Williamsburg beats Colleton Prep 34-14 to win SCISA Class A football title

 Orangeburg – Williamsburg Academy football player Micah Balder said this back in August prior to the start of the 2025 season.

 “The past two years we’ve lost state, so this year we’re just trying not to lose state,” Balder said of the Stallions, who had played in four consecutive SCISA state championship games but had won only once, in 2022. “We’ve got the experience of playing in the state championship game, but we don’t have the experience of winning it. I guess that’s the overall goal. I guess they’ve got to learn winning is a whole lot better than losing.”

 Mission accomplished.

 WA made it five straight title game appearances in a row and used an opportunistic defense to come away with a 34-14 victory over Colleton Prep Academy for the Class A crown on Saturday on Willie Jeffries Field at South Carolina State’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

 “It means everything to win it again,” said Balder, a senior starting at quarterback and safety. “All the hours we put in over the summer, all the hours we put in after school, It was like 5-hour days every day. This made all that worth it.”

 Balder was a freshman on the ’22 AA state championship team. Fellow senior Jay Kellahan was also on that team, making the duo the only two players in school history to be on two championship teams.

 “It means a lot,” said Kellahan, who starts at tight end and inside linebacker. “We lost the last two, which sucked. We’ve been working hard all season, and it finally paid off. We’re super happy.”

 The title comes in Williamsburg’s first season with Will Furse as head coach. The title is the first for Furse as a head coach. He led Laurence Manning Academy to two SCISA AAAA title game appearances during his two seasons there.

 Furse is happy his team was able to accomplish the feat, knowing the work that had been put in in hopes of achieving it.

 “It means a lot,” said Furse, who guided WA to an 11-1 record. “I’m so happy for the kids and our program. They’ve come up short a lot, losing this game the last two years.

“It means a whole lot for our program. We put in a ton of work starting June 1, and we never stopped. And they didn’t want to stop.”

It was defense that spurred the Stallions on to victory. They forced five turnovers, two of which led directly to scores. Sophomore cornerback Gamble Wilson returned an interception 36 yards for a touchdown, and fellow sophomore cornerback Lane Patrick grabbed a fumble and returned it 42 yards for a score.

 The other two interceptions, coming from Balder and junior inside linebacker Michael Ard, set Williamsburg up for quick scores.

“I was proud of our defense,” Furse said. “They came through in the second half. They did a great job forcing turnovers, making plays that were there to be made.

“It was really just be ready, stay ready. And that’s what our guys were doing. There were plays to be made and we made them. That’s what a good team does.”

War Hawks head coach Greg Langdale lamented the fact that it was turnovers that proved so costly.

“Yeah, that’s the story.” said Langdale, who led CPA to a 9-3 record. “That’s something we’ve kind of hung our hat on all year is that we didn’t turn the ball over. Every game all year we wanted to say we won the turnover battle, but tonight it jumped up and bit us.

“That’s a great team and they forced a lot of that. There were a lot of other mistakes besides turnovers that hurt us, but that’s the one that jumps out.”

The ball-hawking defense showed up immediately. Ard intercepted Colleton Prep quarterback Cale Owens and returned it 25 yards deep inside War Hawk territory on the game’s opening possession. Two plays later, Balder scored from four yards out on a QB keeper and then ran for the 2-point conversion to put WA up 8-0 less than a minute into the contest.

CPA responded with a long, time-consuming scoring drive that ended with Owens going in from a yard out on fourth down and goal. The junior then passed to junior wide receiver Perry Corbett for two points to tie the game at 8-8 with 2:12 remaining in the first quarter.

The Stallions answered with their best drive of the night, going 68 yards in 10 plays for the score. Junior running back Grant Small, who went over 2,000 rushing yards for the season during the game, capped it off with a 3-yard scoring run. Balder ran for the conversion to make it 16-8 with 11:20 left in the second quarter.

Williamsburg appeared to be in position to really take charge of the game when Colleton Prep fumbled the ensuing kickoff with WA recovering at the War Hawk 28. After Balder completed a 16-yard pass to Kellahan to the 12 on the first play, the Stallions were really in business.

However, CPA turned them away, stopping Balder for a 1-yard gain on fourth and three from the 5.

It appeared Colleton Prep would go into halftime at worst trailing by eight or at best either tied or a few points closer as it was driving into Williamsburg territory late in the first half. That was before Balder intercepted Owens and returned it 42 yards to the War Hawk 38 with just 17 seconds to go in the first half.

WA loaded up and went for bear on first down as Balder threw across the field to freshman wide receiver Caden Morris in the end zone. Morris went over the CPA defender to make the TD grab with 10 seconds remaining. The Stallions led 22-8 at halftime.

 “We practiced that all year, and he just went up and made a play,” Balder said. “The trust is there that he can come down with the throw.”

 Furse said the play is run specifically from the left hash mark, so when the ball was spotted on the left hash mark following the interception return …..

 “I’d been wanting to run it, so I thought it was the right time for it,” Furse said. “Micah made a great throw and Caden made that fantastic catch. He’s going to be a special one.”

Williamsburg received the second-half kickoff and looked as though it might put the game away early as it drove deep into Colleton Prep territory. However, Balder was picked off by War Hawk junior cornerback Hartman Fisk.

CPA started at its 9 and put together a 10-play scoring drive. It ended with senior running back Tanner Wolf, who rushed for 50 of the 91 yards, scoring from five yards out. That made it 22-14 with 2:19 left in the third quarter.

When Colleton Prep forced WA to turn it over on downs on the first play of the fourth quarter, it had a chance to possibly tie the game. However, on third and one, Wilson stepped in front of a War Hawk receiver on a quick pass to the sideline for the 36-yard Pick 6. That made it 28-14 with 11:29 to go in the contest.

“I had a pretty good idea it was coming,” Wilson said. “I just jumped it, picked it off and ran it back.”

“Gamble is very athletic, very instinctive,” Furse said. “He loves playing cornerback, and he loves for the ball to be thrown to his side. He recognized it very quickly and jumped inside, and the receiver couldn’t block him, and he made a play.”

Just a few plays later, the Stallions put the final nail in the coffin. CPA fumbled the football and Patrick came up with the 42-yard scoop and score with 8:47 remaining for the final score.

“We did our job, we did it right, and we executed,” Kellahan said. “They had the momentum with them, so we just had to keep on playing, keep on fighting. We came through.”

Small led the Williamsburg offense with 26 carries for 140 yards and a touchdown. He finished the season with 2,080yards and 26 TDs on 224 carries.

Balder had eight carries for 37 yards and a touchdown and completed 4 of 7 passes for 82 yards and a score. Kellahan had two catches for 38 yards and sophomore running back Eli Brown had five carries for 28 yards.

Outside linebacker Charlie Caulder had a forced fumble and broke up two passes.

Despite the loss, Langdale is excited for what the future holds for Colleton Prep.

“We’re still a really young team,” he said. “We were a really, really young team last year. The young team we just continued to see them grow throughout the year, especially the offensive line. We did have to put four new starters out there, but they’ve come along really good. We return 17 of 22 starters, so we look forward to next season.”