By Jack Veltri
Correspondent
As the clock ticked down in the final seconds, Nation Ford head football coach Jake Bentley could tell something was coming. He knew what was going on.
“I heard them whispering,” he said.
Right before the scoreboard flashed triple zeroes, a few of his Falcons players ran up and doused him with an ice-cold bucket of Gatorade. All summer, this is what he and his team worked towards.
After a tough home loss to Blythewood last Friday, Nation Ford responded with a resounding 28-14 win over York on Friday, Aug. 29. It’s the team’s first win of the season as they move to 1-1 on the year. And for Bentley, it’s his first win as a high school head coach.
All smiles after the win, Bentley, who played quarterback at South Carolina from 2016-19, described what this moment meant to him.
“Man, it brings back so many just really core memories of being that little kid that watched the Byrnes Rebels, my dad,” he said. “I mean, to win games like this, and it’s just like I feel like I’m there now with my son. He’s nine months old. So, he’s probably not going to remember much, but to have him here, man, it’s just it’s a special time for me. I love the game of football so much.”
The Falcons struck first as senior quarterback Kason Canupp hit his top target on the night, Jayden Scott, for a 30-yard touchdown with 5:49 left in the first quarter.
Heading into halftime, though, Nation Ford found itself trailing 14-6 as the Cougars responded with two scores of its own. Right after the Falcons’ opening score, York’s Tacarean Douglas returned the ensuing kickoff and took it 88 yards for a game-tying touchdown. Then, with 10:13 left in the second quarter, quarterback Tayshon Freeman scored on a 16-yard keeper to extend York’s lead.
While York seemed to find its stride, it missed a 31-yard field goal going into the break. This would be one of two field goal misses by the Cougars, both coming on consecutive possessions, and allowed the Falcons to hang around.
“To see it 14-6 at halftime, went for two, didn’t get it. Went for fourth down, didn’t get it. Not a single person pointed a finger, frustrated, pissed off, nothing,” Bentley said. “They just responded and played as one team, and it was special to see.”
After holding York to no points on a more than seven-minute drive to open the second half, Nation Ford didn’t take long to get the big play it needed. Two plays after the Cougars missed their second field goal of the game, Canupp found junior receiver Asher Beck open over the middle of the field for a big gain.
Beck then broke out of a tackle and raced down the field for a game-tying, 78-yard touchdown.
As the fourth quarter began, Canupp linked up with Scott once again, this time for a long, go-ahead touchdown to put the Falcons ahead for good with 10 minutes to go.
“I’ll say this, man, he had some kind of mental things go wrong in the first half. It was kind of uncharacteristic of him,” Bentley said of Scott. “But just like everybody else, he found a way to respond from it, didn’t let it get him down. You can see the maturity that he’s playing with, and when you do that, you’re able to make special plays.”
York didn’t seem to be out of the game yet, though. The Cougars marched down the field and got into plus territory as they looked bound to tie the game. But junior defensive end Justin Smiley came up with an interception to give the Falcons the ball back.
“Extremely happy. A kid that bounced around from linebacker to H-back in the spring,” Bentley said. “So I told him, ‘I don’t remember seeing your hands like that on offense. You catch more like that, we may find a way to throw you the ball.’ But man, just a senior leader. Bought into what we’re trying to do, making big plays.”
With a minute left to go, and the offense still out on the field, Nation Ford capped off its final drive of the night with a third-down conversion as senior running back Malachi Drayton scored from 12 yards out.
After trailing by eight points at halftime, the Falcons outscored York 22-0 as their defense pitched a shutout, which pleased Bentley to say the least.
“It’s huge. It was a testament to our defensive coordinator, Coach (Shawn) Baldwin, our defensive staff,” Bentley said. “He pounds them with pulling the rope, probably more than I do, and it shows because they didn’t get frustrated. The offense wasn’t doing our thing in the first half. We just responded. Forced two missed field goals, kept us in the game. It was huge and a big reason why we won.”
Now with Nation Ford in the win column for the first time this year, the Falcons will travel to River Bluff for their first road game next Friday, Sept. 5.
In the meantime, Bentley, who was soaked after the Gatorade bath, will probably be looking to replace his current phone.
“I should’ve probably gave somebody my phone. It’s probably ruined,” he said. “But it was special.”
