Round 2! Five Rock Hill-area HS football playoff teams put seasons on the line Friday
Five teams from York, Chester and Lancaster counties remain in the high school football state championship hunt.
Rock Hill’s Northwestern and South Pointe have tough home games. Great Falls and Chester play traditional powers on the road. And Catawba Ridge drives across the state in search of revenge.
“We have to be ready,” Northwestern head coach Page Wofford told The Herald, practically speaking for every football coach in South Carolina who’ll be on a sideline Friday, “for the other team’s best shot.”
Here’s a one-stop shop for everything you need to know ahead of the second round of the 2021 state playoffs — including local matchups, game-by-game story lines and sports editor Alex Zietlow predictions.
All kickoffs are set for 7:30 p.m. Friday night.
Byrnes at Northwestern
Byrnes record: 6-5, 3-1 Region 2-5A
Northwestern record: 10-1, 4-0 Region 4-5A
What to know: Northwestern is clicking — and the team has been doing so for 10 straight weeks. The Trojans trounced Boiling Springs in the first round of the playoffs, 50-7, and saw a prolific output from their run game in the contest. Turbo Richard, behind a talented offensive line, ran for 149 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries.
On the season, Northwestern’s offense has been remarkably balanced: Richard has run for 843 yards and seven touchdowns; running back Qua Howard has run for 392 yards and four touchdowns; and quarterback Will Mattison has run for 305 yards and nine touchdowns. And that’s all happened while having a formidable passing game, too: Mattison has earned almost every accolade a quarterback could at this point in the season — North-South All-Star selection, South Carolina Mr. Football Finalist, S.C. Gatorade Player of the Year finalist — thanks to his 37 passing touchdowns and 2,665 passing yards and 64.2% pass completion rate.
What about Northwestern’s opponent? Byrnes is coming off a 30-20 win over Mauldin in the first round of play. The Rebels suffered a 45-15 loss at the hands of Gaffney earlier in the year, but the team has improved a ton during the year. Per Northwestern coach Page Wofford, “(Byrnes is) not a 6-5 football team. They’re an 11-0, 10-1 football team that we’re playing in the second round.”
Quotable: “We talk about it at coaches meetings all the time: The things we’ve done over the last couple of years, you can see that it’s easier now,” Wofford said, referencing his first season as head coach at Northwestern in 2019 when the team went 2-8. “The culture is better. You know the saying, ‘The nail that sticks out gets hammered.’ My first year there were a whole bunch of nails sticking out. Well, this year, there are not that many nails sticking out, and the ones that do stick out, the kids are helping fix.”
Listen: FM 100.1/AM 1340/Comporium Channel 103
Zietlow’s prediction: Northwestern wins.
Laurens at South Pointe
Laurens record: 6-3, 2-0 Region 2-4A
South Pointe record: 8-1, 4-0 Region 3-4A
What to know: South Pointe is rolling right now, just like its 42-12 rout of Richland Northeast last week would suggest. The Stallions have a lot of talent they’ll showcase Friday: Waymond Jenerette has become just the second South Pointe receiver to record over 1,000 receiving yards in a single season. (He’s only a handful of yards behind 2016 graduate Quay Brown.) Quarterback Zay McCrorey is playing as well as he has all year, and that’s only boosted by a formidable run game thanks to Ja’Quan Thompson and Caleb Sims. (The Stallions on Friday also plan to witness the return of a key receiver, Khyre Rawlinson, who has missed a bulk of this season due to an injury.)
South Pointe has a lot of talent in the trenches, too.
“We took our lumps on the OL and DL last year a little bit, but you know it’s paying off this year,” head coach DeVonte Holloman told The Herald earlier this week. “Anquerrious Davis has been starting since he was a sophomore. AJ Miller (is) really locking in and learning how to be both a run-stopper and a pass rusher. CJ Dixon is a sophomore and looking in flashes like one of the better players on the defensive line. And Tennarious Rhinehart is just a football player. We got a couple guys that we’ve been mixing in. Just gotta keep it rolling.”
South Pointe is welcoming Laurens to Rock Hill Friday. Laurens is a 4A program with a rich history but one that hasn’t won a state title since 1991. The Raiders defeated Easley, 56-13, in the first round of the playoffs — and have won their last five after losing three of their first four this year.
Quotable: Holloman, who’s in his third year at the South Pointe helm, is looking to advance past the second round of the playoffs for the first time in his tenure as a coach in Rock Hill: “We’re really just trying to bring the best out of this year’s team. This year’s team is different than last year’s team.”
Listen: FM 94.3
Zietlow’s prediction: South Pointe wins.
Catawba Ridge at Greenwood
Catawba Ridge record: 6-4, 2-2 Region 3-4A
Greenwood record: 10-1, 3-0 Region 2-4A
What to know: Catawba Ridge earned a 28-20 road win over Westwood last week. In the win, the Copperheads saw the performance of the season from junior running back Tyler Jones — who had 175 yards and a touchdown on 35 carries and another touchdown reception. The team also benefited from a stout defense, which prevented a game-tying Westwood PAT and, later, stuffed any potential Westwood opportunities to tie the game with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Catawba Ridge’s matchup with Greenwood on Friday is wildly compelling. The two played each other in Fort Mill in Week 2, and Greenwood used its Wing-T, run-almost-every-down offense to grind its way to a 17-14 victory.
Thus, the question is and will be Friday: What has changed since early September?
The Eagles have appeared to remain steady, sustaining success to the tune of a 10-1 record with their only loss coming against 5A defending state champion Dutch Fork. They’ve proven their offensive potency as the year has gone on, too: They’ve scored 30 or more points in their last six games — including a 49-3 drubbing of Pickens in the first round of this year’s playoffs where they scored all their points in the first half.
The Copperheads will have a slightly different team than they showed against Greenwood earlier this year. They moved a few impact players from offense to defense — among them Rasean Maraja and Evan Hamilton. It’s also worth noting that Catawba Ridge had a few players on COVID quarantine when it hosted Greenwood in September (including both the team’s field goal kickers), and those players will be able to play this time around. (Of course, by the same token, the Copperheads on Friday night won’t have leading linebacker Brody Tesimale, who suffered a season-ending injury right before the start of region play this year.)
Quotable: Catawba Ridge had a magical run to the Upper State championship last year, and had it while winning all its games on the road. Head coach Zac Lendyak thinks playing the postseason on the road invigorates his team: “We’ve been kind of talking about it. Last year, we went on the road for all of our playoff games. We almost kind of thrive in it. The boys look forward to getting on that bus. ... Sometimes the best memories are the bus rides to and from these big games, so we’ll keep trying to play into that, to embrace going on the road with an ‘us against the world’ mentality.”
Listen: FM 107.1
Zietlow’s prediction: Catawba Ridge wins.
Chester at Chapman
Chester record: 7-3, 3-1 Region 4-3A
Chapman record: 8-2, 5-0 Region 3-3A
What to know: For a moment, Chester and Chapman were the teams to beat in 3A football. Chester, of course, won a state championship in 2018, and Chapman won in 2019 and beat Chester in 2017 en route to an Upper State championship.
So this game is set to be a special one.
Chester defeated Belton Honea-Path last week but not without giving up a few big plays to keep the game uncomfortably close for the game’s duration. Chapman, conversely, scored 35 points in the first quarter last week in its 63-35 victory over Blue Ridge.
The teams are fundamentally different: Chester runs a ton — North-South All Star selection and quarterback Zan Dunham will almost certainly run the ball 25 times in this one — and Chapman wants to pass every down. Expect a lot of points.
Quotable: Chester football coach Victor Floyd said his team is about “as healthy as we can be” after losing a few defenders earlier in the year due to season-ending injuries. He also said Chapman’s offense is unique in 3A football. But Chester has played pass-first offenses this year and performed well: “We’ve seen it twice (Keenan and Northwestern) and that’s a good thing,” Floyd said of pass-first offenses. “And I wouldn’t want to play against them after not seeing them all year.”
Listen: FM 90.3
Zietlow’s prediction: Chester wins.
Great Falls at Ridge Spring-Monetta
Great Falls record: 7-3, 1-3 Region 2-1A
Ridge Spring-Monetta record: 8-2, 5-1 Region 3-1A
What to know: Great Falls is enjoying a great season thanks to an explosive offense. (Think prolific seniors Foxx Moore and Zae Brown. You heard of ‘em?!) Ridge Spring-Monetta can also put up big numbers: The team edged Lewisville 58-50 earlier in the year and routed Whitmire 48-0 in the first round of the playoffs last week. (Great Falls beat Lewisville and Whitmire, too.)
Friday will be a tough test for Great Falls. RSM is led by the same quarterback, Remedee Leaphart, who led the Trojans to a 1A state title game appearance in 2019 — and RSM uses him pretty much every play. Skill-position-wise, the Red Devils match up well, head coach Demarcus Simons said.
“They’re going to throw it 75% of the time,” Simons said. “We haven’t played anybody that throws the ball as much as them. But on paper, our teams actually match up the same. Same size. We spread the ball out; they spread the ball out, too.”
Quotable: Last week, Simons earned the first playoff win of his head coaching career, which started in the 2020 season. The win “didn’t hit him until Sunday,” he said: “Friday, my postgame speech was not nice,” he said with a chuckle. “I gave them more of a Dad speech: ‘Dang it, we got the dub, but if we don’t bring it next week we’re going to be seated at home like everybody else.’ … It hit me Sunday to put my guard down and not be so fired up about it, and to be happy for the win, to be able to do this again.”
Listen: FM 104.1
Zietlow’s prediction: Great Falls wins.
Sam Copeland contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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