Sep. 4—HOLLY HILL 58, WARDLAW 0
JOHNSTON — This wasn’t the start to the season Mark Rodgers wanted for his seniors.
Wardlaw Academy’s football team had its previously-scheduled season opener canceled last week, meaning Friday night’s game against Holly Hill Academy — the defending SCISA 8-man state champions — became the first game of the season.
Rodgers knew his team was inexperienced in several key spots, and not having those in-game reps a week ago certainly didn’t help them any in a 58-0 loss marred by mistakes.
“We’ve got to go back to work,” Rodgers said. “I mean, we had four turnovers against the defending state champion, and you’ve got 100 yards of penalties that were self-inflicted. You can’t beat a good team with that kind — you’ve got to be flawless.”
Those turnovers were all self-inflicted, too. Five times the Patriots (0-1) put the ball on the ground simply trying to hand it off, and they only fell on one of those. Those weren’t mistakes they were making in practice leading up to the game, but they happened at the worst possible time.
“You can tell that we are young. Not necessarily as far as grade-wise, but experience-wise,” Rodgers said. “We are green, and we’re going to have to go through some growing pains. The boys that have played for us, they understand when I tell them that we’ve got growing pains. We’re all going to live through it.”
Holly Hill rushed for 339 yards on 28 carries, and the Raiders routinely exploited mismatches on both the offensive and defensive lines.
Landon Wash led the Patriots offensively with 85 rushing yards, but it took him 28 carries to get there against a swarming, experienced Raiders defense. Addison Faust, a newcomer at quarterback, was greeted rudely by Holly Hill — he was held to 30 yards rushing on 18 carries and was intercepted.
Wardlaw’s first offensive possession ended with a bad snap on a punt attempt, giving the Raiders the ball back on the Patriots’ 11-yard line. They scored two plays later, and they held a 16-0 lead after one quarter.
The Raiders added two long touchdown runs in the second quarter for a 28-0 halftime lead, and a fumbled exchange on Wardlaw’s first possession of the second half gave the Raiders the ball only 4 yards from the goal line.
They scored on the next snap, and then again on the one after that when they returned a Wardlaw fumble 35 yards for a score that made it 42-0 with 10:21 left in the third quarter.
Wardlaw fumbled again on its next drive, this time at the 48-yard line, but Holly Hill scored another touchdown on the next play. The Raiders added one last score with 3:23 to play.
Rodgers thought his underclassmen played well in a tough matchup, and he was especially pleased with how his freshmen jumped right into the fire against the defending champs.
“Well, we competed. The effort is there. That, to me, is 99 percent of the battle,” he said. “I can teach them the knowledge. I can’t teach them to want it. They’ve got to have a little bit of that spark in them.”
The Patriots will simplify some things defensively moving forward as they gear up for region play and a potential playoff run. Rodgers is back calling the offense after running the defense the last six years, and he said that’s a learning experience for him just as much for his younger players.
It doesn’t get any easier next week for the Patriots with a trip to perennial power Andrew Jackson Academy. The growing pains will continue for a little while, but Rodgers is confident his team will be where it needs to be in time for the postseason.
“We’ll be fine at the end of the line. I promise you. We’ll be around,” he said. “If COVID don’t get us like it did last year, we’ll be in the playoffs. That’s my goal. Once we get there, everybody is 0-0. At that point, all you’ve got to do is win three.”