Wilson Hall wins SCISA Region2-AAA title with 34-15 win over Florence Christian
Top-ranked Barons score 28 unanswered points to improve to 7-1
Sumter – Football teams used to study film – now it’s video – of the upcoming opponent the week of the game. It’s usually against other teams though.
Wilson Hall had the chance to review over a quarter of it playing against Florence Christian School prior to welcoming the Eagles to Gaither Spencer Field on Friday. And Barons head coach Adam Jarecki believes that made a big difference in his team coming away with a 34-15 victory.
“We made some adjustments from the quarter we played them a couple of weeks ago,” said Jarecki, whose team trailed FCS 3-0 early in the second quarter of a game started on September 26 before being postponed due to inclement weather. “We lined up right. They fooled us in some of their alignments, and we didn’t get lined up right. We didn’t reinvent the wheel. We just made sure that we lined up right. That was the biggest thing.”
With the victory, WH wrapped up the SCISA Region 2-AAA title, closing with a perfect 4-0 record. Ranked No. 1 in the High School Sports Report AAA poll, the defending AAA state runner-up improved to 7-1 overall.
“We came here with the idea we wanted to win the region tonight,” said Jarecki, whose team concludes the regular season with non-region road games against Thomas Sumter Academy and First Baptist. “We wanted to get it over and be done with it. That puts us in the bracket opposite (defending AAA state champion) Pinewood (Prep in the state playoffs). Plus, we’re going to stay here for the (first two rounds of the) playoffs and that’s big.
“I’m proud of all of them. We had some guys step up and really, really come through.”
Florence Christian, ranked third in the AAA poll, dropped to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in region play. It has region contests against Northside Christian Academy (0-2 in region) on the road on October 24 and a home game against 2-1 Trinity Collegiate on October 31 in the regular-season finale.
“We’ve still got a lot to play for,” said Eagles head coach Neil Minton. “We have a lot of football ahead of us. This is a pretty young team, we have a lot of young players. We have to learn how to win these type games.”
FCS took a 3-0 lead a minute into the second quarter on a 32-yard field goal by senior Brooks Poston on September 26 before the bad weather ended the evening. It was unable to find the same mojo either on offense or defense on Friday. Instead, it was all Wilson Hall.
The Barons took a 6-3 lead at 6:09 of the second quarter on a touchdown run by sophomore running back Cameron Wilsey. Things started to quickly unravel for Florence Christian at that point.
The Eagles fumbled the football on the ensuing possession with the Barons recovering at the FCS 34-yard line. Senior running back Ben McLaurin broke off a 19-yard run for a first down at the 15. However, a holding penalty and a 6-yard loss on third down had WH facing fourth down and 22 yards to go from the 27.
Wilson Hall elected to go for it all and it paid off. Senior quarterback Ford Wilder hit senior wide receiver Cooper Hill on the run down the middle of the field. He gathered the ball in in the back of the end zone and got his feet down for the touchdown before running out of the end zone. McLaurin ran for the 2-point conversion to make it 14-3 with 1:03 left in the first half.
“He made the perfect throw and hit him in the back of the end zone,” Jarecki said of Wilder. “I’m very proud of him. I’m proud of all of the guys. It was imperative that we scored before halftime.”
That’s because Florence Christian was receiving the second-half kickoff. However, the Barons forced the Eagles to punt after three downs and a bad snap forced punter Poston to fall on the ball at the FCS 16.
Wilsey scored on the next play to make it 20-3 with 9:26 left in the third quarter.
On its ensuing possession, Florence Christian was again forced into a punting situation. This time the snap was good, but the Eagles ran a fake. The pass fell incomplete though and WH took over at the FCS 24.
This time it was Milling Galloway who scored on the first play with 6:11 t o go. McLaurin ran for the two points to make it 28-3.
“It was huge to come out in the second half and shut them down and then come up with another score,” Jarecki said. “That was the plan this week, to finish the job.”
“You can’t give a good team that short of a field,” Minton said. “We had a chance in the third quarter. If we take that drive and go down and score, we make it a ball game. But we didn’t and then we turn it over.”
Florence Christian immediately made it 28-9 on an 80-yard scoring run by Poston. The Eagles then recovered an onside kick at the Wilson Hall 49. They were unable to get a first down though and turned it over on downs at their 47.
Wilson Hall put together an 8-play scoring drive that ended with a 21-yard TD run by Wilder with 11:04 remaining in the game.
FCS’ final score was a 9-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Riley Minton to sophomore fullback Sullivan Hardy.
Coach Minton paid due to the Barons for the game’s outcome.
“They’re an older, stronger team and it showed tonight,” he said. “They were very prepared and they played well. I give them all the credit. We didn’t play our best.
“They played well in all three phases and we didn’t. We turned it over and we were very sloppy We had more penalties tonight than we’ve had and missed assignments. And when we did things right, they beat us. They broke tackles, they made good blocks, so give them credit. They played great and we’ve got to get back to work.”
Jarecki was pleased with his team’s overall performance.
“We did what we do on offense. We’re going to try and establish our running game and go at you. Ford had a nice night and came through with some big passes. It was just a great overall effort by everybody.
“I’m very proud of the defense. We were able to hold them down for a couple of chances. We made the adjustments we needed to make.”
