ROCK HILL – Fort Mill Yellow Jackets head coach Rob McNeely said his team “fought to the bitter end” following the Yellow Jackets’ loss at Rock Hill at District III Stadium.
Down 23-16, Fort Mill took over on Rock Hill’s 25-yard line following a flubbed Bearcats’ punt, but failed to convert on fourth and 15, leading to a costly turnover on downs.
With the loss, Fort Mill drops to 4-3 overall and 0-3 Region 3-5A with its third straight region loss. Rock Hill never trailed. Receiver Jojo Brooks scored touchdowns of 90 and 54 yards to take the lead, and running back Marvin Randolph stretched the lead to 10 with a rushing score near the end of the third quarter.
“We gave up too many explosives on defense and didn’t get any on offense,” McNeely said. “That’s a really good, athletic defense, and they gave us some fits. But offensively, we need to do a better job of controlling the clock and keeping the chains moving.”
Fort Mill quarterback Quinn Kelly finished with 70 passing yards on 6-of-17 passing, while running back Broden Mitcheson had 98 rushing yards on 25 carries. Receiver Jameson Terrell had 35 yards on three catches.
Yellow Jackets’ kicker Noah Hardy converted field goals of 41, 32, and 33 yards to help keep pace with Rock Hill, but the Bearcats’ defense held on the decisive final drive to ice the win.
Neither team found much rhythm on offense to start the game. Rock Hill took an early 3-0 lead with kicker James Heckard’s 35-yard field goal on the game’s first drive following three straight incompletions by Rock Hill quarterback Jonah Young.
Kelly fumbled the ball on Fort Mill’s opening possession, with Rock Hill recovering on the opposing 25. Two plays later, Fort Mill’s Joseph Duey picked off Young on a tipped pass and ran the ball back 70 yards into the end zone, but the exciting score was called off for a block-in-the-back penalty.
Mitcheson proved to be Fort Mill’s most reliable asset. He and Kelly teamed up for several consecutive rushing plays to push beyond Rock Hill’s 25-yard line, and Hardy tied the game up at 3-3 with a 41-yard field goal with 1:04 left in the first quarter.
Rock Hill’s offense finally burst into life when Young found Brooks over the middle on the 25, and Brooks sped 90 yards to score the game’s only touchdown of the half.
Fort Mill took over with 5:13 to play in the first half on its own 20, and Kelly and Mitcheson went to work on the ground. The Yellow Jackets used a five-minute, 13-play drive to push to Rock Hill’s 14. Soon after, Hardy knocked home his second field goal of the night, this time from 32 yards, to cut the lead to 10-6 heading into the halftime break.
Kelly connected with Terrell for his only receptions of the first half, including a 17-yard dot to convert a third and 7 play midway into Bearcats’ territory.
McNeely said he wasn’t happy with Mitcheson in the first half and thought the running back was too tentative, saying he “got into (Mitcheson) a little bit” during the halftime break.
“He’s a kid that can take it,” McNeely said. “He can take tough love and hard coaching, and you can see how he responded in the second half.”
Both teams got off to hot starts in the second half. Young found Brooks for his second touchdown of the night over the middle for a 54-yard score on the third play of Rock Hill’s opening drive.
Mitcheson ran six straight times on Fort Mill’s next drive, including a 17-yard gain to push inside the red zone. Andrew Kowalski took the lead from there, scoring Fort Mill’s lone touchdown of the night from five yards out despite getting initially stopped at the two. The score cut the Rock Hill lead to 16-13 with 4:16 left in the third quarter.
But Kamron Wilson’s explosive 50-yard kick return set Rock Hill up on the Fort Mill 30, and Randolph scored from short distance just a few plays later to push the advantage back to 23-13.
Hardy scored his final field goal of the night early in the fourth quarter to make it 23-16.
Fort Mill couldn’t pass midfield with seven minutes to play. The Yellow Jackets seemed to have a golden opportunity when a high snap cleared the Rock Hill punter’s hands, causing him to boot an awkward kick high and leading to Fort Mill starting on the Bearcats’ 25 with three minutes to play.
But Kelly was sacked for a large loss, and a false start penalty pushed Fort Mill back to the 30 on a fourth and 15. Kelly found Mitcheson in space, but couldn’t quite pass the chains. Rock Hill took over with less than 90 seconds to run out.
“We can take the post-snap stuff,” McNeely said. “That’s going to happen in football. But with the pre-snap stuff, we’ve got to take care of that.”
McNeely said everything his team wants is on the other side of hard. The Yellow Jackets will return to District 3 Stadium next Friday to play Northwestern High (6-1, 3-0).
“Week in and week out, it’s going to be hard,” McNeely said. “The fight they showed at the end of the game, the intensity and concentration, we’ve got to bring that Monday through Thursday in practice.”
Both teams return to action next Friday. Rock Hill faces Nation Ford on the road, while Fort Mill returns to District III Stadium to play Northwestern.
