The Catawba Ridge Copperheads capitalized on four first half turnovers by the Lancaster Bruins to quickly pull away for a blowout win 60-14.
The win put Catawba Ridge at 8-0 on the season and 3-0 in Region 3-4A as they were led by a strong defensive game. Copperheads quarterback Tyler Fikis led the offense with two rushing touchdowns and one passing touchdown. Running back Tyler Jones had two rushing scores as well. Fikis led with 120 yards passing on 10-for-17 throwing. Jones ran for 31 yards on 11 carries to lead the ground attack. Brady Ambrose caught three passes for 53 yards.
The Copperheads defense held Lancaster to 42 passing yards in the first half and only two rushing yards. On the other hand, Catawba Ridge had 185 first half yards.
The Copperheads wasted no time scoring with the help of three first quarter fumbles by Lancaster.
“That skews the score a little bit, but that doesn’t happen by accident,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Zac Lendyak. “We really work hard on causing turnovers. It helps. It is always nice to get turnovers and put points on the board.”
The first score came on a Jones 2-yard touchdown down run on the Copperheads first series of the game. A fumble by Lancaster on their first series led to another Catawba Ridge score this time coming from Jones again on another 1-yard run.
Lancaster fumbled for their second straight series leading to a 32-yard Kohen Kozel field goal. The Copperheads then kicked off which led to a third straight fumble by the Bruins as Jackson Burger did a scoop and score from 30-yards out to put Catawba Ridge up 23-0.
The Copperheads continued to move the ball well, but the clock moved faster as they had a drive pause on the 2-yard line right before the end of the first quarter. On the second play of the second quarter on that same drive, Fikis drove in from a yard out to push their lead to 30-0 just 24 seconds into the quarter.
Lancaster’s offense struggled to move the ball and they were again forced to punt. That allowed Catawba Ridge to put together a longer than normal drive. That drive was capped off with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Braylen Burgis from Fikis.
Catawba Ridge continued their onslaught on the next drive as this time their drive ended with a 7-yard touchdown run by Fikis. Lancaster then fumbled on the ensuing kickoff giving the ball back to the Copperheads at the 31-yard line. Three plays later Kozel drilled a 42-yard field goal to go up 47-0 with 2:36 left in the first half.
Lancaster did end the first half on a good note as JaRon Stevenson hit Ladarius Cloud on a 36-yard touchdown pass with 37 seconds left to get the Bruins on the board.
The second half had Lancaster put together their longest drive of the game to open the third quarter. Starting at their own 41, they made it to the 20-yard line of the Copperheads, but couldn’t punch it in.
Because of a running clock in the second half, both teams only had one series in the third quarter, which didn’t result in a score for either team.
The fourth quarter was a different story as Lancaster added their second score of the game on an 11-yard run by Dakarai Vann with 4:43. As they had the whole game, Catawba Ridge came right back and scored on a 94-yard touchdown run on the ensuing kickoff by Jordan Gilliam.
A fifth fumble by Lancaster on the next series led to Catawba Ridge getting the ball back at the 26-yard line and scoring three plays later with Brody Tesimale scoring from one yard out.
Up next for Catawba Ridge is a game at Indian Land, while the Bruins host York next Friday as well.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
