By Jack Veltri
Correspondent
ROCK HILL – For one of the few times all night, something finally went Nation Ford football’s way.
Senior quarterback Asher Beck launched a long fourth-down pass to senior wide receiver Jah Carter, setting the Falcons up near the goal line with a chance to get on the scoreboard and cut into an early but large deficit.
On the very next play, Beck rolled out to his left, looking for some of that same magic to get his team going. But his pass sailed right into the hands of a waiting South Pointe defender in the end zone for an interception, ending any chance of finishing off what looked to be a promising drive.
That sequence, in large part, summed up the night for Nation Ford. The Falcons suffered a 56-0 loss to South Pointe on Friday, Aug. 28 at District Three Stadium South, marking their largest margin of defeat since losing by 62 points at Northwestern on Sept. 8, 2023.
“It’s definitely tough,” said Nation Ford head coach Jake Bentley. “They’re a good football team, and that’s what we talked about after the game is that the ability to compete with a team like them doesn’t start on Friday. It doesn’t start when we take the field. It’s how we practice, how we practice Monday through Thursday to film, to be prepared the right way, to prepare at a level to beat them.
“And so, I think some guys did, and I think it showed. There were a lot of great flashes, a lot of guys that came ready, but as a team, we didn’t do it, and as a staff, we’ve got to continue to improve. So that’s my biggest takeaway: there was a lot of good, but obviously, as a whole, we’ve got to be better.”
At that point in the game, when Beck threw the interception, the Falcons were already in a deep hole, trailing 35-0 with a few minutes remaining before halftime. Speaking of Beck, he mostly struggled in his second start of the season, completing 6-of-15 passes with two interceptions.
Beck didn’t see the field after halftime as backup quarterback Ben Falkner played the rest of the way and completed one of his four pass attempts. Bentley spoke with Beck for several minutes after the loss, explaining to him what he can do to grow as a player moving forward.
“This will sound insane, but when to kind of stop competing,” Bentley said in his message to Beck. “There’s a time and place where making the runaround play, and that’s awesome. It’s what the team needs, and then there’s times we’re in the red zone, run a little bootleg if it’s not open, man, just throw that away. He’s gonna learn; I know he is. He’s gonna learn and grow from it, and that’s what I challenged him: ‘We’re going to need you.’ There’s really no other option but to learn and grow and understand when to take those chances and when to put the priority on the ball first.”
In total, Nation Ford turned the ball over five times. That was another issue that plagued the team throughout the evening. But perhaps the biggest problem was the Falcons’ inability to slow down South Pointe’s rushing attack.
With the rain in the forecast playing a part early on, the Stallions relied heavily on their run game. Sophomore running back Rasean Brown had three touchdowns in the first half, including a 62-yard score on a fourth-down play call that put them ahead by 35 with 11 minutes to go in the second quarter.
Bentley credited South Pointe’s physicality up front, but he also knew there were missed opportunities on Nation Ford’s part.
“I think we’re gonna watch the tape and see we had a guy there, had a guy in the right position,” he said, “and whether it’s a lack of technique, ducking their head, or just angles, when you play a really good football team with a really good running back and you take a bad angle or duck your head, he’s gonna make you pay, and so that’s the frustrating part. I felt like there were times we had a guy in position, just didn’t make the play.”
The Falcons will continue their road trip when they travel to Lugoff-Elgin next Friday, Sept. 4. In what’s now become an 0-2 start to the season, Bentley’s sense of urgency has heightened rather quickly.
“I think we’re going to really have to challenge ourselves as a staff to find solutions; that’s what we pride ourselves on being-solutions-based people,” Bentley said. “It does us no good to go in there and talk about who, what we can’t do well, or what this player doesn’t do well. What do we do well, and how can we build on that? And I believe in our staff. I know we’ll attack it with the right mindset, and hopefully it bleeds into our team.”
