Published: Monday, Aug. 20, 2012 / Updated: Monday, Aug. 20, 2012 01:09 PM
Indian Land wins, Fort Mill loses in last dress rehearsal for football season
INDIAN LAND --
Thunderstorms threatened the ninth annual Founders Kickoff Classic, but despite a delayed start and wet conditions, the games went on as area schools were able to get in one last tune-up before the regular season begins.
Seven South Carolina and North Carolina area teams competed in the event, including matchups between Andrew Jackson and McBee, Fort Mill and Northern Guilford (N.C.), Lancaster High School and Buford and host Indian Land High School and Lancaster High School.
The teams played two 12-minute quarters within a 50-minute timeframe. The opening quarter of the scrimmages featured a 12-minute running clock with no timeouts for the teams. The second quarter had a regulation clock with each team receiving two timeouts.
Fort Mill 7 Northern Guilford 20
Fort Mill played first of the neighboring teams, going up against Northern Guilford. The Yellow Jackets received first and despite Northern Guilford going offsides on fourth and two to get a fresh set of downs, Fort Mill couldn’t convert and was forced to punt.
Northern Guilford scored on its first possession of the game, the first of three touchdowns for North Carolina recruit T.J. Logan, who caught quarterback Matt Page’s 34-yard pass for the score. Logan added his second of the night on the following possession for the Night Hawks after a Fort Mill fumble on Northern Guilford’s 45-yard line. Logan dashed 26 yards for the score.
It wasn’t until only six seconds were left in the game that Fort Mill finally put its first – and only – points on the board. Rylan Wells hit Deryan Sanders for a12-yard scoring pass, pulling the Jackets within a score.
However, on the ensuing kickoff, North Guilford’s Logan took the kickoff 90 yards for his third score of the night, ending the game with a score of 20-7.
Fort Mill will host Lugoff-Elgin in their season opener on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Indian Land 19 Lancaster 12
Host team Indian Land played Lancaster High School, which was playing its second scrimmage of the night. Indian Land received first with quarterback George Morris starting for the Warriors.
Terrell White rushed 20 yards on the opening possession down to the 40 to get the Warriors started, but the team then went four and out following the run.
Lancaster started its first possession on the 50-yard line but went three and out.
It wasn’t until their second possessions that each team scored. Chris Barnes caught a 31-yard pass from Morris, but immediately fumbled. The Warriors recovered and continued to march down the field, capping the drive with a two-yard rush from White, making the score 6-0 Indian Land.
Lancaster answered decisively, scoring on the kickoff when Immanuel Ishmael went 98 yards for the score.
Quarterback Dalton McGuirt started the second quarter of the game. The Warriors’ third possession of the game ended the same way as the second, in a Warrior touchdown. After a 55-yard Indian Land drive, Dominique Smith capped the drive with a 28-yard rush straight into the end zone.
Indian Land’s following possession ended with another Smith touchdown run. Smith rushed it in from the 21-yard line on the handoff from McGuirt. The Warriors didn’t convert the extra point, however, bringing the score to 19-6.
While the Bruins were able to add another touchdown to the score, they weren’t able to catch the Warriors, who topped the Bruins 19-12
“It was good to beat Lancaster for the first time since 2004,” said head coach Michael Mayer. “It was a big win. We scrimmaged them on Tuesday and they kind of had their way with us.”
“Big key to the game was that the kids came out and were just ready to play,” said Mayer. “Offensively everything went well, the offensive line played extremely well, both Terrell [White] and Dominique [Smith] ran the ball extremely well. Both quarterbacks played well, the wide outs played well, it was just a good night offensively. Everything seemed to click.”
Indian Land will host Buford in its season opener Friday at 7:30.
“I’m feel confident going into Friday, we appear to be healthy coming out of this,” said Mayer. “We will see how banged up we are on Monday but I feel like we came out of it pretty healthy and we will just go from there. Today was just the first step in a long season.”
In the other featured scrimmages of the night, Andrew Jackson topped McBee 26-0 and Lancaster defeated Buford 21-7.