Sumter defense shuts down explosive Ashley Ridge in 56-13 win
Gamecocks come up with five interceptions, limit Salley's explosive plays to advance
Sumter – “Don't ask me. I don't know how it happened.”
Those were the words that came out of the mouth of Sumter High School football head coach Mark Barnes before a question could be asked of how the Gamecocks’ 56-13 pounding of Ashley Ridge came about on Friday on Sumter Memorial Stadium’s Freddie Solomon Field in the first round of the AAAAA state playoffs.
SHS shut down an offense that entered the game averaging 42 points a contest and took away its biggest weapon, senior wide receiver Derrick Salley, for the vast majority of the game. Salley came into the game with 100 catches for 1,862 yards and 19 touchdowns. He did have six catches for 146 yards and one touchdown, a 52-yarder on the last play of the game.
“I had no idea that our defense would play as well as they played,” said Barnes, whose team improved to 8-3 on the season and was hosting the game as the No. 2 seed from Region 5. “I think we had a good plan in place. We knew 6 (Salley) was the guy and we needed to take him away from them.
I was really worried about this game. I was worried that this game could get away from us in the other direction. We just came out and mad the plays.”
The Swamp Foxes came into the game ranked eighth in the High School Sports Report AAAAA Sweet 16 poll to 14tyh for Sumter. Their only losses had come at the hands of No. 1 Summerville and No 7 Fort Dorchester, the defending AAAAA lower state champion, making them the No. 3 seed from Region 7.
Veteran head coach Jeff Tate, in his first year at Ashley Ridge, said the Swamp Foxes didn’t respond on any level.
“We didn't play with very much enthusiasm, we turned it over five times, we didn't stop them from running their favorite plays all night long,” Tate said. “That's what happened.”
ARHS received the opening kickoff and picked up a couple of first downs before having to punt. However, Sumter botched the punt and Ashley Ridge recovered at the Gamecocks 23-yard line. The Foxes were unable to get any closer than the 19 before turning the ball over on downs. That scenario set the tone for the game.
“That’s not the way you want to do it,” Barnes said of surviving the botched punt. “But them not scoring there was a big point in the game.”
The next time ARHS got the ball it was facing fourth down and two yards to go at its 43. Tate elected to go for it, but the 6-foot-4-inch, 205-pound Salley was stopped for no gain out of the Wildcat formation.
The Gamecocks took advantage of the short field, scoring in seven plays. Running back John Peeples scored from 11 yards out with 45 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Placekicker Alex Krivejko added the extra point to make it 7-0.
The next time Sumter got the ball, running back Kam Fortune scored on a 33-yard run. The extra point was no good, leaving the score at 13-0 with 9:59 left in the second quarter.
The Gamecocks got the ball back quickly when Ashley Ridge sophomore quarterback Trevor Kaliz threw the first of five interceptions. He was picked off by freshman defensive back Davon Bowman, who just joined the varsity after the completion of the junior varsity season. While Sumter was unable to capitalize and had to punt, it quickly got the gall back again when Kaliz was picked off by defensive back Camorie Wells.
That set Sumter up at the Swamp Foxes 37. It needed only four plays to get in the end zone with Peeples scoring from five yards out. Peeples ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 21-0 with 5:17 left in the first half.
ARHS had its only real success on offense when it mattered on the ensuing possession. It drove 67 yards in 10 plays with running back Jayden Acosta scoring from four yards out. Placekicker Keith McCune added the extra point to make it 21-7 with 2:22 left in the half.
Salley came up with his first catch of the game on the drive, a 20-yard grab on fourth down and seven yards to go for a first down at the SHS 17.
The Gamecocks didn’t rest on their laurels though and take a 14-point lead to the locker room. Instead, they drove 65 yards in seven plays with quarterback Pate Merchant going 4-for-5 for 55 yards and an 8-yard TD pass to wide receiver Jamie Tedder with 1:15 to go. The big play of the drive was a 32-yard completion to fullback Jayden Kennedy.
“I will say this, we didn't throw it much, but when we did, Pate and our receivers did well,” Barnes said. “They made big plays.”
Barnes also thought matching Ashley Ridge’s score before halftime was huge.
“That made them one-dimensional in the second half,” Barnes said. “I felt like that made it where they had to throw it.”
The Swamp Foxes couldn’t muster any offensive success in the second half. The first of three third-quarter interceptions thrown by Kaliz was returned 51 yards for a score by sophomore cornerback Bryce Allen. That made it 35-7 with 7:10 left in the third quarter.
It was Allen who was selected to cover Salley along with some help over the top, of course.
“What's crazy is me and (assistant) Coach (Brian) Wilson were talking, and we said, ‘Who do you want to put on him (Salley), and we said the same guy, the sophomore Bryce,” Barnes said. “We knew he would be calm, and he would do what he was supposed to do.”
Salley had three catches at the end of the first half for 66 yards and three for 80 yards at the end of the game to account for his numbers. Kaliz was 21 of 40 for 224 yards and the TD to go with the five picks.
“We had four or five packages defensively to try and take him out of the game,” Barnes said of Salley. “We did a great job. We ain't played like that as a defense in a long time. But that guy’s as good as I've seen.”
Tate said Sumter didn’t pull up any defensive magic trick to stifle the Foxes’ offense.
"We've seen that tactic before. It just wasn't our night, Tate said. “That's the way it is. Sometimes that's the way it is in life. Everybody has their bad days. We picked a bad day to have a bad day.
"Give Sumter credit. They took advantage of their opportunities and executed. They executed their game plan, and that's why they were successful.”
Sumter ran for 294 yards, 208 of it coming in the first half when it established its ability to run the ball. Peeples had 30 carries for 162 yards and three touchdowns, while Fortune had 91 yards and two scores on nine carries. Peeples had 132 yards at halftime while Fortune had 55.
“We felt like our offense was going to have opportunities to move the ball,” Barnes said. “We're physical, we play a different style of football. As the game went on we established ourselves. I ain’t gonna stop us. I’ll keep calling the same play.”
Merchant was 11 of 13 for 75 yards and the TD. Tedder had five catches for 40 yards and the TD.
Sumter will travel to Goose Creek next week to take on Stratford in the second round. Stratford squeezed past Chapin 28-27 to advance.
Barnes obviously hopes the play against Ashley Ridge carries over to next week.
“I don't know how to explain it,” he said. “I've been waiting all year. I've been saying all year, 'We're better than we're playing; we're better than we're playing.' Tonight was the night it came to a head. We turned them over a lot and we were flying around.
“I'm just proud of them. because this group has gone through some stuff this year. They've had a lot of people tell them what they haven't done. They lost to Crestwood (Sumter’s school district rival, they didn’t win the region. They played great tonight.”
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