Northwestern ran the ball 53 times to beat Rock Hill football rival South Pointe
On a night when the Rock Hill community gathered to remember and honor the legacy of the city’s Emmett Scott High School, two of the town’s premier football programs gathered at District Three South Stadium to do battle in the Crosstown Showdown.
Blue and gold balloons were launched to close a special halftime ceremony. Twenty-four minutes later, the purple and gold prevailed.
Northwestern used a dominant running game and a focused defensive plan to neutralize South Pointe’s stable of athletes and take a key, 17-3 victory in the rivalry’s latest installment.
“I’m not gonna say it was perfect, but it got the job done,” Northwestern coach Page Wofford said of his team’s performance postgame. “We never got impatient. I don’t know what our (rushing) yards were. I don’t care. When you beat a good team like South Pointe, it doesn’t matter.”
Northwestern (4-0, 3-0 Region 4-5A) found the scoreboard first just seconds into the second period, with a 40-yard Kanoah Vinesett field goal capping an 18-play, 53-yard drive and giving the Trojans a 3-0 advantage. A fake punt on 4th-and-2 extended that series, as Myles Stinson connected with Greg Johnson on a short pass to move the chains.
South Pointe (3-1, 3-0 Region 3-4A) started a drive at its own nine with 5:26 to play and crossed midfield in just four plays. Northwestern forced a fumble after a quick pass, which Kyle Springs-McCottry recovered at the South Pointe 48. The ensuing eight-play Northwestern drive found the endzone, with a two-yard Kyle Aldridge rumble extending the Trojan lead to 10-0.
The Stallions mounted a late second-quarter charge, going 42 yards in 1:17. Collin Karhu drilled a 42-yard field goal at the first-half horn, bringing South Pointe within a touchdown at 10-3.
The Trojans ripped off another prolonged drive in the third quarter, taking the ball 79 yards in 12 plays. Quarterback Will Mattison finished off that drive with a picturesque 19-yard strike to Christian Watkins in the endzone, giving his side a margin from which the Stallions could not recover.
Northwestern defense: ‘Contain O’Mega. Period.’
Perhaps as impressive as the sustained offensive drives, the Northwestern defense largely kept in check receiver/quarterback O’Mega Blake and the rest of South Pointe’s collection of big-play stars. Wofford praised his defensive unit’s performance after the contest.
“The defensive gameplan was to contain O’Mega. Period,” Wofford said. “The offensive gameplan was to run the ball and see if they could take it for four quarters.”
Northwestern ran the ball 53 times for 133 yards on the night, while limiting South Pointe to just 40 yards on 15 carries. Punishing tight end Kyle Aldridge shifted over and played running back for much of the game, pacing the Trojans with 96 yards on 32 rushes.
“We haven’t ever used Kyle in that manner, so it might have surprised them a little bit that that was what we were coming out to do,” said Wofford. “The gameplan was to see if we could run it on them and see if we could get some first downs and once we softened them up a little bit, see if we could throw the ball once or twice. When we did it, we were successful.”
Mattison connected on 8-of-13 throws for the Trojans for 101 yards, including the scoring hookup with Watkins. Watkins snagged four passes for 74 yards.
Blake caught five throws for the Stallions, tallying 38 yards. Nebanye Moore led South Pointe with 23 rushing yards on seven attempts.
South Pointe returns to Region 3-4A play next week, traveling to York. Northwestern will face off with Rock Hill at District Three Stadium. Both games are slated for 7:30 p.m. kickoffs.
‘You don’t wanna tackle him’
Wofford compared the 6-foot-2, 260-pound Aldridge to the Tennessee Titans’ Derrick Henry: “You don’t wanna tackle him for four quarters.”
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 10:55 PM.