HS football roundup: Clover and Lancaster roll, but Northwestern dropped by Byrnes
![Byrnes’ Jordan Starkes (3) defends against Northwestern’s Gregory Bivens. Northwestern played Byrnes in high school football at Byrnes High School’s Nixon Field on August 24, 2018.
[GWINN DAVIS / for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal]](https://www.heraldonline.com/public/latest-news/6rhk15/picture217318715/alternates/LANDSCAPE_1200/NWCROPPED222.jpg "Byrnes’ Jordan Starkes (3) defends against Northwestern’s Gregory Bivens. Northwestern played Byrnes in high school football at Byrnes High School’s Nixon Field on August 24, 2018.
[GWINN DAVIS / for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal]")
Clover 35, Forestview 3
GASTONIA - Clover High’s first of four straight weeks against Gaston County competition in North Carolina had a successful start as the Blue Eagles rolled to a 35-3 victory at Forestview.
Clover (2-0) scored on its first and last possessions of the first half and let its defense do the rest in its 30th win over N.C. competition since 1962.
“We played well in spurts,” said Brian Lane, whose school is 30-18-1 since 1962 against N.C. opponents. “We had that fumble at the goal line but we stopped them and came back and made some plays. “You try to play teams that are on the schedule and try to get better each week.”
Turning point: Forestview twice reached Clover territory in the first half when it trailed 7-0. But the Blue Eagles forced a punt and missed 52-yard field goal before the Blue Eagles made it 14-0 just before halftime on Gabe Carroll’s 59-yard pass to Zion Robbins.
“We showed a lot of heart,” Forestview coach Chris Medlin said. “We always seemed to be one play away. We could never make the play that we needed when it was 7-0 and 14-0.”
Stars of the game: Clover’s David Hall rushed 23 times for 184 yards and two touchdowns and Gabe Carroll completed 18 of 25 passes for 353 yards and two touchdowns.
Clover was flagged 12 times for 140 yards in penalties. The Blue Eagles outgained Forestview 586 to 100. On deck: Clover travels back over the state line again on Aug. 31 to face Hunter Huss.
Byrnes 41, Northwestern 21
DUNCAN -- Byrnes and Northwestern have cumulatively whipped up Division 1 and NFL talent for decades; Ben Watson, Mason Rudolph, Cordarelle Patterson, Marcus Lattimore, Prince Miller and Everett Dawkins to name a few. The two programs share 16 state titles.
The powerhouses have met in the regular season each of the last six years, including a playoff rematch in 2014. Byrnes has a slight edge in the all-time series. The Rebels lead 10-9.
Rebels’ quarterback B.J. Peake slung the football for 316 yards last week against Greer in a 39-26 victory. The good news for Northwestern’s defense - who gave up nearly 300 yards on the ground to South Pointe in last week’s 49-14 loss - was that star running back Rahjai Harris didn’t play after an ankle injury in Week 0.
The first half was like a couple of fighters throwing haymakers at each other. Byrnes’ Peake tossed the football to Ben Henson to jump out to a 7-0 lead three minutes into the game.
In the second quarter, Northwestern quarterback Dustin “Dirt” Noller got lucky on an under-thrown ball that South Carolina commit Jamario Holley turned into a 27-yard gain. One big run from Antonio Heath later, Ghari Page punched in a Trojan touchdown to tie the score.
The two traded blows including a clean 35-yard pass from “Dirt” Noller that resulted in a one-handed grab by Gregory Bivens at the 3-yard-line. The spectacular catch set up a 2-yard Holley touchdown rush, followed by a Byrnes field goal to ink the halftime score in at 17-14.
The Rebels stretched their lead to 24-14 in the third quarter, but
Noller found a wide-open Jamaar Moore for a big gain. One play later, the Trojan offensive line redeemed their sloppy performance against South Pointe by muscling Holley in for a goal-line score to put Northwestern right back in the game.
The bad news for the Trojans is that Byrnes didn’t check the rear-view mirror after that point.
The Rebels added on two more touchdowns and a field goal en route to a 41-21 victory. Northwestern begins their season at an atypical 0-2, and hasn’t been able to find answers on defense after allowing 450 yards. Still, they are not without a few bright spots -
Jamario Holley did Jamario Holley things, and Antonio Heath rushed for over 100 yards for the second straight week.
On deck: It doesn’t get any easier for Northwestern, which hosts defending 5A state finalists Dorman next week, Aug. 31.
Lancaster 47, Fairfield Central 18
LANCASTER -- Kemarkio Cloud rushed for 135 yards and scored three touchdowns in the first half and led the Lancaster Bruins to 47-18 win over the Fairfield Central Griffins in a non-region game at Lancaster Friday night.
Lancaster got three scores in the first quarter for a quick 20-0 lead. Kemarkio Cloud scored all three. His first score was a 12-yard run, and Jacob Cato added the PAT.
He added a 35-yard scamper midway through the session and Jacob Cato tacked on the extra point. In the final minute of the opening period he rambled 66 yards for a touchdown, but Lancaster missed the try for two points.
The Bruins added another touchdown late in the second quarter. Kendrick Watts scored from 18 yards out, and Cato kicked the extra point to make it 27-0. They took that lead to the dressing room at intermission.
Fairfield Central scored in the first minute of the third period to cut the deficit to 27-6, but the Bruins responded. Asonta Clark scored from eight yards and Lancaster was in front 33-6. Fairfield Central scored again to make it 33-12, but Cloud hooked up with Wyquan Massey on a 53-yard pass play and the Bruins were in front 40-12.
Fairfield Central scored again to make it 40-18, but Cloud capped his outstanding night with a 44-yard gallop for a touchdown midway through the fourth period and it was 47-18 in favor of the Bruins.
With the win Lancaster improved to 2-0 on the year.
.On deck: Lancaster hosts Fort Mill next week in a game that sees about half of the Bruins’ coaching staff that came from Fort Mill face its former school.
C. A. Johnson 32, Lewisville 22
RICHBURG -- CA Johnson ventured up I-77 to meet Lewisville for the eleventh
time in 1A action. The Hornets lost their season opener to Great Falls, who busted a nineteen-game losing streak in the process.
The Hornets secured just their third win ever against the Lions, who went from a third-round playoff season behind the mountainous Josh Belk to an 0-2 start this year. They’ve had some depth problems, and it’s tough for anyone to recover from a head count of eighteen injuries.
Four different quarterbacks had to take snaps. Jashawn Jason made some huge plays before getting knocked out of the game, and Demetric Hardin both made big plays
“It’s hard to overcome when you keep losing people,” Lions’ head coach Will Mitchell said after the game. “We just don’t have any margin for error.”
Mitchell has impressed the necessity for his young team to make small improvements - mistakes and fumbles were costly.
On deck: Lewisville hosts Great Falls Aug. 31 in a rivalry game unsually placed in the schedule.
Indian Land 34, Buford 7
INDIAN LAND -- Last year’s game between Indian Land and Buford was an instant classic with Buford winning 34-31.
Would this year provide similar results? It didn’t appear that way in the 1st quarter as the game was scoreless. Indian Land went on a 55-yard drive ending with a 1-yard TD run from Brandon Britton to end the scoring drought in the 2nd quarter. The Warriors then tacked on a 41-yard Brandon Dickerson field goal to go up 10-0 at halftime.
Head coach Horatio Blades was pleased with his team’s performance on both sides.
“Our receiving group as a whole did a good job of catching the ball and making plays down field. Brandon Britton did a good job running the ball between the tackles,”
Buford’s only touchdown came off a pick six thrown by Indian Land, so the Warrior defense pitched a shutout.
“Defense is not that hard. It’s very simple. As long as you fly around to the ball, play physical, play for each other, you’ll be fine,” Blades said.
Cornelius Barber, Tahj Knight, Gabe Faulkner all stood out to Blades.
The next sequence of plays were wild. Karl Ellis recovered a muffed Buford punt, but on the very next play, Indian Land’s Grayson Barber was picked off by Buford’s Dwayne Bufford for a 75-yard interception for a touchdown to cut Indian Land’s lead to 10-7.
The Warriors responded with a 24-yard field goal from Logan Lambert to go up 13-7. The drive was aided by a 32-yard pass from Grayson Barber to Jacob Cooley and two Buford pass interference penalties. Indian Land started to pull away as Brandon Britton ran it in on a 5-yard touchdown run to go up 20-7 heading into the 4th quarter.
Offensive coordinator Leon Boulware echoed his head coach’s comments offensively.
“Across the board on offense, we did some things we know gotta improve on and we did some things better tonight than we did last week,” Boulware said.
Indian Land went on 5-minute drive ending with a Brandon Britton touchdown run, followed by one more score to end the night, winning in a rout 34-7.
On deck: Indian Land heads over to York next week to face the Cougars for the first time ever.
Whitmire 19, Great Falls 6
GREAT FALLS -- The last time Great Falls won 2 straight games, they went on to win 7 straight back in 2014 - and the opponent that year was C.A. Johnson.
Could last week be a good omen for Scotty Steen’s team?
The Red Devils started out right where they left off with a touchdown in the first quarter to take a 6-0 lead.
Whitmire responded with two unanswered scores in the second quarter to take a 13-6 halftime lead. The third quarter was scoreless which meant Scotty Steen’s team would have to make a fourth quarter comeback. Whitmire put another six on the board in the fourth quarter with exactly 10 minutes to go to put the game away and secure the win 19-6.
On deck: Great Falls makes the trek over to Richburg to face rival Lewisville next week.
This story was originally published August 24, 2018 at 11:22 PM.