By AJ Lee
Coach Michael Allen and the Nation Ford Falcons welcomed their cross-town rivals, Catawba Ridge, into Falcon Stadium for an annual rivalry game that began three years ago.
Catawba Ridge opened in the fall of 2020. Since then, they have been ranked in the top 25 schools of the state, and in the Fort Mill area, they are known as the "athletic school".
In the last three years, the Copperheads were 5-0 over their two
cross-town rivals with three wins over Fort Mill and two wins over the Nation Ford team they played on Friday. Everyone that I talked to believed that Catawba Ridge was going to make it three in a row
against the Falcons.
The game started off slow as both defenses rained dominant with the only points of the first half being a field goal by Austin Sarvis with a minute left to play in the first quarter. The only other big, noteworthy play in the first half was an interview from Nick Campbell to end a Catawba Ridge drive and keep the 3-0 lead heading into the locker room.
With 4:20 left in the third quarter, Kaden Barnette threw a lob pass to the back corner of the endzone and somehow Josh Ameo went up over a Copperhead defender and brought it down for a touchdown. That put the Falcons ahead 10-0, which would be the score at the end of the third quarter.
With 11:17 left to play in the game, Nation Ford was driving, and once again Barnette threw a lob into the endzone, and Ameo again went up and got it for his second touchdown of the night and extended the lead to 17-0. Catawba Ridge was not done just yet. With 2:11 left to play in the game, Andrew Turner threw a touchdown pass to Jackson Burger to finally get the Copperheads on the scoreboard. On the ensuing kickoff, Catawba tried an onside kick and recovered. Two plays later, Turner threw a gorgeous spiraling ball to Brady Ambrose for a 34-yard touchdown to trim the lead to 17-13. They tried another onside kick, and this time they were not successful. They used their timeouts and got the ball back but stellar play from the Falcon defense held the game together and closed the door on the Copperheads.
Kaden Barnette for the Falcons had a career night, going 23 for 31 for 275 yards and two touchdowns. Catawba Ridge played two quarterbacks during the night. Andrew Turner went 6 for 13 for 150 yards and two touchdowns, while Davin Latimer went 9 for 20 for 69 yards. No doubt that one of the players of this game was wide receiver Josh Ameo, who seemed to be unguardable at times and finished with two touchdowns and several more catches.
When I asked the head coach of the Falcons, Michael Allen, about this being the first win in school history over Catawba he said, “What goes around, comes around.” He continued to say, “They have a great program, their staff does really well. I feel like our kids did everything that they needed to do tonight.” I asked Coach Allen about how proud he was of his defense who had a shutout for most of the game. He responded with, “Coach Mitchell came up with a great defensive gameplan and we executed it, it was pretty much lights out until the end".
The Falcons will travel over to Northwestern next Friday night, and Catawba Ridge will travel to Ardrey Kell (NC).
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