Catawba Ridge head coach Zac Lendyak admitted his Catawba Ridge team couldn’t overcome a slow start in Friday night’s regular season finale loss to Clover at The Pit in Fort Mill.
The Copperheads fell into a 28-0 hole late in the first half, and were unable to rally fast enough to pull out the win in the team’s final region contest falling to the Clover Blue Eagles 34-21.
The visiting Blue Eagles hung 441 yards of offense on the home team, with sophomore running back Grady Stone accounting for 206 rushing yards on 30 carries.
“I can’t put my finger on it,” Lendyak said. “But we couldn’t get (Clover) off the field and we couldn’t get a first down, the basic things you do to win football games. The light came on their toward the end of the first half, but as the head coach, I have to go back and learn what wasn’t happening, that’s on me.”
Catawba Ridge finishes the regular season with a 7-3 record, 4-2 in Region 3-5A. The Copperheads finished the season tied in region with Clover and Rock Hill. The Copperheads could finish fourth in the region based on points allowed between the three teams.
The Copperheads will have a bye week next Friday as the rest of the state finishes up the regular season. The state’s High School League added on an extra week for those schools affected by Hurricane Helene. Catawba Ridge will open the playoffs on Nov. 15.
Catawba Ridge was outmatched for almost the entire first half thanks to a dominant rushing game. Clover ran all over the field to open a 28-0 lead deep in the second quarter.
It took only five plays for the Blue Eagles to march 80 yards on their first drive, with quarterback Aaron Shealey calling his own number and dashing in to score from 36 yards out on a winding right-to-left play.
A few minutes later, Shealey led his team back downfield before spotting wide receiver Latrell Ellis from 6 yards out to double the Clover lead. In Catawba Ridge’s first two drives, the Copperheads could only muster six plays for minus six yards.
Clover running back Grady Stone tallied 85 first-half rushing yards on 18 rushes, including a 13-yard push up the middle to score his first touchdown of the night with 8:37 left in the second quarter.
Catawba Ridge tried to convert a fourth and one on its own 34, but Lewis Price was unable to push his way into a first down.
With a short field, it took Clover only eight plays to take a 28-0 lead with Justin Haywood bullying his way into the end zone from seven yards.
With 3:14 left in the first half, Catawba Ridge had managed just 13 plays for six yards and had yet to make a first down.
Catawba Ridge quarterback CJ Couch finally found his rhythm late in the half with Clover conceding a pair of pass interference calls. Couch spotted wide receiver Braylen Burgis for a long completion at the sideline, then connected with Burgis again on an 8-yard slant route to cut the lead to 28-7 with 93 seconds left to play.
Clover picked up 15 first-half first downs to Catawba Ridges four, while outgaining them with 152 rushing yards to minus 1.
“We started realizing what they were doing,” Lendyak said “We were telling the receivers to put some moves on, keep open, go in, because they’ll match you man up. Eventually, we found it, but it was too little, too late.”
Couch and Darius Sutton developed a much strong connection in the second half. Couch pushed the Copperheads into enemy territory with a 29-yard toss to his receiver, then dialed up a rainbow pass to Sutton in the corner of the end zone to cut the lead to 28-14 on the first drive of the third quarter.
Following a Clover three-and-out, Couch was back under center and drove from his own 36 to the Clover 9, but kicker Camden Gifford hooked his 26-yard field goal wide left with 8:16 left in the quarter.
Stone had been a menace to Catawba Ridge all night, but really broke out two drives later. He escaped two would-be tacklers on a first-down play at his own 30, then ripped a 61-yard rumble down the far sideline before getting driven to the ground just inside the 10. He then finished off an 8-yard score to put the Blue Eagles up by 20 two plays later.
Catawba Ridge took over on its own 9 with 7:50 left to play in the fourth quarter. Couch connected with Sutton and Colten McCauley for several long completions to push as far as the Clover 5. Couch then spotted Sutton in the back of the end zone to cut the lead to 34-21 with 5:30 left on the clock.
But even with two Catawba Ridge timeouts, the Copperheads couldn’t overcome the Clover rush attack, which picked up multiple first downs and bled out the clock. Clover took a knee on the Catawba Ridge 3, and the visitors came away with the win. Clover outrushed Catawba Ridge 302 yards to minus two.
Sutton finished the game with 146 yards and two touchdowns on 11 catches. Couch had a 24-for-43 game with 296 yards and three passing scores.
Lendyak said he was not sure where his team would be seeded in this month’s state playoff bracket. He said he would focus on helping the team improve itself, rather than creating a game script.
“We want to focus on ourselves,” he said. “Playing Catawba Ridge football. We didn’t do that tonight. We did a good job of not turning the ball over, but we got tackled behind the line of scrimmage too much. We’ve got to figure out that feeling of why we had that slow start and not do that again.”
Playoff seedings should be released next weekend.
