What We Saw: Gaffney Rallies, Blasts Spartanburg

The play that turned the 5A Upper State championship seemed simple enough. Following a Gaffney score, the Indians’ <strong>Clay Putman</strong> came up big on the next series. The sophomore defensive lineman poked the ball away from a Spartanburg runner, pounced on the loose pigskin, and set Gaffney up in good position. Six plays later, [player_tooltip player_id="31310" first="Tyler" last="Smith"] cashed in on the turnover from two yards out. Then, the rout was on. Gaffney scored 35 second-half points and blew the game open with a 21-point third quarter, defeating Spartanburg 56-31 to return to a state championship game for the first time since winning the 4A Division I title in 2012. Putman returned a fumble forced by fellow sophomore <strong>Jarriel Jefferies</strong> for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, and batted down a crucial third-down attempt. But it was the first takeaway that lit the fire for Gaffney. "I just got my hand in there and knocked it out," Putman said. "It turned out to be a big play in the game." Smith was brilliant all night for the Indians. He rushed for 178 yards and three touchdowns, and added a TD reception. The senior had 100 more yards and two additional scores called back due to penalties. His 80-yard dash in the second quarter, though, answered a Spartanburg score and tied the game at 14-14 early in the second quarter. "It definitely got our guys up," Smith said of the long scoring run. "We had to send our defense right back out, but I think it picked them up. Smith credited his offensive line with the big night. "I played pretty good, but it wouldn’t be possible without the OL up front," Smith said. "With those guys up front doing their job, it allowed me to do mine, and here we are." [player_tooltip player_id="89340" first="Grayson" last="Loftis"] had one of his biggest nights of the season at QB for Gaffney, throwing for 256 yards and four TDs. He had scoring tosses of 65 yards to <strong>Emazon Littlejohn</strong>, 22 yards to Smith, and hooked up with <strong>Edward Jefferies</strong> for 37 and 23 yards. He said Smith’s success opened up the Indians’ offense. "Oh, it’s easy," he said. "Playing quarterback is easy when you’ve got a guy like him. We’ve struggled the last couple of weeks to get everything rolling. Finally, we got everything rolling and we got some things to go our way. This year, it’s been easy at times just to hand the ball off and let them go, but we’ve got a whole different side to the offense that we haven’t shown yet." For the Vikings, [player_tooltip player_id="89339" first="Raheim" last="Jeter"] was outstanding. The junior QB finished 20-33 for 290 yards, throwing a pair of touchdows to Tiheim Richardson and another to Andrew Dantin, adding another score on the ground. &nbsp;