Catawba Ridge’s magical ride ends at AC Flora, but the legacy its seniors left lives on

For anyone who follows the Catawba Ridge football team, the scene following Friday night’s Upper State 4A final game against AC Flora had to be equal parts expected and inexplicable.

The Copperheads, in just their second year of varsity competition, went on a seven-game winning streak that had the program on the precipice of a state championship game berth — and a third trip to Columbia in three weeks. Catawba Ridge fell to Flora, 42-21, and the requisite heartbreak of the end of a magical ride lingered in the cool air over Memorial Stadium.

Something just as magical as the Catawba Ridge winning stretch happened after the game, however.

One by one, each Catawba Ridge senior emerged from the locker room, carrying his jersey and pads. With each senior’s arrival, another roar rose to the skies. Seemingly every Copperhead fan that made the trek from Fort Mill stayed around to show their appreciation for the group of kids that had put together a season to remember.

“From where we were last year to where we’re at now is just, it’s an unbelievable story,” commented Catawba Ridge coach Zac Lendyak after the game. “We just talked (in the locker room) about what those seniors have done and how they’ve laid a foundation that is gonna last forever, and what the expectation for Catawba Ridge football is. I couldn’t be prouder of them and of the team.

“It’s heartbreaking tonight, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”

Said Kayden Hager, one of Catawba Ridge’s quarterback and senior leaders: “It’s definitely something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life, and something where I’ll take a lot of lessons with me ... I’ve learned a lot of lessons here.”

Catawba Ridge (7-2) found itself on its heels a bit early, as a Flora rushing attack that tallied 506 yards in last week’s outing at South Pointe continued where it left off. Flora (9-0) marched 63 yards down the field on its first drive in just three plays, with Matt Pack’s three-yard touchdown plunge giving the Falcons a 7-0 lead just over two minutes into the contest.

Flora rushed to the paint twice more, nearly bookending the end of the first and beginning of the second quarters. Pack found pay dirt again from two yards away, while a 21-yard Markel Townsend gallop afforded the Falcons a 21-0 margin at the 10:06 mark of the second quarter.

Freshman Copperhead quarterback Jadyn Davis then heated up through the air. Davis connected with Jacobie Henderson for a 46-yard scoring strike, putting the Copperheads on the board with 8:24 to play in the first half. Davis topped off the next drive by rolling right and finding a diving Henderson in the right corner of the end zone, slimming the home side’s lead to 21-14.

The sides traded punts in the third quarter, before Flora finally found the mark just 1:36 before the end of the period. The Falcons marched 80 yards in 10 plays — all of it on the ground — with four straight runs from Pack leading to the one-yard dive that provided his third score of the night and putting his team ahead, 28-14.

After a Catawba Ridge punt, the Falcons needed just one play for Terrell Coleman to run around left end and sprint 80 yards to the house, extending the Flora lead to 35-14. Pack then closed the scoring, putting an exclamation point on his stellar night with a 51-yard touchdown run.

“We’re a mature team. We feel like we’re really big and physical on both sides of the ball,” said Flora coach Dustin Curtis. “We feel like we have the best offensive line in the state of South Carolina. We’ve got three really good running backs to go behind them.” Pack eclipsed the 150-yard mark, with Coleman tallying over 100.

Still, Curtis came away impressed with Catawba Ridge’s adjustments to contain that run game.

“Nobody’s done what they did to our run game in the first half. Nobody at all,” emphasized Curtis.

Flora now heads across Columbia to play North Myrtle Beach for a 4A state crown next Saturday at Benedict College. The Falcons will be the first team from Richland School District One to play for the championship since 2014.

The Copperheads, meanwhile, envision a future where they will make that trip down Interstate 77 with the chance to bring home some hardware.

“The ‘Y’ is what we’ll find out with these young guys — year after year,” stated Lendyak about the acronym in his team’s “Be the Why” slogan. “Are we willing to do what we have to do to get back to this point and take it one game further? We can’t just say, ‘Hey, we had a great 2020 season.’ It’s a year-round thing.”

This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 11:55 PM.