What We Saw: Daniel Defeats Belton Honea Path In Thriller

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>CENTRAL</strong> | Survive and advance was on full display on Friday night for Daniel in the 3A Upper State semifinal.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Belton Honea Path's <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='605525' first='Marquise' last='Henderson'], </strong>with just seconds remaining in the contest, was going in to take the lead on a touchdown when there was a bad quarterback-running back exchange, resulting in a fumble at the 1-yard line. The Lions recovered it, winning a 28-23 thriller to advance to the 3A state championship against Camden next Saturday night at 7 pm on the campus of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/1BStockdale/status/1728245914740113832?s=20","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/1BStockdale/status/1728245914740113832?s=20 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“(We) preach a lot about ball security and like I said, we made some mistakes going down the stretch. They didn't make many mistakes going down the stretch and that just happened to be one of them and we were in position to be where we were supposed to be to take advantage of that,” Daniel coach Jeff Fruster said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>BHP came out knowing the Lions would want to keep it balanced with <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='997148' first='Ja'kari' last='Bennett']</strong> in the backfield, but <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1048130' first='Exzavier' last='Burns']</strong> made an early stop on a tackle for loss on the Lions' first series. <strong>Que Alexander </strong>came up with a huge catch and run on the rollout from [player_tooltip player_id='283891' first='Noah' last='Thomas'] into Daniel territory. That's as far as BHP would get on their first series, as they converted a 29-yard <strong>Timothy Bertoni </strong>to get the first points of the night at 3-0 with 2:39 to play in the opening quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Henderson was a star of the night for the Bears. He ran hard scoring three touchdowns, especially with the help of the left side of the offensive line. He scored his first touchdown of the night on an 18-yard TD run to put the Bears up 10-0 with 11:01 to play in the second quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Daniel's response didn't take long, thanks to a huge run from Bennett into BHP territory followed by <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1055627' first='Kolton' last='Chapman'] </strong>(pictured above) connecting with <strong>Graydon Nix </strong>on an out route on a 19-yard TD to get the Lions back in it at 10-7 with 8:18 to play before the half. The connection between Chapman and Nix was evident throughout the night -- when the offense needed a play made, Nix delivered.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The momentum would shift towards Daniel as they made a 4th down stop with 6:33 to play before the half. Chapman would score on a keeper to give the Lions their first lead of the night at 14-10 with 5:12 to play before the half.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“I definitely think Kolton is starting to come into his own. He's starting to command a presence, starting to take some ownership into what we're asking him to do, so proud of him for that,” Fruster said on his senior quarterback's performance.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Henderson scored again on essentially the exact same play down the left sideline to put the Bears back in the lead with 17-14 with 4:38 to play before the half. Chapman would score again on another short keeper with 59 seconds left as the home team took a 21-17 lead to the halftime locker room.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The two teams traded turnovers on their first possession of the second half. BHP's <strong>Colby Bates </strong>made an impressive interception with 8:13 to play in the third quarter.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Tory Shaw </strong>scored on a short run up the gut to put Daniel up 28-17 with 1:49 to play in the third quarter. And it appeared the Lions were in position to put the game away.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Henderson had other ideas going into the fourth quarter. He took the direct snap, cutting into Daniel's lead at 28-23, which is as far as BHP would get.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Bears got a strip sack of Chapman with 3:35 remaining in the contest to set up the wild finish.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“We're very blessed, very fortunate to be available. That's what we've talked about all year. The best ability is availability and right now, we've got five more days with our guys and we're still available to play football.”</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->