By Lee McManus
Correspondent
INDIAN LAND – In a huge Region 3-4A opener, the visiting Catawba Ridge Copperheads caught a big break early, recovering a fumble deep in Indian Land territory, but lost momentum, and the Indian Land Warriors rolled scoring 33 of the next 39 points en route to a 47-22 victory.
The Warriors penalties hurt the team from the beginning of the game. Despite three offsides penalties on Catawba Ridge’s first drive Indian Land’s defense forced a punt. The Warriors offense overcame two penalties of its own, including a personal foul, to take the lead. Quarterback Matt Kucia found Maxwell Curry down the near sideline for a 64-yard catch and run. Curry out fought the Catawba Ridge defensive back for the catch.
Catawba Ridge recovered a muffed punt at Indian Land six, and another Warriors penalty gave them first and goal at the three.
“We were about to tie it up, we had the ball at the one or the two, and have it (the snap) sail over our head like that, in a bit of a funky formation, we were snapping to the running back (Boston Halpin), we’ve got to work on things like that,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Zac Lendyak.
The ball bounced and rolled all the way to the Warriors 28. Christian Davis picked up the fumble and raced down the middle of the field 72 yards.
Catawba Ridge showed plenty of fight, cutting the lead to 14-6 on the next drive. Copperheads’ punter Declan Hogan turned a possible Indian Land blocked punt into a nine-yard run on fourth and eight. His play set up the first of three touchdown runs by Halpin, this one from the six.
Indian Land scored the last 20 points of the first half as Kucia and the offense went to work. Kylen Foye scored the first of his two touchdowns on the night on a four-yard run. Then Kucia ran up the middle on fourth and five from Catawba Ridge’s 6 to make it 28-6. Kucia found Marty Conner, Jr. wide open in the middle of the end zone on fourth and goal from the 18 to put Indian Land up 28 at the half.
Special teams continue to be big for the Warriors, as Foye caught the second kickoff at his own six. The sophomore running back weaved his way through the Copperheads defense to return it 94 yards.
Halpin scored from the one and two to cut Indian Land’s lead to 40-22 early in the fourth quarter, but a clock eating drive by Indian Land sealed the game. Jackson Conner’s six-yard run put the Warriors up 25 with just 2:03 left.
Lendyak discussed the growth of his quarterback, Will Gambrill, through the first five weeks of the season. Gambrill finished the game 20-of-32 for 258 yards.
“Just a tremendous amount (of growth) from that first game to where we are now,” he said. “We want to get reps, we want to continue to throw the ball. He’s (Gambrill) grown a lot from that first week of the season until now.”
Catawba Ridge has a bye next week and will take on the York Cougars at home on October 2. The loss drops the Copperheads to 2-3 on the season and 0-1 to start the region.
