Sekwan Jenkins (24) picks off a S. Florence pass. (Photo/Jason Arthur)
FLORENCE (Nov. 21, 2016) – The Blythewood Bengals kicked off the 2016 class 5-A playoffs Friday with a 41-28 victory in hostile territory against the Bruins of South Florence. The win comes three weeks after Blythewood’s last regular season action, which was a close loss to Spring Valley.
“We worked on ourselves for two weeks,” Bengals’ head coach Dan Morgan said. “This week we got to work on South Florence. Then, of course, you had the weird practice schedule based on the air quality stuff; but I tell you what, our kids roll with the adversity. Once our offense got settled down and we got our timing right, I think we looked a little bit better.”
It took Blythewood’s versatile quarterback Jordyn Adams just 10 seconds to find his way to the end zone. He returned the game’s opening kickoff 93 yards to the house, and it would not be the last time he scored.
The Bruins marched down deep into Blythewood territory twice in the first quarter, but were unable to come away with points on either trip. The first time, Austin Moore’s pass was picked off on the Blythewood 32 by Sekwan Jenkins, and the second time, Bruins’ kicker Hunter Benton missed a 39-yard field goal.
“It was no different than when we drove down there and we threw a pick,” Morgan said. “We throw that pick and we felt like we could have put the game away and not getting those points really hurt, so I can understand them probably having the same frustration.”
A Bruins’ pass interference penalty on the next drive set up a 14-yard touchdown pass from Adams to Kameron Riley. Florence struck back with a 10-play scoring drive that chewed up five minutes of clock and covered 62 yards.
That left the score at 14-7 Blythewood with 1:27 before the end of the half. Two more Bruins’ defensive penalties and a 41-yard pass to Kenny Benton set up a 2-yard Adams touchdown run.
The two-score halftime deficit was trimmed down by the Bruins in the third quarter. Florence linebacker Freddy Sparks picked off a key Adams pass in the end zone, and the Bruins turned the interception into an 80-yard scoring possession.
Adams added his second 40-yard pass to the stat sheet when he hit up Kameron Riley for 40 yards. Chris Woodall finished off the drive with a 3-yard rush, and the Bengals seized a 28-14 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Another key stop by the Bengals’ defense inside of their own 30-yard line forced a Bruins’ turnover on downs. Woodall put the Bruins’ on ice with an 83-yard rushing score on the very next play.
“I was pretty relieved, pretty relieved,” Morgan said. “We figured they were starting to play that edge a whole lot more, and we figured we could get up in there and hopefully break one. They were in man coverage, they were blitzing, and then we figured if we just broke that first level, if we got a hat on a hat and get him a little bitty seam we figured he would go the whole way. It’s wonderful when you can draw it up and it works.”
Florence was able to add some late junk-time touchdowns, but a 55-yard Adams rush added an insurance score to wrap up the first-round victory.
“So many kids played really well,” Morgan said. “Jordyn made some real good decisions, especially in the second half. Kam was big for us, Kenny was big for us. Chris Woodall, his running game at the end of the game was real solid. Jordyn with that read and pull and went for the touchdown. We did some things at the end of the game.”
The win means Blythewood will travel to North Charleston this Friday to clash with Fort Dorchester in the second round. The Patriots absolutely thrashed Irmo to the tune of 49-0 Friday in the first round.
The Patriots are 10-1 this season, their only loss coming to Dutch Fork, and were undefeated in 5A Region VII play.
BHS: 7-14-0-20 – 41
SF: 0-7-7-14 – 28
SCORING
First Quarter
BHS – Jordyn Adams 93 kickoff return (Ben Kline kick). 11:50.
Second Quarter
BHS – Kameron Riley 14 pass from J. Adams (B. Kline kick). 6:58.
SF – Deshawn Williams 2 run (Hunter Benton kick). 1:37.
BHS – J. Adams 5 run (B. Kline kick). 0:28.
Third Quarter
SF – D. Williams 3 run (H. Benton kick). 0:22.
Fourth Quarter
BHS – Chris Woodall 4 run (B. Kline kick). 11:16.
BHS – C. Woodall 83 run (B. Kline kick). 8:34.
SF – Freddy Sparks 11 run (H. Benton kick). 5:13.
BHS – J. Adams 55 run (kick failed). 4:06.
SF – Hykeem White 6 run (H. Benton kick). 2:34
BHS SF
First Downs 14 19
Rushes/Yards 31-189 36-132
Passing Yards 133 247
C-A-I-TD 6-16-1-1 19-38-2-0
Fumbles/ Lost 0/0 2/1
Penalties/Yards 13-106 12-80
RUSHING: BHS – Chris Woodall 15-112, Jordyn Adams 14-86. SF – Deshawn Williams 26-72, Hykeem White 6-31, Freddy Sparks 3-29, Austin Moore 1-0 . RECEIVING: BHS – Kameron Riley 3-80, Kenny Benton 2-46, Terrance Coates 1-7. SF – Hykeem White 11-166, Ty King 3-48, Rivers Benton 3-15, Dedric Huggins 2-18 .
PASSING: BHS – Jordyn Adams 6-16, 133 yards, TD, INT. SF – Austin Moore 19-37, 247 yards, INT; Hunter Benton 0-1, INT.
