Nation Ford’s Carson Black runs the ball in for a touchdown for the Falcons who beat Fort Mill for the eighth consecutive time. Photo by Rob Upton Photography

The Nation Ford Falcons used a dominate third quarter to pull away and picked up a 52-14 win over rival Fort Mill Yellow Jackets. 

The Falcons finished the regular season with a 4-6 record and 3-2 in Region 3-5A, while the Jackets finished the season at 0-10 and 0-5 in region play.

Nation Ford will hit the road next week to open the 5A playoffs and should be at Spartanburg. 

Nation Ford was going for eight consecutive wins to go up 9-7 over Fort Mill in the Milltown Showdown. The Falcons used multiple Fort Mill turnovers to really pull away in the third quarter scoring 27 unanswered points. 

Falcons quarterback Carson Black went 16-for-26 for 231 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for a score in the game. Josh Ameo caught seven passes for 76 yards and Daheem Knowles caught four passes for 75 yards and a touchdown. 

Nation Ford opened the second half extending the lead as they went 52-yards in three plays on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Black to Lucas Barz to go up 25-7. On the next Falcons series, it was Black hitting Knowles for a 47-yard touchdown strike to open the game up for Nation Ford. 

Fort Mill fumbled about four minutes left in the third quarter which allowed Nation Ford’s Zay Neely to return the ball for an 18-yard touchdown. 

The Jackets fumbled on another series for their second consecutive drive giving the ball back to Nation Ford at the 5-yard line. Jeremiah Hailstock then ran in for a 5-yard touchdown on the next play. In a span of 1:18, the Falcons scored two touchdowns both off Fort Mill fumbles. 

Nation Ford did score in the fourth quarter off an 8-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Kaden Barnett to Kelvin Oliphant-Ellison. 

Fort Mill ended the game on a bright spot scoring with about a minute left as backup quarterback Colin Martin hit Jason Moran for a 52-yard touchdown pass down the left side of the field. Moran finished the game with four catches for 75 yards and two touchdowns. 

Fort Mill was moving the ball well to open the second quarter when starting quarterback Isaiah Haynes was picked off to give the ball back to Nation Ford at the Jackets 45-yard line. Nation Ford took advantage of the Jackets mistakes on their next drive as a 15-yard penalty pushed them to the nine-yard line where Black would score on the next play and put Nation Ford up 12-7. 

“We had two key offensive guys go down in the first quarter that was a big part of out offense,” said Fort Mill head coach Rob McNeely. “Penalties and turnovers cost us.”

Nation Ford struck right before the half scoring on a 12-yard pass to Jordan Ussery with two seconds left in the half, but missed their second extra point of the game after another Falcons penalty backed them up. The Falcons took an 18-7 lead into the half. 

Nation Ford opened the game getting a 15-yard face mask penalty on the opening kickoff. The Falcons moved the ball well until they started picking up more penalties which led to a punt. 

The Jackets’ first drive was moderately successful as they got within the red zone off a big run by Haynes. Haynes had another big 15-yard run to get them to the Falcons 6-yard line, but Fort Mill coughed it up fumbling into the end zone where Nation Ford recovered.

A turnover on downs gave the ball back to Fort Mill at the 29-yard line. The Jackets were able to score three plays later as Haynes hit Moran for a 11-yard touchdown pass with

Nation Ford continued to shoot themselves in the foot with five 15-yard penalties within the first nine minutes of the game. The Falcons did score right before the end of the first quarter with five seconds left as AJ McCollum scored on a 17-yard run up the middle, but missed the extra point to trail 7-6 at the end of the first. McCollum ran for 94 yards on 13 carries.

Penalties really extended the game as the two teams combined for 279 yards on 27 penalties. Nation Ford had 15 penalties for 175 yards. Nation Ford had 394 total yards in the game, while Fort Mill had 242 total yards. The Jackets also turned the ball over four times in the game.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep