BLYTHEWOOD – Had Blythewood capitalized on one last Byrnes mistake, the Bengals may well have hosted Gaffney this week in the third round of the 5A playoffs.
Instead, Rebels kicker Jacob Corman delivered a 27-24 victory on his 41-yard field goal with seven seconds left in their game Saturday at District Two Stadium.
“We tried to give it away,” Byrnes head coach Reggie Shaw said. “Two weeks in a row it’s come down to the last play. The guys found a way, that’s the name of the game, find a way. We’re still playing. We’re blessed.”
Quarterback Colby Shaw was 11-for-22 in passing for 255 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Armoni Weaver had four catches for 126 yards and a touchdown and R.J. Livingston had 104 yards on 23 carries.
Byrnes (9-3), a fourth seed, plays at No.1 Gaffney (9-3), 42-7 winners over No.3 J.L. Mann Friday. The Rebels beat Gaffney 30-21 Oct. 28 in a Region 2 game.
“We’ve already played them once and we made them mad the last time we played them,” Shaw said. “We know they’ll be ready. Anytime we go up there it’s going to be a challenge.
Corman’s kick came after Ryan Hart’s 20-yard field goal tied the game at 24 with 1:43 left. The Bengals (9-3) capitalized on a Rebels dropped kickoff that put Blythewood on the Byrnes 4-yard line.
Blythewood could have scored the game-winning touchdown, but two incomplete passes and a short run forced the Bengals to settle for Hart’s kick.
The ending capped Blythewood’s awakening into the second
half. Down 17-0, the Bengals recovered two fumbles, blocked a Byrnes punt, and
scored on each mistake.
The first fumble recovery set Blythewood up at the 11-yard line. David Herden,
in for starting quarterback Harrison Collins, led the team on a 15-play,
89-yard drive that finished with Herden’s 20-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open
Josh Gary at the 4:43 mark of the third quarter.
At the start of the fourth quarter Blythewood blocked a Corman punt. The loose ball bounced and rolled to the 11-yard line, where Tyler Grake picked it up and ran it into the end zone to cut Byrnes’ lead to17-14.
The Rebels struck fast with Shaw’s 70-yard pass play to Weaver with 10:25 left, but another Byrnes fumble gave more life to Blythewood.
Bengals defender Zarion Williams pounced on it at the Blythewood 26-yard line. From there the Bengals drove 74 yards on a clock-eating 12-play drive. Herden’s 24-yard pass to Chris Thomas put Blythewood on the 3-yard line, and three plays later Collins ran in for the Bengals’ third touchdown of the second half with 2:24 to go.
Blythewood decided to kick the ball deep, and when Byrnes muffed the kickoff Bengals special teamers recovered the ball at the Rebels’ 4-yard line.
“We thought, ‘they think we’re going to onside it, why don’t we pooch it the other way’ and it worked out in our favor,” Blythewood head coach Jason Seidel said. “We should have walked into the end zone (on second and goal) but our running back tripped, and we had a miscommunication on a fade call (on third and goal). At that point you have to score a touchdown there and we didn’t.”
Hart’s 20-yarder tied the game, but Byrnes went on a quick drive that died on the Blythewood 25-yard line, and with 11 seconds left Corman hit the game-winning 42-yarder.
Such an ending to a playoff game didn’t appear to be the case after Byrnes’ dominant first half.
The Blythewood defense stopped the Rebels at the goal line on its first drive, but the Byrnes run defense stopped the Bengals cold—eight yards on six carries. Blythewood gained just two first downs and punted five times.
The Bengals’ defense kept the first quarter scoreless, but the Rebels cashed in on two Colby Shaw touchdown passes—an 11-yarder to Kyai Cook and a 32-yarder to Dreson Evans—and Colman’s first 42-yard field goal of the game in the second quarter.
“Give credit to their defense, their defense was able to shut our run game down,” Seidel said. “It makes it hard to call plays when you’re one-dimensional, and their offense gave us a lot of looks, a lot of screens, running dart and jet, you name it, they had it.”
In the end, it took a commitment from players and coaches to finish on top, Coach Shaw said.
“We came in with five guys out (from injuries) and lost two more in the game,” He said. “But it’s the next man up and we found a way. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys and our coaches coming together and finishing the game.”
Byrnes – 0-17-0-10 — 27
Blythewood – 0-0-7-17 — 24
Second Quarter
Byr – Kyai Cook 11 pass from Colby Shaw (Jacob Coman kick) 11:51
Byr – Dreson Evans 32 pass from Shaw (Coman kick) 7:32
Byr – Coman 42 field goal 4:11
Third Quarter
Bly – Josh Gary 20 pass from David Herden (Ryan Hart kick) 4:33
Fourth Quarter
Bly – Tyler Grake 11 blocked punt return (Hart kick) 11:53
Byr – Armoni Weaver 70 pass from Shaw (Comen kick) 10:28
Bly – Harrison Collins 1 run (Hart kick) 2:24
Bly – Hart 20 field goal 1:43
Byr – Coman 41 field goal :07
Byrnes BHS
First Downs 18 15
Rushes-yards 39-185 24-65
Passing yards 255 139
Att-Com-Int 22-11-0 25-13-1
Fumbles-lost 3-2 0-0
Penalties-yards 7-70 8-70
Punts-avg 1-24.0 7-34.0
RUSHING: Byrnes – R. J. Livingston 23-105, Chamarryus Bomar 3-2, Kyai Cook 5-45, Kemren Prysock 3-12, Colby Shaw 5-7. BHS – Josh Gary 2-18, Chris Thomas 1-3, Zahir Jones 2-(-1), Deandre Williams 4-29, Harrison Collins 7-(-18), David Herden 8-34.
PASSING: Byrnes – Colby Shaw 11-22-0-255. BHS – David Herden 11-16-0-107, Harrison Collins 4-7-1-32.
RECEIVING: Byrnes – Armoni Weaver 4-126, R.J. Livingston 3-41, Ethan Morris 1-44, Dreson Evans 1-32, Kyai Cook 1-7. BHS – Josh Gary 9-89, Chris Thomas 2-22, Deon Tyler 2-22, Trent Lewis 1-6.
