Midland Valley at Blythewood
By WORTHY EVANS
Special to the HSSR
Columbia - The Blythewood football team had fun on the last muggy football evening in August.
Taking on Class 4A power Midland Valley, the Bengals aired it out and made timely defensive stops in a 34-7 victory over the Mustangs.
“We wanted to get out here to see what we could do,” head coach James Martin said. “We beat the No.8 team in the state in 4A tonight, and that’s what we want. I was proud of our effort to getting where we are tonight.”
Quarterback John Henry Collins passed for 302 yards and three touchdowns, Kanye Reed had nine catches for 124 yards and Ben Hendrix caught two touchdown passes and had 89 receiving yards on the night for Blythewood (2-0).
A committee of rushers gained 111 yards to put toward the offensive effort, with Desmond Macklin scoring a TD on a run from six yards out early in the fourth quarter.
Chandler Boulware had a sack and two tackles for loss, and the defense shut out the Mustangs (0-2) through three quarters. In the second half, the Bengals forced three turnovers on downs and caused a fumble that ended one Midland Valley drive near the goal line.
“It started last year,” Martin said about Blythewood’s 2-0 start. “We’ve got 30 seniors, and we sat down with them and went through our mission, our vision, our goals, and what our standards are going to be for this season. When we established them, I’m holding them to the letter of the law of those standards, and they have been buying in all spring, they’ve been doing it all summer.”
They did it from the opening kickoff Friday night.
Blythewood drove 72 yards on 10 plays for its first score of the game. Collins connected with Hendrix for an 18-yard touchdown pass at the 8;20 mark of the first quarter.
Midland Valley responded with a scoring drive of its own. Xavier Jeter capped a 13-play 80-yard drive with a 2-yard run with 3:15 left in the first.
Bengals kicker Liam FLynn made good on field goals of 29 and 32 yards in the second quarter to put Blythewood up 13-7 with 6:10 left in the first half.
Collins closed out the first-half scoring with a 19-yard TD pass to Carter at the 2:30 mark.
After the Bengals defense forced a turnover on downs on Midland Valley’s first possession of the second half, Collins connected with Hendrix again, this time for 50 yards, on third-and-15 at midfield. Hendrix’s score put the Bengals up 27-7 with 6:51 left in the third quarter.
Macklin closed out a 16-play, 99-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown run with 10 minutes left in the game.
The Bengals defense played with the Mustangs the rest of the way, allowing big gains from young runners and receivers, but stopping Midland Valley short of scoring again. When the Bengals stopped the Mustangs’ final drive at the Blythewood 12-yard line with two minutes to go, the offense took the field and ran out the clock.
“When you’re winning it’s fun, but winning is hard. People don’t understand it, it takes a lot of work,” Martin said. “But the guys understand it and they’re on board with what we’re doing, and that’s part of the chemistry of these young men.”
Midland Valley, which lost 24 seniors from last year’s 12-1, region-winning effort, threatened to shake up Blythewood’s poise, but dropped passes and other mistakes blunted drives before they could cash in.
“We took huge steps forward, but not enough. We gotta finish,” Midland Valley interim coach Brent Dorn said. “We had plenty of opportunities but we didn’t finish. Fumbled on the 2-yard line, dropped a bunch of passes. I love these kids to death, and I’ve got all the faith in them. I know they’re going to bounce back Monday and be ready to practice.
Dorn was named interim coach before the season when head coach Earl Chaptman, who had been with the team since 2021, was charged with domestic violence and DUI earlier in the year. Those charges were dismissed because bodycam footage confirmed that the charges were unfounded. He remains as a teacher in the school.
The schedule for Midland Valley doesn’t get any easier. After falling 48-0 to J.L. Mann and then falling at Blythewood, the Mustangs play host to 2-0 Lexington, which won a 20-19 thriller at North Augusta last week.
Blythewood travels up Interstate 77 Friday to take on former region foe Fort Mill. The Yellow Jackets (1-0) played Chester Friday.
“We’ve got three straight road games, and any one of them is like a trap,” Martin said. “We might fall into the trap if we don’t keep focused and keep our minds on where we need to be.”
Midland Valley 7 0 0 0 – 7
Blythewood 7 13 7 7 – 34
First Quarter
B - Ben Hendrix 18 pass from John Henry Collins (Liam Flynn kick) 8:20
Second Quarter
B - Flynn 29 field goal 11:51
B - Flynn 32 field goal 6:10
B - Coleman Carter 19 pass from Collins (Flynn kick) 2:30
Third Quarter
B - Hendrix 50 pass from Collins (Flynn kick) 6:51
Fourth Quarter
B – Desmond Macklin 6 run (Flynn kick) 10:00
MV BHS
First Downs 19 21
Rushes-Yards. 31-166 31-111
Passing yards. 189 302
Att-Com-Int 31-11-0 31-20-0
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 0-0
Penalties-Yards 14-120 10-89
Punts-Avg. 3-34.0 1-32.0
RUSHING
M-Preston Smith 7-68, Preston McCnair 8-55, Caleb Williams 6-22, Xavier Jeter 5-21, Amari Curtis 2-2, Jayden Franklin 1-(-1), Preston Butler 2-(-1). B-John Henry Collins 6-35, Chase Brown 11-35, Desmond Macklin 8-33, Ryan Hall 2-3, Jordan Greaves 1-3, Carter Coleman 2-3, Chance Johnson 1-(-1).
PASSING
M-Preston Butler 11-31-0-189. B-John Henry Collins 20-32-0-302.
RECEIVING
M-Montez McMillan 4-66, Allen Cummings 1-36, Nolan Johnson 1-33, Cam Gleaton 1-20, Jayden Franklin 2-17, Karinton Sabb 1-12, Kamari Curtis 1-5. B-Kanye Reed 9-124, Ben Hendrix 4-89, Carter Coleman 4-60, Ryan Hall 2-21, Chance Johnson 1-8.
