By Jack Veltri
Correspondent
CHESTER – There was a glimmer of hope. A chance to forget the mistakes that haunted the Catawba Ridge Copperheads for the first 45 minutes of the game.
Copperheads quarterback DJ Latimer, who was in dire need of a bounce back effort, moved his team to the other side of the field. Then trouble struck.
On second down, Latimer narrowly avoided a sack and threw the ball away but was flagged for intentional grounding. This set the Copperheads back to the 50-yard line.
Two plays later, Latimer fired a lofty pass into the air that hit the ground. Just like that, the chance to win was all but over.
In what has been a tough year, Catawba Ridge lost 30-17 to Chester on Friday night. It’s the fourth straight loss for the Copperheads as they now move to 1-4.
After being locked into a one-point deficit going into halftime, Catawba Ridge got the ball to start the second half. The offense slowly started to put a good drive together. But mistakes proved to be an Achilles heel in the quest to put up big points.
Set up for third and long, Brady Ambrose couldn’t corral what would have been an easy, walk-in touchdown. A few plays later, the Copperheads fumbled at the one-yard line, but managed to recover.
On the next play, Jordan Gilliam provided a nice second effort to lunge his way into the end zone for the go-ahead score. But for the second time in the game, a penalty cost them a touchdown. They were called for a sideline warning.
Instead, they had to settle for a 22-yard field goal from Camden Gifford to take a 10-8 lead.
In response to the miscues, Chester began to make the Copperheads pay. After being sacked one play earlier, Cyclones quarterback Trooper Floyd dumped a screen pass off to Antonio Hopkins for an 82-yard touchdown.
The Cyclones kept it rolling heading into the fourth quarter as Floyd hit Reggie Heath for a touchdown to extend the lead to 12.
Catawba Ridge eventually got itself going by forcing a turnover on downs. On the ensuing drive, Latimer threw to a wide-open Josh Dobson for a 63-yard touchdown.
But throughout the night, missed opportunities hurt the Copperheads chances of winning. Whether it was penalties or dropped passes, they couldn’t seem to sustain momentum.
After turning the ball over on downs with a minute to go, Catawba Ridge’s defense allowed Hopkins to run into the end zone from 52 yards out. The game was all but over.
But as if there weren’t enough icing on the cake, Latimer was picked off one more time on a long pass in front of the end zone with less than 30 seconds to go. One kneel down later, and the Copperheads came up empty in a game filled with plenty of what ifs.
Catawba Ridge will now have two weeks to prepare for its first Region 3-4A matchup against South Pointe at home on Friday, Sept. 29.
