High school football pivot: 3 things learned Aug. 17, 3 things to watch Aug. 24

Great Falls breaks the streak

Great Falls coach Scotty Steen has never been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. But he got a taste of it what it must be like after his team’s first win in 20 games on Aug. 17, 2018.

“There is no way Mardi Gras is any more fun than being on that field after the game,” Steen said.

The Red Devils used just 19 players to edge C.A. Johnson 8-6, breaking a 19-game losing skid. Three of those 19 players -- D.J. Adams, Kaleb Funderburk and Tommy Seagle -- spent some chunk of Friday night’s game at quarterback. It was Adams who connected with 6-foot-6 receiver Kelton Talford on an 80-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Da’Shawn Johnson then punched in the two-point conversion that ultimately proved the game-winner.

“Very unselfish young men who shared their role without animosity,” Steen said of the quarterback trio. “They just wanted to win.”

Afterward, players -- and Steen -- took selfies under the scoreboard. Great Falls’ last win came Oct. 1, 2015, also against C.A. Johnson.

“You’d thought we won the state championship,” said Steen, talking on the phone while he watched his team’s laundry roll and rotate and flip late Friday night.

He felt that focusing on stopping the losing streak would have been too easy. Instead, the Red Devils looked to the future. Now, they can focus on building a winning streak this coming week, when they face Whitmire.

South Pointe... man.

Well. Any team that thought this was surely the year to make a run at the 4A state title, that South Pointe football would surely drop off if only because of the Biblical talent exodus last May, better reconsider. The Stallions are very good, again, and what’s interesting is this team could win in a different way than the last few.

The 2018 Stallions are not as dynamic or creative -- or as tested -- in as many positions as the last few teams, but they have powerful offensive and defensive lines -- maybe the team’s biggest o-line in a while -- and a pair of running backs in Joe Ervin and Marice Whitlock that are built like powder kegs with legs. Whitlock played all over the place Friday night, scoring touchdowns in three different ways. Ervin’s offseason work is clearly paying off already. If South Pointe commits to a run-first offensive focus, it could really pound some teams this year in ways it didn’t need to do in recent years.

QB questions? What QB questions?

Heze Massey and Zion Robbins combined for 271 yards receiving and a pair of touchdowns in Clover’s confidence-inflating win over rival York last Friday night. Better yet, Clover might have found a quarterback, Gabe Carroll. He completed 18-of-21 passes for 329 yards and a touchdown, threw an interception but also ran for another TD. Interesting wrinkle: Carroll, who transferred to Clover several weeks ago, is the nephew of York coach Bobby Carroll.

Looking ahead

• Opportunities to build momentum for two other programs in The Herald’s coverage area this Friday: Lancaster faces traditionally strong Fairfield Central, while Chester travels to Fort Mill. Lancaster bullied its northern county rival, Indian Land, in the opener, but Fairfield Central will offer a tougher test. The Bruins’ three primary ball-carriers all scored TDs against Indian Land, including 28 and 35-yard scoring runs by Nygel Moore. And Chester hammered Aiken, but also faces a much tougher game against 5A Fort Mill. If the Cyclones, who topped 400 yards on the ground last Friday, can run the ball on the Yellow Jackets like they did against Aiken, that could further strengthen their credentials for statewide contention in 3A football. Fort Mill depth will test Victor Floyd’s team, which only dresses around 30 varsity players each game.
  
  
• Between free-flowing penalty flag-tossing, rumbling weather delays and the prevalence of the (incomplete) pass in high school football, many of last week’s games approached three and a half hours in length, and some much longer than that. Few, if any, teams run the ball consistently, and many teams’ passing games are focused on screens that run players toward the sidelines. Both lead to constant clock stoppages. It’s hard to see where other support would come from, but this reporter would certainly be in favor of a standard 7 p.m. kickoff time for South Carolina high school football. Maybe Week One will run more smoothly.
• Nation Ford and Conway face off in Week One after tough losses in their season openers. Conway got burned pretty badly by a missed call in its 16-13 loss to North Myrtle Beach (check out the missed call here), while Nation Ford had a big offensive night against Spartanburg but could not stop the Vikings’ scoring unit. Linebacker Michael Peterson had a pick-six and running back Nathan Mahaffey had a long, weaving touchdown run to go with 163 yards, but the Falcons have to cut down on the nearly half-dozen turnovers they had against Spartanburg.
  
  

This story was originally published August 19, 2018 at 8:06 PM.