is squarely on him.

“It’s a great offense,” said Veal. “It’s complicated, confusing, but I think the defense is gonna step up and we’re gonna do what we do.”

But South Pointe’s level of offensive execution puts so much pressure on opponents, who can’t afford scoreless possessions. That’s why Eastside attempted a risky fourth down conversion deep in its own end of the field on the second possession of the game. And it’s why Hartsville’s nearly 400 rushing yards last year didn’t amount to much. Three Red Fox turnovers, two of which led to South Pointe touchdowns during the second quarter in which the Stallions broke open the 2016 championship game, proved fatal.

Asked during Monday’s press conference to name some differences between last year’s South Pointe team and this one, the quick-witted Calabrese responded.

“They’re better and they’re faster,” he said. “Does that work?”

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 1:27 PM with the headline "South Pointe offense causes “tremor nightmares”."