By Jack Veltri
Correspondent
CLOVER — Nation Ford head coach Jake Bentley stood alone as he watched on around him. Tears were streaming down his players’ faces, still in disbelief after what had just happened.
Bentley placed both hands on his black Falcons visor and brought it down, covering his face in what was a whirlwind of emotions for the first-year coach.
“It’s tough, disappointment, frustration,” Bentley said. “It’s a lot of things, man.”
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The script had seemingly been written, bound to end with a joyous bus ride home on a chilly night. But there aren’t always happy endings in football, and certainly not on Friday.
After scoring 10 second-half points to reclaim the lead, the Falcons suffered a heartbreaking 21-17 loss to Clover as Blue Eagles’ wide receiver Justin Haywood scored a go-ahead 22-yard touchdown with 24.8 seconds remaining.
The last-minute score was a backbreaker for Bentley’s team. They managed to claw their way back into the game, just for it to end in utter disappointment. But you could argue it should never have gotten to that point.
Earlier in the drive, Nation Ford defensive back Anderson Corbett picked off his second pass of the game, giving the Falcons the ball back. This most likely would’ve been the game-sealing play as they led 17-14 with 1:42 to go. But a pass interference penalty gave the Blue Eagles new life in their eventual game-winning drive.
“Yeah, (the official) said he impeded him,” Bentley said about the explanation he received from the officiating crew on the penalty. “Ref’s decision on that.”
While this was the sequence that handed the Falcons a brutal loss, it wasn’t the sole reason they lost the game. Bentley felt the defense gave them a great chance to win, but the offense struggled to find the end zone.
And he’d be right about that. Nation Ford opened the game with an impressive drive, capped off by a Jayden Scott 35-yard touchdown run on a reverse. The Falcons didn’t score again until late into the third quarter when defensive end Brady Adkisson recovered a loose fumble on the ground and took it to the house for a 65-yard touchdown to tie the game at 14.
Nation Ford then forced another fumble on the ensuing kickoff, setting the offense up with good field position at Clover’s 33-yard line. But the Falcons struggled to put a touchdown on the board as they were stopped inside the five-yard line and had to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Nico Arosemena to take the lead.
Bentley said the offense was missing its explosiveness throughout the night, a big part of why there were some real struggles.
“Credit to Clover, they did a great job of not allowing us to really get behind them,” Bentley said. “We’ve got to find a way as a staff to continue to be explosive when teams aren’t allowing us to do that. And it was frustrating to feel like they took that away from us. That’s where we’ve got to respond and find a way to be better.”
With the loss, the Falcons are now 4-5 on the year and 1-4 in region play. They’ll soon turn their attention to the Milltown Showdown, where they’ll travel to Fort Mill next Friday, Oct. 31.
In his postgame message to the players and coaches, Bentley stressed the importance of what next week’s game means to them. But in moving on from Friday’s loss, the lesson he wants them to take away is the importance of execution, which starts on Monday when preparation begins for the Yellow Jackets.
“When the lights are on, not only does that matter, but it’s our execution Monday through Thursday,” he said. “It’s how we do we show up to meetings on time? Do we go to the weight room on time? Do we do the little things right, which therefore translate to details?
“And we’ll get there. We’ll get better with that, and we’re growing. And then we’re building every week, win or loss. There’s things like I said, positive things to build on, and we’ll build on those and get the other things fixed.”
