Sumter holds off Ridge View 36-29 to win Region 5-AAAAA title

    Sumter – He didn’t say it in so many words, but Mark Barnes and his Sumter High School football team came into Friday’s game against Ridge View with a chip on their shoulders.

     The Gamecocks lost to White Knoll in the second game of the season, and while they haven’t lost since, they’ve been in plenty of shootouts. Friday’s game followed much the same pattern and SHS came out victorious again, winning 36-29 on Memorial Stadium’s Freddie Solomon Field to secure the Region 5-AAAAA title.

     “It was a great win for us,” said Barnes, who has led Sumter to nine region titles in his 11 seasons as head coach. “I think everyone slept on Sumter football earlier this year. We played without a lot of players early, we lost to (6-3) White Knoll (28-6), which is a great football team. I think everybody just put us to bed and said, ‘They’re not as good as they’ve been.’

     “I’m proud of our players. I think everybody had kind of forgot about Sumter, but we put Sumter back on the map tonight. This program ain’t dead yet, and we’re going to have to be dealt with.”

     Sumter improved to 8-1 on the season and 5-0 in region play. RV, which fell to 6-3 and 4-1, came into the contest on a roll. Its two losses – in the second and third games of the season -- were to defending AAAAA Division I state champion Dutch Fork by a 28-21 score and to defending AAAAA Division II state champion Northwestern by a 35-28 count. In the six victories, Ridge View had outscored the opposition 241-28.

     SHS scored the game’s first 21 points before the Blazers went on a 95-yard scoring drive jut before halftime to make the score 21-7. They received the second-half kickoff, put it in the end zone and added the 2-point conversion to make it 21-15. After that, it was wide open for both offenses

     “We’re a talented football team with the ability to move the football and stop people,” said RV head coach Derek Howard. “I’m not surprised by anything the guys did after the first quarter.”

     Ridge View actually came back and took the lead. Junior running back Spencer Bobian scored on a 1-yard run to cap off a scoring dive to tie the game at 21-21. Senior placekicker Issaija Yohannes added the extra point to make it 22-21 late in the third quarter.

     “We were just making halftime adjustments,” Howard said. “We knew we got the ball back (to start the second half) and we knew if we came out and scored it would be a 1-score game and that’s what happened.”

     After stalling out on its first second-half possession, Sumter answered. Though he only threw four passes in the game, perhaps the biggest play of the game was quarterback Franklin Richardson’s 28-yard completion to wide receiver Jacori Jackson. After a holding penalty and a 4-yard loss on first down, the Gamecocks found themselves facing third down and 19 yards to go after a 5-yard run. Richardson connected with Jackson for the completion, giving them a first down at the Blazers 36-yard line.

     “Frank’s won a bunch of ball games for us, and he’s going to win a bunch more because he’s just a junior,” Barnes said. “He’s just relentless and he makes good throws when I need him to make good throws, timely throws. I should probably have him throw the ball more. He’s such a great young man and exemplifies everything we want our football program to be about. He's a dawg. He’s physical and he’s fast.”

     A 30-yard run by senior running back Cayon Gordon on third and 10 set SHS up for first and goal at the 6. Richardson scored the third of his four touchdowns two plays later on a 4-yard run to make it 27-22. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Sumter had placekicker Gordon Rivers attempting a 35-yard extra point, but he hit it to make it 28-22 with 1028 remaining in the game.

     The Gamecocks again had no answer for the Blazers. They drove right back down the field with Bobian scoring from 12 yards out with 6:50 left. Yohannes’ extra point made it 29-28.

     SHS would not be deterred on the ensuing possession, even after a penalty took a touchdown off the board. However, that may have actually ended up working in its favor.

     Sumter had picked up a couple of first downs for first down and 10 at the RV 43. Richardson ran a keeper and broke away from the pack for a touchdown run with 3:58 to go. After a lengthy discussion, the officials penalized the Gamecocks for not having enough players on the line, taking the score off the board and making it first and 15 from the 48.

     Four plays – and 1:57 – later, Richardson scored one that counted on an 11-yard run. He then threw a short pass to tight end Joseph Chapman for the 2-point conversion to make it 36-29 with 2:01 remaining.

     “If you would have told me we were going to score anyway, I’m glad they called the penalty because I wanted to run more time off the clock,” Barnes said.

     Having those 117 seconds extended to the scoring drive proved to be invaluable. Ridge View came marching down the field again, converting on a pair of fourth-down plays. On the first set of downs, it was facing third and 20 at its 27 when junior quarterback Anthony Smalls connected with junior wide receiver Khristian Jackson for gains of 13 and 12 yards, respectively, for a first down at the SHS 48.

     Then on fourth and 11 from the 35 with less than 20 seconds left, Smalls hooked up with senior wide receiver Carter Coleman for 15 yards and a first down at the 20. After spiking the ball, the Blazers had eight seconds remaining. Smalls threw to Coleman in the left corner of the end zone and he was initially open. Sumter free safety Caleb Taylor came sprinting from the middle of the field though and batted the pass down with three seconds left.

     Smalls had another toss to the end zone knocked down as well, setting off a wild celebration among the Gamecocks and their fans.

     “We made the stop when we needed to make the stop,” Barnes said. “We told them just back up and somebody make a play. They’ve got to throw it in the end zone, so just back up, somebody knock the ball down and let’s celebrate. It was really fitting …. our deense needed to be on the field and have to make a stop, if that makes sense.”

     Caleb finished with eight tackles and three pass breakups. Tymarius Thompson-Durant had 15 tackles and one tackle for loss, Nashan Brown had 13 tackles and Jaonte Brown had seven tackles and two quarterback sacks.

     Gordon rushed for 134 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries to lead SHS. Richardson had 94 yards and the four TDs on 19 carries while completing 3 of 4 passes for 35 yards. Cleveland Pinckney IV had 33 yards on five carries, and Reggie Shannon had 28 yards on five carries.

     Barnes is proud of how the Gamecocks added another region title to the trophy case.

     “We talked about this in practice,” Barnes said of Sumter losing just two region games in his tenure. ‘That’s our standard. We’re going to win region championships and they’re in our way, and we need to find a way to beat them and tonight we did.”

     For Ridge View, Smalls completed 22 of 35 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown while running for 28 yards on nine carries. Khristian Jackson had eight catches for 106 yards and a TD, while Coleman had eight catches for 93 yards.

Bobian ran for 125 yards and three TDs on 21 carries and caught two passes for 19 yards.