What We Saw: 2024 McDonald’s Kickoff Classic

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>UNION </strong>| In two weeks, the lights will come on for real and the 2024 season begins.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>But Friday's McDonald's Kickoff Classic gave teams from across the Upstate and Catawba River Region a chance to begin to tune up and see what they do well, and what they need to improve on as the preseason is in full swing in a two 12-minute quarter scrimmage.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Game 1: Ware Shoals 33, Spartanburg Christian Academy 7</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Hornets leaned on the run game with <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1267314' first='Elijah' last='Brown'] </strong>as he showed off great speed, capping off a 48-yard touchdown run to give Ware Shoals a 6-0 lead with 10:19 left in the first quarter. <strong>Jean Johnson </strong>scored on the speed option with 5:28 to play in the first quarter, extending the Hornets' lead to 13-0 in the first quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Ethan Cloys</strong> and <strong>Jae Stewart </strong>added scores to close the scoring. <strong>Tyrell Cunningham </strong>and <strong>Joshua Wimbush </strong>were some standouts defensively for the Hornets.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Game 2: Northwestern 17, JL Mann 14</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Trojans and the Patriots provided the best scrimmage of the night as <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='241044' first='Finley' last='Polk'] </strong>connected with <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='753896' first='Jayden' last='Nichols'] </strong>for the winning touchdown with seconds remaining to give Northwestern the win.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“We made a lot of mistakes. We did some good things, that last throw and catch there at the end was pretty nice to see. We put that play in on day one so to see it come to fruition was big time and for Finley to read it and Jayden to catch it was a pretty nice deal there so that was good to see,” Northwestern coach Page Wofford said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Trojans' defense got things off to a fast start as <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1267200' first='Tamarion' last='Watkins'] </strong>took a pick six back to the house, giving Northwestern a 7-0 lead. The next few drives would be mistake filled as Polk threw interceptions on back-to-back series and JL Mann fumbled and the Trojans recovered.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>LaDannian Martin </strong>got the Patriots on the board with a touchdown on a screen, tying the game at 7 with 9:12 to go in the second quarter. Northwestern would get a big catch and run from <strong>Daniel Caldwell </strong>on a screen later, but the drive stalled inside the 10, leading to a <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1578842' first='Matthew' last='Fish'] </strong>field goal to give the Trojans the lead at 10-7 with 6:33 remaining in the contest.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1249825' first='Keyshun' last='Henderson'] </strong>had a big catch and run before scoring with 45.6 seconds left before the late Trojans' rally. Other standouts included <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1259367' first='Obadiah' last='Jones'] </strong>for JL Mann and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='605531' first='Will' last='Massey'] </strong>and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1360210' first='Mason' last='Grier'] </strong>for Northwestern.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Game 3: Chester 22, York 7 (pictured above)</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='457973' first='Trooper' last='Floyd'] </strong>and <strong>Omari Pendagrass </strong>showed their running abilities through two quarters of action. Pendagrass scored two touchdowns in the first quarter, showing off his speed on a fourth down conversion prior to one score. Floyd was used on quarterback powers and converted a two-point conversion.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“We want to make sure we can do that early in the season. If we can run the ball, we'll be able to score. I don't worry about that. We've just got to get more consistent, cut out some of the mistakes. We've got to get a little better assignment wise defensively. We've got stuff to clean up. But the thing the guys did, they played hard and that's what I appreciate, the effort. That's the one thing you can't coach,” Chester head coach Victor Floyd said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Jonathan Tobias </strong>scored on a touchdown from <strong>Ryan Brouchu, </strong>a freshman 9th grade quarterback<strong> </strong>on a nice inside route, to cut the lead to 14-7 with 11:47 to play in the contest. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1592333' first='Tayshon' last='Freeman'] </strong>was the Cougars' starter and saw some action as well. Chester added another score from <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1603999' first='Caleb' last='Feaster'] </strong>following a fumble to close the scoring.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“Some good things happened. But we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a long way to go and we'll get right back up tomorrow morning, we're going to practice first thing tomorrow morning and we've got to try and get some things worked out and we started a very young offensive line and it showed tonight. Our defensive group was young too. We've only got one returning starter on both sides of the ball and it showed tonight, first time they got out there in some live action going against a very good Chester team. Chester's got a good team. This crowd will hit you in the mouth and they did. But it's good for us. Now we've just got to keep working at it and try to get better,” York coach Dean Boyd said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Game 4: Laurens 21, Union County 8</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Laurens scored two touchdowns from <strong>Will Thompson</strong>, one in the first quarter on a quarterback keeper and the other on a pass to <strong>Juvaye Suber</strong>.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Union would connect on a big catch and run from <strong>Josh Brandon </strong>leading to a <strong>Jkevius Jennings</strong> touchdown to cut the Raiders' lead to 21-8 with 36.6 seconds left. [player_tooltip player_id='1301270' first='Ja'Quan' last='Jeter'] converted on the two-point conversion.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“He's an explosive player, a go-to guy. We try to get him in certain mismatches. Wasn't able to get to him like we wanted to but really, that's his game, man. Go ball, see ball. We've got to do a better job of trying to get him out there and getting our kids out there a little bit more. We've got an explosive offense. We've just got to gel together. It's new. We've got a lot of concepts and keys we've got to get together,” Union County head coach Quinnen Isom said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->