‘See ball, get ball’: Explosive Catawba Ridge lives up to hype against rival Fort Mill
Don’t blink, or you might miss it.
Miss what? A connection that displays some of the best talent York County has to offer in 2021. A connection that prompted a near-sold-out crowd to rise to its feet several times in Catawba Ridge’s 35-0 win over town rival Fort Mill High School. A connection between the top-rated recruit in the nation in his 2024 class, Jadyn Davis, and the explosive, never-seen-a-live-ball-he-couldn’t-catch Marshall commit, Jacobie Henderson.
“Jadyn knows I’ll be open, man,” Henderson told The Herald with a smile postgame.
He was asked to describe the game’s premier highlight and early dagger, one that came right before halftime with Catawba Ridge driving and looking to go up by three touchdowns: Henderson said he saw his opposing corner “shading outside,” so he gave him a quick jab to the inside to make his defender flinch — and then sprinted toward the right pylon.
He soon turned around, saw the ball spiraling and floating toward him, stretched and corralled the ball with his fingertips while making sure his toes didn’t scrape the sideline.
They didn’t. Touchdown. 21-0 Catawba Ridge.
“See ball, get ball,” he said.
The senior caught five passes for 87 yards and that hope-sinking touchdown on Friday night — which turned out to be a bulk of Davis’s production: The sophomore quarterback completed 19-of-30 passes for 303 yards and three touchdowns.
“We know who he is, and we just let him have some free reign,” Catawba Ridge head coach Zac Lendyak said of Henderson postgame. He laughed about his receiver/cornerback/punt returner’s propensity to look for the big play every time he’s on the field — particularly after one instance on Friday, when a punt dribbled toward the goal line surrounded by Fort Mill defenders and Henderson picked it up and tried to return it anyway. “We always tell him, ‘Put your team in a good spot,’ and he’s always trying to do that.”
Notable: A third-straight season-opening shutout
The Copperheads, beyond Davis and Henderson, lived up to their preseason hype against Fort Mill. (The Copperheads earned an Upper State final appearance in 2020, and are widely expected to be just as good, if not better, in 2021.)
The defense only allowed nine rushing yards and 37 passing yards to Fort Mill. And its offense, although a bit slow to start, was well-rounded.
Catawba Ridge’s first points of the 2021 season came with less than five seconds remaining in the first quarter. A few completions — including one to Jordan Gillium on a fourth down that possession — led to a senior running back Henry Bowen touchdown rush from three yards out. A Kohen Kozel extra point made it 7-0.
Then, on the team’s next possession, after a fumble recovery on a punt, Catawba Ridge’s Davis found tight end Jairus Frank while getting hit for a six-yard touchdown toss. 14-0.
Then came Davis and Henderson’s aforementioned connection right before halftime to make it 21-0. And then came two more touchdown drives in the second half: one that ended in the form of a Bowen punch-in after a Trevor Testerman 29-yard catch set it up; the other that was punctuated by a Brady Ambrose 9-yard catch with 1:07 remaining in the game.
“This is our third year in a row, all three years, where we’ve pitched a shutout in the first game of the season,” Lendyak said. “So it makes it really easy when the other team doesn’t score, you got a good chance to win that football game, you know? We couldn’t be more proud of their effort tonight.”
Other stat leaders from Catawba Ridge include Testerman, who led the team in receiving with five catches for 96 yards; Frank, who notched a receiving touchdown and caught two passes for 22 yards; Lane Boutwell, who notched three catches for 30 yards; Bowen, who ran for two touchdowns and 55 yards; and Tyler Jones, who took six carries for 52 yards.
Fort Mill’s Michael Threatt ran for 17 yards — balancing out several Catawba Ridge tackles for loss — and quarterback Yellow Jacket Kyle Neibch threw for 37 yards.
Quotable: ‘We know who he is’
Every incomplete pass, every sack taken, Copperhead quarterback Davis heard an “overrated” chant from Fort Mill’s student section. Said Lendyak: “He doesn’t buy into that. We know who he is, he knows who he is. That’s going to happen every game for the next three years. When you get labeled with that No. 1 overall, it’s going to come whether he throws an interception, a touchdown, whatever. Him and I have talked about that at length. It doesn’t matter what anybody out there thinks. It doesn’t matter what anybody on the other side of the field thinks. It’s what we have going on, what we do at Catawba Ridge, and that’s all he cares about right now.”
Fort Mill head coach Rob McNeely on his immediate takeaways from the Fort Mill rivalry game: “Kids played hard, that’s what I wanted to see. They gave us some big plays in the first half and had to deal with some injuries, putting (bandages) on some stuff in the second half. But the kids played hard. We just gotta continue to get off the field defensively and get some first downs.”
Henderson on playing in front of a huge crowd: “That felt really good. I haven’t seen fans in about two years, so I mean, that was the best part of the game.”
Catawba Ridge next plays Nation Ford on the road on Friday, Aug. 27. Fort Mill is scheduled to travel to Chester that day.
This story was originally published August 21, 2021 at 12:06 AM.
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