By Thomas Grant Jr.
It was a historic night for Richland Northeast high school football.
The Cavaliers set team records in the 73-58 victory over A.C. Flora Friday night. More importantly, they evened their record in Region 4-4A following a 63-8 loss to Irmo.
Richland Northeast (4-3, 1-1) broke open a game tied at 31-31 at halftime by outscoring the Falcons 42-27 in the second half. It finished with a team-record 725 total yards on offense.
The 78 points also shattered the previous school record of 55 points scored in 2016 against Swansea.
Leading the way was junior quarterback Will Wilson. The North Carolina State committed accounted for 60 percent of the team’s offense as he threw for 335 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 150 yards and a score.
Blake Belette was the beneficiary of Wilson’s production with nine receptions for 116 yards and three touchdowns. Christian Ervin and Dillon Hughley both combined for nine receptions for 200 yards and two touchdowns.
Wilson was not the only productive rusher on the ground for the Cavaliers. James Willingham rushed for a team-high 238 yards and three touchdowns.
Richland Northeast heads on the road to face Lugoff-Elgin.
Ridge View, Westwood look to rebound from losses
Last Friday was a night of frustration for Richland School District Two rivals Ridge View and Westwood.
The Blazers played host to undefeated Irmo in a matchup for first place in Region 4-4A. They ended up on the losing end of a 38-6 outcome in favor of the Yellow Jackets.
“They (Irmo) play hard, and they play extremely fast and extremely physical, and they do a good job,” Blazers head coach Derek Howard said. “They’re not doing anything overly complicated. They’re just sitting back and saying, ‘We’re better than you’. So, hat’s off to them.”
After Irmo punted on its first possession, the defense turned the game in its favor. On Ridge View’s second series, Irmo cornerback Matthew Blocker got in front of the targeted wide receiver for the interception.
It was the first pick thrown all season by senior quarterback Breylon Boyd. Irmo capitalized with a scoring drive capped by a one-yard touchdown run on fourth down by Brand.
The Yellow Jackets would not punt again as Brand found Caleb Alexander for an 11-yard touchdown to make it 14-0.
After the first of two touchdown passes by Brand to Donovan Murph made it 21-0 in the second quarter, Irmo’s defense added a score 43 seconds later. Linebacker Marquel Lewis intercepted Boyd at his own 28 and sprinted all the way across the goal line for the score.
“I’m actually proud of Breylon for those moments because I think that we worked on him not always being safe,” Howard said. “This is a good football team and if you’re going to beat a good football team, you’ve got to make some plays where you’ve got to trust your players and you’ve got to put the ball in some tough places to be able to make plays. So, I saw a game where Breylon tried to make some attempts to put the ball in some places where we have some guys open. You just have to have a really good football thrown on time.”
Irmo added a 32-yard field goal by Jose Villaneuva to go up 31-0 at halftime. In the second half, Tre Howard replaced Boyd at quarterback and was intercepted by Telvin Smith to end the third quarter and was nearly taken out in the fourth quarter by a crushing hit by edge defender Jaiden Bryant.
Howard did lead the Blazers (4-3, 1-1) on their lone scoring drive in the fourth quarter. The Blazers capitalized off a targeting penalty on Irmo to get a four-yard touchdown run by Siah Mack with 38.9 seconds left.
Despite the loss, Ridge View head coach Howard believed was a positive learning experience for his young team. He also doesn’t think it will be hard to get ready for a rival District Two school.
Westwood (1-6, 0-2) is coming off a 14-6 loss to Lugoff-Elgin and have dropped six straight games.
“Irmo’s a good football team when it’s all said and done and that’s the type of team that we want to play because the only type of team that’s going to get us better,” he said.
Cardinal Newman
loses to Hammond
The Cardinals entered their highly anticipated matchup with Hammond School off to their best start in school history.
This looked like an opportunity to snap their 23-game losing streak to the Skyhawks.
Instead, the defending SCISA Class 4A champions pulled away in the second half for the 35-20 victory.
Manny Johnson rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns and Kinson Holland had 118 yards and a score to lead Hammond. Will McQueen had five sacks for Hammond (6-2, 4-0) to lead the defense.
Duncan Skehan completed 22-33 passing for 240 yards and two touchdowns for the Cardinals (6-1, 3-1), who fell to 0-23 all-time against the Skyhawks.
OTHER SCORES
Clover 48, Spring Valley 0
WEEK 7 GRIDIRON GIANTS
Harrison Collins (Blythewood) – 2 TD passes, two rushing TDs
Kaleb Kelly (Blythewood) – 2 receiving TDs
Carter Coleman (Ridge View) – 7 receptions, 108 yards
WEEK 8 SCHEDULE
Blythewood at Clover
Cardinal Newman at Camden Military
Trinity Collegiate at Hammond
Spring Valley at Fort Mill
Westwood at Ridge View
Photo by Thomas Grant Jr. Ridge View defenders with the tackle against Irmo
