South Pointe cruises past Daniel into second round

South Pointe – so ruthless against first round playoff opponents – put visiting Daniel to the sword Friday night, beating the Lions 55-28 to advance to the second round of the 3A state playoffs.

Junior running back Voshon St. Hill scored a hat-trick of touchdowns to help the Stallions (10-1) to a big first half lead, and QB Greg Ruff added two long TD runs early in the third quarter to put away Daniel (4-7) and set up a second round matchup with Richland Northeast next week. Coach Strait Herron was pleased with the result, but wasn’t thrilled with his team’s performance or the injuries they accrued.

“Proud of them,” said Herron. “We got some people hurt, and that’s gonna bother me for the rest of the night.”

The Stallions scored on the game’s opening drive, a 5-yard dart from Greg Ruff to Quay Brown. St. Hill doubled the lead a couple minutes later on a 1-yard plunge, after a 48-yard pass to Zaylin Burris got the Stallions in striking distance.

Ben Batson’s touchdown run made it 14-7, but St. Hill nullified any momentum for the visitors by returning a short kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown and a two-score lead. The game was delayed about 20 minutes as South Pointe’s DaNeil Adams was taken from the field on a stretcher, but he turned out to be okay and was taken to a Charlotte-area hospital as a precaution.

That event seemed to dim the Stallions’ bright start a bit, though they did grow the lead to 31-7 when St. Hill rumbled in from 18 yards for his third score of the first half, and B.T. Potter hit a 30-yard field goal. A Kiandre Sims touchdown cut it to 31-14 before the half, but Daniel never got closer and South Pointe advanced.

Turning point

Down 31-14, Daniel had the ball late in the first half with a chance to cut the lead to two scores. But a Lions receiver dropped a pass that would have moved the visitors into field goal range and the drive fizzled out. Randy Robinson’s club got the ball first in the second half and again could have made the game interesting with a touchdown. But Ken’darius Frederick intercepted an overthrown Ben Batson pass on the first play of the half and Ruff wiggled through the first line of defenders before taking off for a 50-yard TD that crushed the Lions’ spirit.

“I think that drop was probably the biggest play of the game,” said Robinson. “The interception was just a mis-read.”

Critical

South Pointe is 8-0 all-time in first round playoff games, out-scoring opponents 400-68 in those games. The Stallions made sure Friday’s game was hardly ever interesting by jumping on the youthful Lions – who started 10 sophomores – early in the game.

Several Stallions went down with injuries during the game Adams was the most severe-looking, but standout sophomore Derion Kendrick was getting his ankle worked on by the trainers following the game’s first play and he saw only sparing action the rest of the way.

“We haven’t heard anything, but he’s down,” said Herron.

Star contribution

St. Hill made the most of his touches in the first half, scoring twice on the ground and punishing Daniel for a short kickoff with a 78-yard touchdown return that quelled any Daniel momentum before it got rolling.

Shavares Crockett was in the right place twice for South Pointe’s defense, picking off two Ben Batson passes. Crockett was camped underneath Daniel receivers in both instances and Batson must not have seen him, throwing two balls directly into the Stallion senior’s gut.

Ruff was solid as usual, completing 80 percent of his passes and producing touchdown runs of 50 and 32 yards that buried Daniel early in the third quarter. South Pointe again traversed a football game with no offensive turnovers.

On deck

South Pointe will host Richland Northeast in the second round of the 3A playoffs. The Cavaliers beat Emerald 38-6.

Box score

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 10:47 PM with the headline "South Pointe cruises past Daniel into second round."