BLYTHEWOOD – Friday night’s Blythewood and Ridge View football game at Blythewood’s District Two Stadium was a mess of penalties, punts, and lost opportunities.
Almost lost in the barrage of yellow laundry and high-soaring footballs was Khristian Jackson’s effort at keeping the Blazers a few steps ahead of the Bengals.
The sophomore wide receiver returned a punt 59 yards for a touchdown and caught TD passes of 16 and 5 yards to help Ridge View to a 21-7 Region 5-5A victory over Blythewood.
It was the third straight loss for the Bengals (6-4, 2-4), and one that places them fifth in the region standings behind Westwood (5-5, 3-3), West Florence (6-3, 3-2), Ridge View (6-3, 5-0) and Sumter (9-0, 5-0). Blythewood lost to all four teams.
“We shot ourselves in the foot the entire night and that’s evident,” Bengals head coach James Martin said. “You can’t do that against a team like Ridge View. It was a great ballgame besides the penalties. But we have to do our job and we didn’t.”
Ridge View went up 14-0 by halftime thanks to Jackson. The first score was his punt return for a touchdown a minute and 24 seconds into the game. The second came on Tre Howard’s 16-yard TD pass to him that capped the team’s10-play, 73-yard drive with 5:50 to go in the half.
“Khristian is a great team leader, he’s a vocal leader, he’s a hell of a football player and he’s an even better young man,” Ridge View head coach Derek Howard said. “You don’t just name a sophomore a captain unless they’ve got a lot of different qualities. We needed him tonight and he came through in a big way.”
The rest of the first half was a scattering of penalties and punts. Blythewood and Ridge View committed a total of 19 penalties for 183 yards by halftime. Ridge View had to punt three times and Blythewood five times.
By game’s end, both teams combined for 13 punts and 35 accepted flags for 303 total yards.
“It’s a rivalry, so you throw all the football out the window,” Howard said. “It’s probably the ugliest game to watch, but ultimately we came away with the win and we’re happy with that.”
The Bengals finished the regular season in a slump, largely due to the offense’s inability to capitalize on opportunities the Blythewood defense had provided. Since their 37-24 win at Lugoff-Elgin Oct. 4, the Bengals have been outscored 89-41.
Such was the story Friday night. The Bengals had a good chance to get points on the board late in the first half when defender Jaylen Reaves recovered a Blazers’ fumble and returned it 36 yards to the Ridge View 34-yard line.
Blythewood drove to the 16-yard line, but had to settle for a 33-yard Liam Flynn field goal attempt. Flynn missed wide left with 9 seconds left and Ridge View ran one play before both teams headed to the locker room.
Blythewood’s only scoring drive came late in the third quarter when they drove 60 yards on 13 plays. Shrine Bowl pick Sterling Sanders, a 6-5, 315 defensive end who backed out of his commitment to Georgia Southern and committed to Boston College Oct. 25, lined up in the backfield, took a handoff from backup quarterback Jordan Greaves, and drove into the end zone from three yards out to close out the drive.
That score cut Ridge View’s lead to 14-7, and the Bengals looked to tie the game at 14 midway through the fourth quarter.
The Blazers forced a Blythewood punt, but the Ridge View punt returner muffed the reception and the Bengals recovered the ball at the Blazers’ 28-yard line.
Once again, the offense stalled.
Blythewood reached the 9-yard line, but failed to convert on fourth down and Ridge View took over at their own 10-yard line with about four minutes to go.
From that point the Blazers drained the clock. Sophomore running back Spencer Bobian, who had 59 yards on 16 carriers at that point, finally got sprung for a 55-yard gain to put Ridge View into Blythewood territory. After another Bobian run of 11 yards, the Blazers drained the final two minutes with victory formations.
Blythewood has its second open date of the season this week, and will prepare for a possible road playoff game when the postseason kicks off Nov. 15.
As for Ridge View, region rival Sumter (9-0, 5-0) comes to town Friday with the region championship on the line. The Gamecocks wore out Westwood 65-28 Friday.
“We haven’t had an opportunity to do that in some time,” Howard said about playing for region. Ridge View hasn’t won a region title since 2006. “We’re a team that always steps up no matter what the other team’s ability is. We seem to always play with other teams. I anticipate our team being ready for a good game. Sumter’s a great team, they haven’t lost, but we like the challenge.”
Ridge View – 7-7-0-7 – 21
Blythewood – 0-0-7-0 – 7
First Quarter
R – Khristian Jackson 59 punt return (Issaiha Yohannes kick) 10:36
Second Quarter
R – Jackson 16 pass from Tre Howard (Yohannes kick) 5:50
Third Quarter
B – Sterling Sanders 3 run (Liam Flynn kick) 2:08
Fourth Quarter
R – Jackson 5 pass from Nevan Gaither (Yohannes kick) 7:55
RV BHS
First downs 14 10
Rushes-yds 38-197 23-34
Passing yds 74 51
Att-Com-Int 13-7-0 32-16-1
Fumbles-lost 3-2 1-0
Penalties-yds 19-143 16-160
Punts-avg 6-30.0 7-37.3
RUSHING: R – Spencer Bobian 18-125, Bradley Wilson 11-32, Aiden Keeffe 5-13, Nevan Gaither 2-22, Tre Howard 2-5. B – Desmond Macklin 10-34, Jordan Greaves 6-12, John Henry Collins 3-(-28), Kanye Reed 2-11. Chance Johnson 2-4, Carter Coleman 1-9, Sterling Sanders 1-3.
PASSING: R – Tre Howard 3-7-0-61, Nevan Gaither 1-6-0-13. B – John Henry Collins 10-17-1-16, Jordan Greaves 6-15-0-35
RECEIVING: R – Khristian Jackson 2-31, Hayden Morris 2-30, Jordan Gidron 1-13. B – Carter Coleman 4-11, Ben Hendrix 4-8, Mitchell Hepler 2-18, Kanye Reed 2-16 Desmond Macklin 2-1, Chance Johnson 2-(-3).
