What We Saw: Belton-Honea Path 37, Greer 7

Jed Blackwell August 30, 2024 @ 11:01 PM

GREER | [player_tooltip player_id='605525' first='Marquise' last='Henderson'] and Belton-Honea Path's offense did plenty in the Bears' 37-7 win over Greer on Friday.   But defense made the difference.   The Bears got a huge special teams play, frustrated the Yellow Jackets' offense until deep into the fourth quarter, and led the way as the Bears moved to 2-0 on the year.   "I knew Greer was going to be Greer," BHP coach Russell Blackston said. "Coach Young does a tremendous job. I knew they were going to be tough. They were giving us an eight-man box look, they did a good job kind of limiting what we wanted to do."   Colby Bates, Jacus Paul, and [player_tooltip player_id='1372151' first='Jakyri' last='Anderson'] had four tackles each for the Bears, and BHP forced a pair of turnovers. The first of those set the tone for the game, and came at the conclusion of what Blackston said was one of the strangest sequence of plays he's seen. Penalties forced the Bears to punt on three straight snaps. The last one paid off for the Bears, as [player_tooltip player_id='1249760' first='Tye' last='Kelly'] blew up the Greer returner and [player_tooltip player_id='779428' first='Tajeh' last='Watson-Martin'] scooped up the fumble, returning it 40 yards for a 6-0 BHP lead.   "I've never played a football game where we punted three times in a row - penalty, penalty, penalty, punt," Blackston said. "But then our senior, I call him The General, Tye, went down there and made a big hit, and Tajeh Watson scooped it up. He's a sophomore, and he's just getting better every day.:   Meanwhile, Greer's defense seemed determined to stop Henderson from his usual game-breaking night. And they did, to some degree, as he was a little bit limited by the looks the Yellow Jackets showed up front, where [player_tooltip player_id='1734653' first='Lewis' last='Bussey'] had a particularly good night with five tackles, a sack, and two tackles for loss. [player_tooltip player_id='1405166' first='Aiden' last='Jones'], Calvin McCoy, and [player_tooltip player_id='1254107' first='Brody' last='Diggins'] also stood out for Greer.   However, Henderson was able to get loose a couple of times, and in a big way. On the Bears' third drive of the night, he showed exactly why he's so dangerous. On the first play from scrimmage, he pushed a pile 12 yards, as seemingly every Yellow Jacket on the field got a hand on him. On the next carry, nobody did. He bounced a carry outside and went 59 yards for a TD to make it 13-0.   Henderson scored again on a 55-yard score, and ended up with 140 yards on the ground. He caught six balls for 32 more yards, but one of those catches resulted in one of the oddest stats you'll ever see: [player_tooltip player_id='283891' first='Noah' last='Thomas'] is credited with a 45-yard TD pass...to [player_tooltip player_id='283891' first='Noah' last='Thomas']. He found Henderson on a dump-off, Henderson was hemmed up behind the line, and he pitched it back to Thomas, who went 45 yards down the Greer sideline, clanging off one defender and outrunning another. Thomas also fired a 32-yard TD to Watson-Martin.   Greer got on the board late on Nick Holmes' 22-yard score. Holmes and [player_tooltip player_id='600452' first='Kaden' last='Rowland'] looked good running Greer's RPO look on offense. Holmes rushed for 121 yards, and Rowland made a bunch of good decisions to put Greer in a good position. Mike Williams had four catches for 72 yards, and McCoy ran hard at the end of the game for the Yellow Jackets.

GREER | Marquise Henderson Marquise Henderson 5'10" | 170 lbs | RB Belton-Honea Path | 2025 State SC and Belton-Honea Path's offense did plenty in the Bears' 37-7 win over Greer on Friday.