Fort Mill, SC — The Nation Ford Falcons took the opening kickoff for a clock-burning drive that concluded with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Carson Sanford to Lucas Barz. This initiated a strong first half for the Falcons that found them going into the half down 20-27 to the visiting Clover Blue Eagles. However, Clover dominated the second half with 26 unanswered points and wrapped up the game with a 53-20 road win over the Falcons.
After Nation Ford’s opening drive touchdown, the team’s defense managed an impessive fourth-and-goal stand. Unlike their opening drive, the Falcons drove 40 yards before Clover forced a punting situation. The Blue Eagles managed a touchdown on their second drive, but missed the PAT. With the score 7-6 in favor of the Falcons, Sanford found Josh Ameo for a 39-yard touchdwon pass. With the score and their own missed PAT, the home team was up 13-6 midway throught the second quarter. Clover bounced back with a run up the outside for the score. With less than six minutes in the half, the score was tied 13-13.
With the ball back in their hands, the Falcon’s Sanford tossed a lateral to Jayden Scott who threw a 77-yard pass to a wide open Barz. With Barz’s catch and run for a touchdown, the Falcons found themselves with the lead again — 20-13. However, the Blue Eagles strung together their own drive to tie the game at 20 with 3:31 remaining in the half.
Nation Ford was on the verge of potentially scoring their fourth and fifth touchdowns of the half when each of Sanford’s goalline passes were intercepted. With time running out in the half, Clover strung together a 90-yard scoring drive to make the score 27-20. It Blue Eagle’s wouldn’t relinquish the lead.
The Falcons were a different team coming out of the half. The culmination of penalties — including several personal fouls — and a strong Blue Eagle defense made the Falcon’s offense a non-factor in the half. As a result, Clover dominated the rest of the game with 26 unanswered points.
With the loss, Nation Ford falls to 1-8 on the season and 0-5 for Region 3-5A action. Next Friday they host the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets, who lost 20-6 to the Indian Land Warriors last night. The Yellow Jackets are now 1-7 overall and 0-5 in the region. The winner of next week’s matchup will have their first region win and a possible playoff spot.
In other Region 3-5A action, Catawba Ridge won 26-21 at home against Rock Hill. The Copperheads are now 7-2 for the season and 4-1 in the region. Rock Hill had their 4-game winning streak shutdown last week with a 55-7 loss at Northwestern. Last night’s loss to Catawba Ridge puts the Bearcats at 5-5 overall and 4-2 in the region. While that was Rock Hill’s final regular season game, the Copperheads play host to Clover next Friday.
Due to the impact of Hurricane Helene, the South Carolina High School League voted to extend the regular season by one week for fall sports. They will not reduce the postseason and the championship weekend will be pushed back one week. For prep football, this year’s season now ends November 8 with playoffs starting November 15. The new championship dates are December 12-14.
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Photos credit Chris Coffee.
