Published: Saturday, Oct. 06, 2012 / Updated: Saturday, Oct. 06, 2012 09:25 PM
Fort Mill holds on for Region 3-AAAA win
ROCK HILL --
With a 47-32 win over host Rock Hill, the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets picked up their first Region 3-AAAA win of the season, while the Bearcats struggled with penalties all game.
The Bearcats also gave Fort Mill good field position for most of the game as they failed to convert several fourth down attempts, but stormed back in the fourth quarter to make a game of it.
“We gave up too many big plays,” said Jackets coach Ed Susi. “We made it hard on ourselves. But anytime you can beat Rock Hill it’s good. We will take it. I don’t care if we won by one point. It was a big game. This is huge for us.”
The Jackets struggled to stop Rock Hill in the second half as the Bearcats moved the ball with ease. Fort Mill gave up three fourth-quarter scores.
Rock Hill scored on its opening drive of the fourth quarter as senior quarterback Josh Erby moved the Bearcats down the field with a purpose, hitting Chris Salerno for an 18-yard touchdown to put Rock Hill within striking distance at 33-20.
However, Fort Mill bounced back to score as senior quarterback Rylan Wells scampered 51 yards to again put Rock Hill down by 20, scoring in just four plays.
Rock Hill refused to quit as it scored twice more in the quarter, scoring two touchdowns in five minutes as Erby hit junior JauQuan Feaster on a 55-yard touchdown pass down the left side of the field to cut the game to 40-32 with six minutes left.
The Jackets added one more score to end the Rock Hill rally as Wells hit senior Tony Godbolt for a 38-yard touchdown with about 2:30 left in the game. Godbolt rushed for 166 yards on 29 carries and scored four times.
Fort Mill fumbled away its opening drive of the second half, giving the ball back to Rock Hill at the 38-yard line. However, the Bearcats couldn’t move the ball and threw an incomplete pass on a fourth-and-two.
On the Jackets’ next drive, they widened the gap, scoring in 10 plays as Godbolt made up for his fumble by scoring from two yards out after a 17-yard pass from Wells to junior Deryan Sanders.
The Jackets used a big second quarter to move past Rock Hill, scoring 20 points in the period.
Fort Mill scored to open the second quarter as Wells faced a fourth and one at the Bearcats’ 11 and ran it in untouched.
The Jackets picked up five first downs, four of them on four-straight plays, on the 68-yard drive.
After a defensive stop by the Jackets, Fort Mill had a good punt return by Godbolt to get deep into Bearcats territory, where Wells hit senior Josh Lafoe on the first play of the drive for a 37-yard touchdown, putting the Jackets up by two scores.
Fort Mill wasn’t through scoring, as it ate up nearly six minutes off the clock on the next drive, which took a dozen plays to go 73 yards.
Godbolt did a lot of the work on the ground as Fort Mill methodically moved the ball down the field. Godbolt then scored his second touchdown of the game from four yards out.
The Bearcats cut the deficit in half by scoring with about 90 seconds left in the first half as Erby threw his second touchdown pass to senior Jaleel Scott who caught the ball, despite being covered by a hoard of Fort Mill players.
Rock Hill’s opening drive of the game resulted in as many penalty yards as it did in total yards.
After a Bearcats punt put the Jackets in poor field position, Fort Mill started at its own 8 and wasted no time getting on the scoreboard scoring after four plays with big runs from Sanders and Godbolt, who ran in from 57-yards to give the Jackets the first score of the game.
Rock Hill continued to struggle with penalties on its second series, but once again pinned Fort Mill deep on a punt. This time the Jackets were unable to make anything happen and were forced to punt.
With a little over two and a half minutes left in the opening quarter, the Bearcats finally got on the board after going 68-yards on five plays with back-to-back gains of 23 yards on a run by senior Alec McCoy and a catch from Tre Thompson.
The former put Rock Hill at the eight where Erby hit Scott for the score on the next play.
FORT MILL 47, ROCK HILL 32
| Rock Hill | 6 | 6 | 0 | 20 | - | 32 |
| Fort Mill | 6 | 20 | 7 | 14 | - | 47 |
SCORING SUMMARY
FM – Tony Godbolt 57-yard run (conversion failed)
RH – Josh Erby eight-yard pass to Jaleel Scott (kick failed)
FM – Rylan Wells 11-yard run (Wells kick)
FM – Wells to Josh Lafoe 37-yard pass (kick failed)
FM – Godbolt four-yard run (Wells kick)
RH – Erby to Scott 27-yards pass (conversion failed)
FM – Godbolt two-yard run (Wells kick)
RH – Erby to Chris Salerno 18-yard pass (2-point conversion)
FM – Wells 51-yard run (Wells kick)
RH – Erby to Scott 20-yard pass (conversion failed)
RH – Erby to JauQuan Feaster 55-yard pass (kick failed)
FM – Wells to Godbolt 38-yard pass (Wells kick)
TEAM STATISTICS
| RHHS | FMHS | |
| First downs | 12 | 25 |
| Rushes-yards | 12-92 | 57-374 |
| Comp.-Att.-Int. | 19-35-1 | 8-12-1 |
| Passing yards | 281 | 137 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 2-1 |
| Penalties-yards | 7-67 | 2-20 |
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Fort Mill: Rylan Wells 19-141, Tony Godbolt 29-166, Breshon Simpson 3-34, Deryan Sanders 4-37, Malik Long 2-(-4). Rock Hill: Jonathan Adams 4-27, Josh Erby 5-37, JauQuan Feaster 1-2, Alec McCoy 2-26.
PASSING – Fort Mill: Rylan Wells 8-12-1 137. Rock Hill: Josh Erby 19-35-1 281.
RECEIVING: Fort Mill: Josh Lafoe 2-45, Deryan Sanders 5-53, Tony Godbolt 1-39. Rock Hill: Jaleel Scott 8-87, JauQuan Feaster 2-63, Jermaine White 1-8, Tre Thompson 4-73, Josh Erby 1-(-5), Chris Salerno 2-43, Jonathan Adams 1-2.
RECORDS: Fort Mill 4-3, 1-2 Region III-AAAA; Rock Hill 2-5, 1-2 Region III-AAAA.