John Bruce, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by Holzer Health System.
PROCTORVILLE — It has been 31 seasons since South Point has started a football season at 5-1.
But here the Pointers stand, continuing to show their ready to show the course of the program’s history.
South Point (5-1, 2-0 OVC) went on the road Friday and hung on to beat Fairland by a 30-24 win.
“This is according to plan,” Pointers first-year head coach Brian Wroten said. “Our number one goal is to win the OVC. So, everything we talked about was built towards that.”
For 44 minutes, it looked like the plan was working out perfectly. But the Dragons (4-2, 2-1 OVC) certainly made things a lot more difficult, scoring a pair of late touchdowns and forcing a stressful onside kick situation with 2:42 to play.
South Point jumped out to an early lead behind Landon Vance and Robert Napier on the ground. The duo plugged away behind an outstanding offensive line effort before Vance raced around the left end for a 19-yard score with 5:53 to play in the first quarter.
CREDIT: John Bruce/SOSA
Vance added to the lead early in the second when he caught a screen pass from Ethan Hunt and sprinted in from nine yards out, giving the Pointers a 13-0 lead.
One of the storylines of the night followed as Fairland refused to go away.
The Dragons responded when Kinyon Smith found Ford Rickard for a 43-yard touchdown. After a defensive stop, Fairland struck again when Smith and Kylan Blake linked up for a 66-yard score with only 1:31 to play in the half.
However, with an injured kicker, the Dragons had to go for two all night and were unsuccessful on both attempts.
On the previous possession, South Point’s Hunt was shaken up and unable to return for the remainder of the half, but sophomore Marcus Hanshaw stepped in to be a part of one of the key plays of the night.
Late in the quarter, Hanshaw lofted a pass down the sideline to Davon Lewis, who went up the ladder to make the catch. Once he had possession, Lewis broke a tackle, made another man miss and rumbled to the Dragons’ four-yard line.
That play set up Ezra Young for a 21-yard field goal in the closing seconds of the half to give the Pointers a 16-12 advantage going into the break.
“Marcus [Hanshaw] is our backup quarterback and he’s got an arm like a Howitzer, so we thought we would take a shot and see what happens,” Wroten said of the 44-yard pass and catch. “Davon [Lewis] goes up and high-points it, brings it in and redirects a couple of times. That sets up Ezra [Young] and he’s been money all year long. Let’s take the points.”
The Pointers’ defense built off of that momentum and got a stop to start the second half to set up the offense for a long drive. Vance finished it off with his third score of the night to give South Point a 23-12 lead with 6:47 to play in the third.
Fairland looked to be back in business on its ensuing drive, following a 55-yard run from senior Christian Bompus, but a penalty and a sack from Vance nullified the rumble from Bompus.
South Point then appeared to put the game away on the next possession when Hunt hit Lewis with a deep ball for a 40-yard score, making it a 30-12 lead.
“We put a lot on Ethan [Hunt]. He’s smart and his football IQ is off the charts,” Wroten said of his senior quarterback. “In general, his leadership and the calm that he brings, really does a lot for this football team.”
The Pointers looked to put the game away when Elyjah Patterson picked off a pass late, but Patterson’s acrobatic play was taken away via penalty. That penalty allowed the drive to continue, leading to a 13-yard touchdown run from Bompus with just 3:58 to play. The Dragons then recovered the ensuing onside kick and Smith dialed up a 23-yard pass to Blake down the middle at the 2:42 mark.
After the previous successful onside kick attempt, the Pointers bobbled the ball away leading to the recovery. However, this go-around, sophomore Keondre Garred left nothing to chance, smothering the bouncer and securing possession for the Pointers.
Finally, Vance and Napier were able to run out the clock, allowing Hunt to take a knee, dodging a late bullet and setting off a celebration.
Statistically, Vance finished with a team-high 130 yards, 11 tackles and two sacks for the Pointers. Not to be outdone, Napier rushed for 105 yards himself, and added 10 tackles.
“He’ll do anything you ask him to do and he’ll do it at a high level,” Wroten said of Vance. “He’s one of those kids, as good as he is, he wants to be coached up and wants to be coached hard. He’s a straight-A student, says, ‘Yes sir, no sir.’ He’s just a great kid.”
With over 230 yards on the ground, Wroten made sure to mention his guys up front.
“I say to everybody that we pour a lot into those guys and it isn’t lip service for us to have a culture through the offensive and defensive lines. They eat first, they get on the bus first. But as Spider-Man says, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ When the time comes, we expect for them to step up and if they play well, we will win football games.”
With an experienced backfield, strong offensive line play and a stingy defense, the Pointers are now 5-1 for the first time since 1995. They’ll return home next week to host Chesapeake while Fairland attempts to rebound at Portsmouth.
“What we’ve done in the past two weeks in OVC play puts us in position to control our own destiny, for the main goal, which is the whole reason why we’ve lifted those weights, ran and did everything that we’ve done,” Wroten said.
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