By Eugene Jolley
Courier Sports

ejolley@thepccourier.com

PICKENS — It was a tale of two halves Friday night as undefeated Seneca pulled away late to beat Pickens, 31-6.

Tommy McGaha/seeyourphotohere.com
Lindsey Ann Masters was named Pickens High School’s 2015 homecoming queen at halftime of Friday’s game.

[cointent_lockedcontent] The first half of the homecoming contest was a slugfest, with the high-scoring Bobcats only holding a 7-6 halftime lead. The Blue Flame had to be kicking themselves on missed opportunities. Seneca fumbled twice and threw a first-half interception, but Pickens only scored six points on three red-zone possessions. Pickens had a touchdown catch nullified due to a blocking penalty and lost another possession on a fumbled option pitch.

Unfortunately, the second half was mostly Seneca, as the Bobcat defense held Pickens to just four first downs. And with Seneca quarterback Elijah Turner on the sidelines and running back Braxton Gambrell struggling, tailback Jacory Benson picked up the slack with a big second half, rushing for three scores.

“Anytime you get a win it’s nice,” said Seneca coach Brett Turner, a former Pickens player and head coach. “God has just blessed us, and we’re thankful for Him for helping us get this win. It was just a great team effort tonight. There was a lot of adversity out here on the field, and our guys did a great job and came together. You have to give a lot of credit to Pickens. I told our guys that they would play hard and they did, and their coaching staff did a wonderful job. It was just a good, hard-fought football game. I’m really proud of our kids and how they did tonight.”

Seneca (7-0, 4-0 Western AAA) will play Belton-Honea Path (6-1, 4-0) in a battle of unbeatens atop the region this week. The showdown almost didn’t come to fruition, as the Bears came from behind to beat Daniel last week and the Blue Flame gave the Bobcats all they wanted in the opening half.

Seneca took its opening possession 74 yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Elijah Turner, a former Blue Flame starter, hit Daquan Mackey for 48 yards, and then following a sack by Matt Gravely, Turner hit Chris Latimer on a 22-yard fade to the right corner on fourth down. Hunter Pearson’s kick made it 7-0 with 5:31 left in the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, following a sack of quarterback Tanner Stegall, he fired a deep 53-yard bomb to Isaiah Ferguson to the Seneca 9-yard line. Two plays later, however, the option pitch to tailback Brandon Batson was fumbled, and Seneca recovered.

The Blue Flame defense got the ball right back as Benson was hit by Will Reynolds and Ridge Clark, fumbling to Tyler Gravely at the Pickens 30.

Once again, the Pickens aerial attack went deep. This time, Adam Martin took a lateral and fired 54 yards to Ferguson, who again had gotten behind the Seneca secondary down to the 16. The drive stalled, and Shrine Bowl kicker Matt Gravely nailed a 31-yard field goal, making it 7-3 with 4:30 left in the half.

“Three opportunities in the red zone and come away with six points,” Pickens coach John Boggs said. “We have the tough penalty right there on what looked like a score, but you have to overcome it. To be down 7-6 at the half, we felt like we had the momentum and to come out and be ready to go. We just didn’t answer, and again, proud of my kids’ effort. I thought they fought hard. We’ll have to bounce back next week. You know every game in this region is tough, and you have to be ready each and every week. You can’t let one loss turn into two. They poured it out there tonight. We’ll have to re-charge and re-fuel and come back on Monday to get ready to go to Daniel and get another region win.”

The Blue Flame defense again came up with the big play after Turner hit Mackey with a pass. Linebacker Cole Seaborn and Matt Gravely teamed on the hit, causing another fumble that Gravely recovered at the Bobcat 38.

The drive stalled again, and Gravely hit a 47-yard field goal to make it 7-6 with 2:38 left in the half.

Seneca tried to answer, and after reaching the Pickens 25, Turner was sacked as Gunner Covey sealed the edge and Renny Croley sacked him from behind. Turner rolled on the play and spent the second half sidelined with an icepack on his neck.

On the next play from scrimmage, backup Jacob Lynn’s pass was juggled by Mackey and intercepted by Seaborn, ending the half.

The second drive of the second half set the tone for Seneca. Latimer had a 24-yard catch, breaking numerous tackles, and a late-hit penalty on Pickens was tacked on to put the Bobcats in business. Benson got going from there. His six-yard score with 5:14 left in the third quarter made it 14-6.

On the second play of the fourth quarter, Benson took it 36 yards, breaking tackles before a final cutback into the end zone with 11:42 left, making it 21-6.

After stopping Pickens at fourth and two at its own 41, Seneca reached the 1-yard line on the next possession, but a penalty eventually forced a 21-yard field goal by Pearson with 5:28 left, making it 24-6.

Then, following a big 58-yard punt by Gravely, Benson scampered 69 yards, setting up his three-yard scoring run with 3:21 left in the game.

“In a situation like that, you’ve got to rely on your defense, because you have to bring your offensive gameplan a little bit down,” Turner said. “Your backup quarterback is in, and he did not get as many reps, but Jacob did an excellent job stepping in. Our defense did a good job of stepping up and playing a good football game the second half.

“They kept playing hard. Our offensive line played hard, and we made some adjustments on what they were doing. The kids really just stayed focused tonight. It was something we knew was coming eventually. You’re not going to go through a season without adversity, and we handled it well tonight.”

“Losing is not any fun, any time,” Boggs said. “I was proud of these kids’ effort. I thought they laid it out there tonight. They showed a lot of heart and a lot of passion. The second half, we just couldn’t get anything going offensively to generate some first downs and keep our defense off the field. They were out there a lot of snaps the second half. That sort of told the tale right there at the end, as they were just wore out. We’ve got to do a better job of playing good team football and helping each other out. When other teams score, you’ve got to be able to answer. We were not able to do that in the second half. My hat’s off to them — they came and did a good job the second half.”

Pickens will play at county rival Daniel on Friday night.

Notes: During a pregame ceremony, the family of longtime Pickens coach Bill Isaacs was honored with a moment of silence with both teams lining the field. Isaacs and his neighbor, Dicky Stewart, were shot and killed last month.

During halftime, Lindsey Ann Masters was crowned 2015 Homecoming queen.

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