By Jack Veltri
Correspondent
After a less-than-ideal finish to the first half, Fort Mill football needed a spark coming out of halftime. Broden Mitcheson wasted no time providing it for the Yellow Jackets.
On the opening drive of the second half, the senior running back caught a third-down swing pass and began turning up field. After getting past one defender, he broke away from two Clover tacklers and dashed down the sideline. With one more defender in his path, he cut back left and ran home free to the end zone for a 70-yard touchdown to give Fort Mill exactly what it needed.
“I’m just thinking, ‘I’m hoping my team blocks for me,’” Mitcheson said. ” I believe in them. I thought maybe somebody was going to come behind and tackle me, but I got the job done. Very exciting.”
Mitcheson’s long touchdown set the tone for the Yellow Jackets as they handled Clover in a 28-7 season-opening win on Friday, Aug. 21 at Bob Jones Stadium. It marked Fort Mill’s first victory against the Blue Eagles since 2017.
“We’ve got some things to shore up, for dang sure,” said Fort Mill head coach Rob McNeely. “These kids, I mean, they got a lot of heart. They worked their tails off, and it showed out here tonight. But yeah, we’ve got to clean up those freaking penalties.”
And those penalties — there were plenty of them. McNeely said he thought his group had 30. In reality, Fort Mill finished with 17 in total, and 13 of them came in the first half. Those mistakes became costly when it turned two potential touchdowns into drives that ultimately ended without any points.
But the Yellow Jackets made up for their early miscues with a strong second-half showing. Of course, things started well after Mitcheson’s touchdown on the opening drive, but junior quarterback Harper Love settled in nicely and had only four incompletions after halftime.
Love finished his first varsity start completing 16-of-30 passes with three touchdown passes. He also threw a pair of interceptions, but McNeely didn’t fault him for the second one, which came in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.
“We shouldn’t have been throwing the football in that situation,” he said. “But Harper’s a gamer, man. He comes to work every day. He’s in the meeting room. He’s in the film room. He comes in early. He stays late. He’s just a great kid, too.”
While Clover scored its only touchdown of the night with a little over three minutes remaining, Fort Mill’s defense had already done its job by that point. The Jackets forced five turnovers and picked off Blue Eagles quarterback Aaron Shealey four times.
Senior defensive back Devevian Southward and junior linebacker Aiden Welch each had two interceptions for the defense.
“Just sound, physical. Pin their ears back and get after it,” McNeely said when describing his defense coming into this season. “That was the reason for a little bit of success last year. We were positive in the turnover ratio, and if this keeps going, that’s what you’ve got to do to win.”
While it’s a long season ahead, it’s a big step in the right direction to begin the year and one that comes off the heels of Fort Mill’s first playoff appearance since 2017. McNeely said, “Last year was last year,” and that the Jackets are a brand-new team this season. But he sees things are changing.
“They’re used to winning,” he said. “That JV team went undefeated. They’re bringing a mentality up. The guys have just worked their rear ends off this offseason, and it’s paid off.”
So do his players.
“We want to go out every single game, and we want to win,” Mitcheson said. “I think we can win every game if we just don’t beat ourselves.”
Fort Mill will be back at home next Friday, Aug. 28, to host Catawba Ridge.
