INDIAN LAND – A small offensive outburst in the first quarter was enough for the Catawba Ridge Copperheads to grab a win over the Indian Land Warriors.
Catawba Ridge won 14-7 to improve to 5-2 overall and 2-1 in Region 3-5A. The Copperheads were led by quarterback CJ Couch, who went 12-for-23 for 129 yards and two touchdowns. His leading receiver was Braylen Burgis who caught five passes for 55 yards. Brayden Wasik led the Catawba Ridge rushing attack with 11 carries for 33 yards.
“We definitely didn’t execute the way we wanted to in the second half, but when your defense plays like that and you give them a 14-point lead, good things tend to happen,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Zac Lendyak. “The bye week was huge in getting some guys back. Getting some extra time to look at film helps.”
Catawba Ridge got off to a quick start scoring on the first drive of the game. The Copperheads were able to move the ball and Couch connected with Wasik for a 16-yard touchdown with 9:06 in the opening quarter.
Indian Land struggled early getting past the Copperheads line and was forced to punt on their first two possessions.
The Warriors struggled also with penalties which forward them backwards more than they were able to move forward.
Catawba Ridge again was able to take advantage of good starting position and put together a second scoring drive capped off by an 18-yard touchdown pass from Couch to Burgis.
The two teams traded turnovers off interceptions and neither were able to make anything of it.
The Warriors continued to struggle moving the ball which led to Sequel Patterson moving to quarterback for the remainder of the game after starting quarterback Matt Kucia went down with an injury.
Catawba Ridge led 14-0 at the half and held the Warriors to just 44 total yards of offense in the first half. Indian Land had 71 yards of penalties in the first half as well.
The Warriors got the ball to open the second half and ran it straight at the Copperheads. Patterson put Indian Land on his back early in the drive, but penalties again killed the drive for the Warriors.
Catawba Ridge wasn’t able to do anything either on their first possession of the third quarter and was forced to punt.
On Indian Land’s second possession of the third quarter, the Warriors were aided by consecutive 15-yard penalties by Catawba Ridge pushing them past midfield.
The Warriors’ Jamol Horton helped the drive picking up several first downs. Indian Land went 12 plays and held the ball for six minutes, but came up empty handed failing to score.
Neither team scored in the third quarter as Catawba Ridge ran less than 10 plays in the quarter.
Indian Land was able put together their best drive of the game getting to the red zone for just the second time in the game. Horton and Patterson moved the ball on the ground capping off a 1-yard touchdown run by Patterson to get Indian Land on the board with 3:10 left in the game.
Catawba Ridge struggled to move the ball after the Warriors score giving them the ball back with 30 seconds remaining in the game. Indian Land effort would come up short in the remaining time as they would fall to 4-3 on the season and 1-2 in the region.
The Copperheads will host rival Nation Ford next week on Friday, Oct. 18 in the Pit.
“It should be fun,” Lendyak said. “They (Nation Ford) have an electric offense.”
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
