Belton-Honea Path plays host to Seneca in its opening game in the AAA state playoffs
Bears take 6-3 record into postseason in first season under head coach David Crane
Honea Path – In its first season under head coach David Crane, the Belton-Honea Path High School football team stumbled out of the gate a bit. Now it did so against two high-powered teams in T.L. Hanna and Daniel, but when you’re a program that has played for the last two AAA state titles and have lost a combined six games in the four previous seasons, losing the first two is a stumble.
The Bears only lost to Hanna, a AAAA school which is 8-2, 17-14. It was a different story against Daniel, the undefeated top ranked AAA team, according to High School Sports Report. They lost 45-0.
Since that inauspicious start, BHP has won six of its last seven and is ranked eighth in AAA The only loss came to AAA No. 4 Wren 41-21 n a game that decided the Region 2 title.
Belton-Honea Path finished second and got a first-round bye. It will play host to Seneca in a second-round game on November 13.
“Overall, I would say we have improved a great deal from where we were at the start of the season, which we kind of felt all along would be the case.,” Crane said. “With as much experience as we had lost over the last couple seasons, we had a lot of young or first-time varsity starters in some key spots. Those kids have grown up and gotten better, and we have had a really tough schedule. Hopefully that schedule has prepared us well for November.”
Seneca will come into the game with a 7-4 record after smoking Southside 77-0 in the first round. Crane isn’t quite sure how he feels about the bye week.
“The first-round bye? Ask me after the second-round game,” Crame said with a laugh. “No, to be honest, for us I think it's probably going to be a good thing. We have had a very tough region, lots of competitive games that have gone down to the wire.
“It was probably good for us to have a chance to have a week to just work on BHP and get a couple kids healed up.”
Points have not been easy to come by for BHP. It is averaging just under 22 points a game, and the 198 points it has allowed is actually one more than it has scored.
Still, Crane sees improvement in the unit.
“Offensively we have made progress for sure and probably played the best we have played in the first half last week against Emerald,” Crane said of the 35-30 win in the regular-season finale. “We still need to be more consistent, but we have shown the ability to be our best when our best was needed.”
Freshman Rylan Crooks is the quarterback. He has completed 72 of 124 passes for 789 yards and seven touchdowns. Sophomore Malachi Bohler is the only player with more than 10 catches as he has 36 receptions for 348 yards and four scores. Junior Judd Lowie has 10 grabs for 232 yards.
The Bears are averaging 149.0 rushing yards a contest and are led by senior Cam Robinson. Hie has 583 yards and eight TDs on 136 carries. Bohler has 239 yards, and freshman Amire Rosemond has 129 yards.
