With one domino falling in Gaffney, a series of dominos have toppled across Region 3-5A this week tossing the football schedule into the air.
Gaffney was scheduled to play at Fort Mill Friday, but a coronavirus issue in their football program cancelled their game this past Saturday. Fort Mill will now play Manning at home Friday night. Manning coming in at 1-4 and Fort Mill is 0-4 on the season.
Clover was supposed to host Nation Ford Friday night, but since the Blue Eagles played Gaffney last week, they are now quarantining their program for the next two weeks. Nation Ford is idle this week as of now, but head coach Michael Allen said he is trying to work on something to add a game and should know something within the next 24 hours.
Nation Ford was supposed to play Northwestern next week for Oct. 30, but since Northwestern had missed a game earlier in the season because of virus issues with an opponent of theirs, that game has been cancelled and now the Falcons will host Indian Land Oct. 30. Nation Ford will then play Clover Nov. 6, which could potentially have playoff implications if the COVID-19 issues Gaffney have is not cleared up.
“That could be a huge game,” Allen said. “This is one game we have got to play.”
Because of the rearranging of schedules, one of the biggest potential games of the year – Catawba Ridge vs. Nation Ford has been canceled for this season. The two schools have not faced each other in football at the varsity level and this was supposed to be their first game against each other.
“The seniors really wanted to play that game,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Zac Lendyak.
Some of the Copperhead seniors came to Catawba Ridge from Nation Ford when the school opened. The game between Catawba Ridge and Nation Ford was supposed to be the regular season final for both schools. Now, Catawba Ridge is left without a game for Nov. 6.
“We are going to try and find a team,” Lendyak said. “It’s going to be hard.”
Allen said he was looking forward to playing Catawba Ridge as well and hates that it isn’t going to happen.
“There isn’t an opportunity for that now,” he said.
Here is the remaining schedule for all three local schools as of Monday:
Fort Mill – Oct. 24 home vs. Manning, Oct. 30 home vs. Catawba Ridge, Nov. 6 TBD
Nation Ford – Oct. 24 Idle, Oct. 30 home vs. Indian Land, Nov. 6 at Clover
Catawba Ridge – Oct. 24 at Chester, Oct. 30 at Fort Mill, Nov. 6 TBD
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
