Blythewood -- With a dominant season-opening football game in the books, Ridge View High
School can officially begin to move past a bitter 2022 season that ended with the school forfeiting all
of its wins because of having three ineligible players on its roster.
The Blazers delivered a solid offensive performance and wore down the vaunted Blythewood
defense in a 32-21 victory at Blythewood’s District Two Stadium on Friday.
“It always feels good to win,” second-year RVHS head coach Derek Howard said. “We’ve been
preaching to the guys that they’ve just got to worry about what we can control. Our kids have
been working extremely hard, and these kids understand adversity. All they did was continue to
tap into the things we ask them to do, and they played against a good football team, a team that
people felt like was a top 10 AAAAA program, and for the most part we dominated the entire game.”
Ridge View stopped Blythewood in the game-opening possession, and the Blazers' offense
kicked in early, with quarterback Breylon Boyd connecting with sophomore wide receiver Jordan
Gidron for a 34-yard touchdown pass. Gidron had six catches for 122 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior Siah Mack, who moved from wide receiver to running back this year, had 138 yards and a
touchdown on 16 carries.
“I tell you what man, we’re a wide receiver factory, I tell you what,” Howard said. “We’ve got a
lot of good wide receivers. Jordan’s special, along with four or five other kids we have that are
special. Tonight was his night and I was proud of him.”
Boyd, a junior, used both of those weapons behind an offensive line that neutralized Blythewood’s
seasoned and deep defensive front throughout the game.
“I’m extremely proud of Breylon. A lot of hard work has gone into how he’s been playing,”
Howard said. “If we’re going to be good he’s going to have to be one of the best in the state.”
The Ridge View defense stopped Blythewood again, but the Bengals defense sacked Boyd twice
to force a punt.
Blythewood wasted no time on its next possession. On second down at the Blythewood 36-yard
line, Bengals quarterback Harrison Collins passed to wide receiver Kaleb Kelly nine yards downfield.
Kelly took it the rest of the way to complete a game-tying 64-yard touchdown pass play at the 3:47
mark of the first quarter.
Boyd connected with Gidron again for a 12-yard TD in the second quarter to give the Blazers a
13-7 lead.
Likewise, Collins found Kelly again for a short pass that Kelly took to the house for a 37-yard
scoring play with 3:51 in the first half.
Blythewood led 14-13 at that point, but Ridge View drove quickly down the field again, this time
scoring on Aiden Keeffe's 5-yard run with 1:47 left to give the Blazers a 19-14 lead.
Collins tossed up the ball several times in the closing minutes, but the Bengals went to the locker
room with a 5-point deficit.
Ridge View drained the third-quarter clock on a long drive that gave Gidron his third score of the
night, and early in the fourth quarter Mack burst into the end zone from five yards out to give the
Blazers a 32-14 lead.
With the game decided, Blythewood got another score on the board with 3:17 left, a Collins-to-
Quinton Solomon 17-yard connection.
What was particularly painful for first-year Blythewood head coach James Martin was seeing
three long drives die out deep in Ridge View territory.
Martin, who moved to the head job from his defensive coordinator position after head coach
Jason Seidel was forced to resign last spring, said the Bengals have to get their minds into the
game.
“The whole game tonight was mental mistakes,” he said. “We made too many mistakes at the
wrong time, we jumped offsides, we couldn’t line up right tonight, and I take that as the head
coach. We’ll get to work on that next week, but no excuses. We dropped four touchdowns
tonight.”
The loss put a stain on Collins’ and Kelly’s night. Collins passed for 347 yards, going 28-for-45
with three touchdown passes and without any interceptions. Kelly had six catches for 122 yards
and two touchdowns.
“We go catch those four balls that we drop, we don’t jump offsides, we go do what we need to
do, and we’re fixed. This is why we do a non-region schedule. You’ve got to work on these
things to get to the region. Great job to Ridge View. They did a great job tonight. They made the
plays and we didn’t.”
Ridge View heads to Sumter next Friday to take on the Gamecocks, and Blythewood travels to Richland
Northeast.
Ridge View 7 12 7 6 – 32
Blythewood 7 7 0 7 – 21
First Quarter
R - Jordon Gidron 34 pass from Breylon Boyd (Jillian Barchue kick) 7:31
B - Kaleb Kelly 64 pass from Harrison Collins (Kyle Whisenant kick) 3:45
Second Quarter
R - GIdron 12 pass from Boyd (kick failed) 9:40
B - Kelly 37 pass from Collins (Whisenant kick) 3:51
R - Aiden Keeffe 5 run (pass failed) 1:47
Third Quarter
R - Gidron 20 pass from Boyd (Barchue kick) 4:27
Fourth Quarter
R - Siah Mack 5 run (kick blocked) 10:22
B – Quinton Solomon 10 pass from Collins (Whisenant kick) 3:17
RV BHS
First downs 23 17
Rushes-Yards 34-188 13-23
Passing yards 185 347
Att-Com-Int 32-20-0 45-28-0
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0
Penalties-yards 12-107 7-50
Punts-Avg 4-34.8 4-21.8
INDIVIDUAL
RUSHING
R-Siah Mack 16-128, Breylon Boyd 13-24, Aiden Keeffe 3-31, Tony Briggs 2-5. B-Harrison
Collins 5-16, Quinton Solomon 3-2, Chris Thomas 1-4, Chase Brown 1-0, Trevon Williams 1-0,
Kaleb Kelly 1-2, Desmond Macklin 1-(-2),
PASSING
R-Breylon Boyd 10-32-0. B-Harrison Collins 28-45-0.
RECEIVING
R-Jordon Gidron 6-122, Kennedy Thomas 6-45, Carter Colman 4-31, Siah Mack 2-8, Tony
Briggs 1-12, Omari Johnson 1-(-5). B-Kaleb Kelly 6-122, Quinton Solomon 6-84, Trent Lewis 6-
63, Chris Thomas 5-53, Tyler Kahle 3-14, Desmond Macklin 1-2.
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