Union County, defensive tackles, stand in South Pointe’s way

South Pointe offensive line coach Mike Zapolnik’s wife recently had a baby. That’s given “Zap,” as he’s called, plenty of late night hours to pour over film of Union County defensive tackle pair Deshawn Thompson and A.J. Hunter.

The Stallions and Yellow Jackets meet for the second time this season Friday night in the 3A Upper State championship game. The winner heads to Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, on Dec. 12 to face the team that emerges from the Lower State, Myrtle Beach or Midland Valley.

If South Pointe is to beat Steve Taneyhill’s Union County team for the second time this season, accounting for Thompson and Hunter – a pair of 300-pound line corks – will be cardinal.

“They had the best defensive line front we faced this year,” said Lancaster coach Bobby Collins, whose Bruins were the last team to beat Union County on Oct. 23. “No. 57 (DeShawn Thompson) and 91 (A.J. Hunter) should be All-State players in my opinion; they’re some of the best we’ve seen this year.”

South Pointe rebuilt its offensive line this season after graduating all five starters from the 2014 state championship team. As Herron said, the Stallions offensive line didn’t need to be All-State; just speed bumps.

“We came together as one family and we stuck together from the beginning of the season to the end,” said senior left guard Lamon Bryant.

South Pointe’s offensive line felt the pressure of being viewed as the one major possible hindrance to the Stallions winning back to back state titles. That’s served as ample motivation throughout the year, and especially Friday, one game away from the ultimate goal.

“Summer practices we worked hard and came out here and paid it off,” said Bryant. “We want to take our boys back to the state.”

In an interesting twist, Thompson and Hunter both stood up on a number of plays in the first game against South Pointe, preferring to contain Stallions QB Greg Ruff to the pocket, instead of offering him running lanes by rushing toward him. Herron isn’t sure what to expect Friday after watching the Yellow Jackets blitz Chapin off the edge of the defensive line continually last week. The Stallions will have to adjust in-game accordingly.

Herron said his offensive line has “solidified,” deeming Bryant as good an offensive lineman as he’s seen at South Pointe. Junior running back Voshon St. Hill is averaging 81 yards per game on the ground during the playoffs and has four touchdowns in three games. Add in the danger of Ruff scrambling around, and South Pointe has an underrated but effective ground game that will be needed Friday to prevent the Yellow Jackets from dropping eight defensive players into the secondary.

“We’re gonna have to run the ball,” said senior left tackle Ethan Hudspeth, a two-way player for South Pointe. “We just got to make sure we get a body on a body, not let them get penetration and knock them off the ball.”

Herron told his team after it beat Union County 17-14 in early October that the Stallions would see Taneyhill’s team again. After falling to 1-5, the Yellow Jackets have won six out of seven, including three straight playoff games on the road.

“What's helped us is we haven't been turning the ball over and have been forcing turnovers,” Taneyhill told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. “We've been getting after the quarterback, and that's what we've got to do again. It's going to come down to turnovers and which defensive line takes control.”

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 8:07 PM with the headline "Union County, defensive tackles, stand in South Pointe’s way."