Catawba Ridge Football · Game 2, 2026
A Costly Night
Fort Mill
38
FINAL
Catawba Ridge
17
Catawba Ridge Football · Game 2, 2026
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Two hard-fought wins over Fort Mill a year ago — both at home, both close — had this rivalry trending Catawba Ridge's way, and the trip to Fort Mill carried real stakes. Everyone around the program knew Fort Mill was going to come in with something to prove after last season's playoff finish, and that meant dealing with an opponent playing with an extra edge from the opening whistle.
The Copperheads brought a 6-6 mark from a season ago under Zac Lendyak, with more depth and program success over the last several years than this particular series might suggest — win totals don't always tell the whole story, especially with a head-coaching transition already on the horizon for next season. Storms pushed kickoff back 25 minutes, but the rain stayed light through the night. Weather wasn't going to be the deciding factor in what was about to unfold.
CR won the toss and deferred, and the defense delivered early — forcing a Fort Mill turnover on downs at the Yellow Jackets' own 40. The offense cashed in with a 39-yard field goal. 3-0 CR, exactly the kind of start this team wanted.
Fort Mill answered fast, though — a long kickoff return set the Yellow Jackets up at the Copperheads' 39, and a perfectly placed pass found the end zone for a 35-yard touchdown just minutes later. 7-3 FM by the end of the opening quarter.
Fort Mill extended the lead to 13-3 on a short Broden Mitcheson touchdown run, but a costly missed PAT snap kept the door open. Catawba Ridge's defense forced a fumble deep in FM territory that could have flipped the game — but Fort Mill recovered its own football and made the Copperheads pay for it, connecting again on a 40-yard score that stretched the margin to 20-3.
Give this team credit, though: quarterback Will Gambrill answered right back, capping the next drive with a 21-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 20-10 with under two minutes before the half — proof the offense could move the ball on anyone when it needed to.
The third quarter opened with a scare — a near-interception on the first CR possession — but the defense settled and forced a Fort Mill punt of its own. A muffed punt return rolling into the end zone could have been a back-breaking safety; instead it was ruled a touchback, a break CR badly needed in the moment.
From there, though, discipline slipped. Penalties piled up, the pass rush and open-field tackling both wore down, and Fort Mill's power runner started finding room that hadn't been there in the first half — the same kind of physical, downhill running Boston Halpin gives this offense on the other side of the ball. A short Mitcheson plunge made it 27-10 FM with two minutes left in the third — the toughest stretch of the night.
A poor snap on special teams gifted Fort Mill a short field, and the defense couldn't get the stop, allowing a 25-yard field goal that made it 30-10. An interception deep in CR territory threatened to turn a tough night into a rout — but the defense clawed back a fumble of its own to briefly slow the bleeding.
It wasn't enough. A three-and-out gave the ball right back, and Fort Mill capitalized with a Mitcheson touchdown — his third of the night — plus a two-point conversion to push the lead to 38-10. To their credit, Catawba Ridge didn't fold — Colten McCauley capped a string of big catches with a late rushing touchdown to make it 38-17, a final score that didn't fully reflect how hard this team kept playing until the whistle.
A tough loss on the road against a rival that came in with something to prove. The turnovers, the penalties, the special-teams miscues — those are the kind of mistakes a program with Catawba Ridge's recent track record knows it can clean up.
Both teams gathered to pray at their own end zones once the final whistle blew, a reminder that nights like this one sting, but they don't define a season. There's real football left to play.
Every photo from the game, in order —