BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood football team did everything it could to snap its losing ways, but in the end Sumter held out to deliver a 47-34 loss to the Bengals.
Quarterback James Veasey threw a season-high five touchdown passes and was 18-for-24 in passing for 214 yards with one interception. He also had 21 carries for 95 yards.
Tay’Shawn Johnson and Ben Hendrix had two receiving touchdowns apiece. Johnson had five catches for 60 yards and Hendrix had three catches for 48 yards. Landyn Strong had 20 receiving yards and one receiving TD to go with 83 rushing yards on seven carries. Chance Johnson had six catches for 57 yards.
The Bengals took a 7-0 lead on Veasey’s 16-yard TD pass to Tay’Shawn Johnson. After Sumter tied the game at 7 with Franklin Richardson’s 1-yard TD run, Veasey connected with Hendrix for a 32-yard touchdown pass.
The Gamecocks made it 21-14 at the half with back-to-back touchdown runs. Richardson scored on a 30-yard run, then Cleveland Pinkney scored from one yard out.
Pinkney scored on a 4-yard run to make it 28-14 early in the third quarter. On Blythewood’s next drive Strong set the Bengals up in scoring position with a long run, and Veasey tossed a 1-yard TD pass to Hendrix to make it 38-21 midway through the third.
Pinkney scored again on a 2-yard run to make it 34-21, but Veasy hit Strong for a 10-yard touchdown pass on the next position with about a minute left in the third quarter.
Just before the close of the third, Richardson got sprung for a 76-yard touchdown run to make it 40-28 going into the final quarter.
Veasey got the Bengals back to within one possession with a 35-yard TD strike to Johnson to make it 40-34 early in the fourth quarter, but the Gamecocks drained the clock and scored again on a 9-yard Richardson run with about a minute left in the game.
Blythewood had good field position at its own 34-yard line with 59 seconds left, but Sumter picked off a Veasey pass and ran out the clock.
Blythewood (3-6, 1-4 Region 5-5A) has a bye week this week and ends the regular season at Ridge View (6-2, 4-0) Oct. 31 and Sumter (7-1, 4-0) plays host to the Blazers Friday and closes out the regular season at Westwood Oct. 31.