South Pointe, Rock Hill put defense on display as local team’s start football season
It was a night for defense Friday when South Pointe and Rock Hill took to the field.
South Pointe coach Bobby Collins said defense is the reason his team is now 2-0.
Heading into halftime with a 21-0 lead, South Pointe had a first-half shutout for its second-consecutive contest; the Stallions led Spartanburg 10-0 in their matchup last week.
The Stallion defense kept Rock Hill quarterback Matthew Wilson and the Bearcats offense in check for most of the game.
Meanwhile, Rock Hill head coach Bubba Pittman was looking for improved defensive from the Bearcats this season. He said he wanted his defense to be physical, rally to the ball and make sound tackles.
And his defense showed him what he was looking for in Friday night’s 35-13 loss to South Pointe. The Stallions scored 35 points, but Rock Hill’s defense gave up only 20 of those points.
The Stallions scored 15 points off a blocked punt returned for a touchdown by junior Fred Reese and a 55-yard pick-six by senior Zantwan Nelson.
South Pointe blitzed often, forcing Rock Hill’s quarterback to scramble and make tough throws on the run. Wilson, an Appalachian State commit, completed less than 50% of his throws and threw two interceptions in addition to the aforementioned pick-six.
Pittman said his defense played as well as it could play given the circumstances.
“I thought our defensive kids played their hearts out,” Pittman said. “They were on the field too long for sure. We don’t have a ton of depth out there. We don’t have a lot of backups sitting on the sideline that we can run out there.
“Got a little tired, got a little fatigued there at the end, so they were having some cramping issues. I thought for the most part, they kept (the Stallions) in check. Kept (the Stallions) in front of them. We gave up a couple of long runs but got them on the ground.”
Penalties hurt South Pointe’s offense
Going into the game, Collins said he wanted to see better efficiency on offense. Last year’s South Pointe team averaged more than 10 points less per game than the previous year’s state championship-winning team.
The Stallion offense had two long touchdown drives in the second half Friday night.
Quarterback Malachi Marshall threw for two touchdowns, while running backs Aidan Turner and Mason Pickett-Hicks combined for over 110 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
However, Collins said he saw too many drives fall short.
“We want to continue to clean up what we got to clean up on offense,” Collins said. “We want to score every drive. I know that’s not always possible, but we want to attempt it.”
A key factor in failed drives was penalties. The Stallions had over 130 yards in penalties. The offense accounted for 60 of those yards.
One such example was the Stallions’ final offensive drive of the first half.
The Stallions offense started on the Rock Hill 37-yard line and gained 33 yards.
However there were two holding calls (one of which wiped out a 37-yard touchdown run by Pickett-Hicks), a false start, and a personal foul (which wiped out a 28-yard run by Pickett-Hicks).
“We got to be consistent,” Collins said. “Minimizing turnovers and (limiting mistakes) is what we’re always going to be working on.”
Rock Hill’s offensive ups-and-downs
Rock Hill’s offense played a lot better than its 13 points suggests.
The Bearcats gained over 370 yards on its offensive drives, and both of Wilson’s touchdown passes--a 65-yard catch-and-run by Kamari Moore and a 79-yard strike to EJ Ratley--looked straight off the practice field.
Wilson threw for over 250 yards and never played like a quarterback who was down 21-0 at halftime or 35-6 midway through the fourth quarter, and the good plays were really good plays.
“Matt’s a competitor, man,” Pittman said. “He’s a warrior. He’s gonna lead a football team. We went into halftime, and he had a look in his eye that we were going to win that football game, and I think he believed it right to the very end.”
However, mistakes kept Rock Hill off the scoreboard.
Two of Wilson’s interceptions were tipped passes. Back-to-back fumbled snaps stalled a drive on South Pointe’s 8-yard line -- one of three turnovers-on-downs for the Bearcats.
“I think still the biggest thing for us is consistency,” Pittman said. “Being consistent in our tackling, being consistent in our blocking, staying on our blocks.
“You can’t win doing those types of (mistakes). We had balls that hit our hands, and we tipped them up. We didn’t make the catch, they go up in the air, other team picks them off. Those are the things that in order for us to win football games--and I’m not trying to blame kids or anything like that--we have to clean up those fundamental things.”
Looking ahead
South Pointe now has beeaten its second 5A opponent in a row and the Stallions go on the road to play Gaffney. Rock Hill (0-1) will stay home at District 3 Stadium next week to face Lancaster. Both games are scheduled for next Friday night. Kickoff is at 7:30.
