The Jake Bentley era is about to begin.
The Nation Ford football season opens Aug. 22 hosting Blythewood, but first they will host their last pre-season tune-up Aug. 15 playing Ambassador Christian in a scrimmage as part of the Battle of the Border at Nation Ford.
Nation Ford is coming off a turbulent year finishing 2-9 and losing in the first round of the playoffs to Hillcrest. Bentley is optimistic to open his first season as a Falcon.
“There has been a lot of guys make tremendous improvement, development wise,” Bentley said. “Guys have stepped up. As a team we have made a lot of improvements. We have to continued to find a way to punch adversity in the face when we are faced with it.”
Bentley said he feels the biggest challenge for the Falcons this season is to not let any negativity effect the outcome of the game.
“Being able to respond the right way and not complain, blame or defend,” he said. “It happened. Attack the next play. It is a challenging thing to do. We have to be able to weather some storms and respond the right way.”
Nation Ford will have some offensive weapons back in players like Emmanuel “EY” Young and Jayden Scott, both of which saw time at quarterback last season. Scott feels like the team is going to surprise some people.
“The team chemistry is great,” he said. “I have to step up and be a leader.”
Running the ball will be key for Nation Ford this season and senior Malachi Drayton returns to help lead the backfield.
“I think we will have a good season on both sides of the ball,” he said.
Nation Ford doesn’t have an easy schedule to begin with, so seeing how they adjust to new coaches, only time will tell. Besides Bentley, Nation Ford’s new offensive coordinator is Anthony Marple and new defensive coordinator will be Shawn Baldwin.
The Falcons will open with Blythewood and then host York as well on Aug. 29. After back-to-back road games in non-region play at River Bluff and Richland Northeast, Nation Ford opens Region 3-5A play at home against Northwestern.
Nation Ford then travels to Indian Land and will host Rock Hill and Catawba Ridge in back-to-back weeks before finishing the regular season on the road at Clover and Fort Mill. The Rock Hill game will be an interesting one to mark on the calendar as former longtime Nation Ford head coach Michael Allen returns to Nation Ford as defensive coordinator for the Bearcats. That game will be on Oct. 10.
2025 Nation Ford football schedule
Aug. 22 vs. Blythewood
Aug. 29 vs. York
Sept. 5 at River Bluff
Sept. 12 at Richland Northeast
Sept. 19 vs. Northwestern
Sept. 26 Bye
Oct. 3 at Indian Land
Oct. 10 vs. Rock Hill
Oct. 17 vs. Catawba Ridge
Oct. 24 at Clover
Oct. 31 at Fort Mill
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
