SOUTH POINT — Taking the air out of the ball can be a smart strategy when needing to possess it in a battle against another high-powered offense.
And in a contest in which South Point and Portsmouth combined for 918 yards — including 613 in the first half — that's exactly what first-year South Point bench boss Brian Wroten did.
Keeping the ball on the ground over each of its final 20 plays, Wroten's strategy worked wonders for the Pointers on Friday night as South Point ran 32 second-half plays to Portsmouth's 17 and took nearly 14 minutes off of the final 24 minutes of play.
The recipe proved to be a winning one as South Point, which trailed 29-27 at halftime, outscored Portsmouth 15-7 the rest of the way and got all six of its touchdowns from senior standouts Landon Vance and Robert Napier in a 42-37 victory on senior night for the Pointers.
The win, which moved South Point to 8-1 and 5-0 in Ohio Valley Conference competition, clinched no worse than a share of the OVC title for the Pointers. South Point also secured a playoff berth prior to Friday's win, adding to the sweetness for a group that clinched its first share of a conference title in 20 years.
But while pleased with the resiliency of his group to make up a late eight-point first half deficit en route to winning by a five-point margin, Wroten said putting the bottles on ice will have to be put on pause.
"We want to win it outright," Wroten said of the league title. "We've got one more ballgame. We might as well try and win it, right? We want to be greedy. We don't want to share. Gallia Academy will have a lot to say about that, and if we don't play better football than we did in the first half, we might put ourselves in a situation where we can't accomplish that goal."
Despite only having 17 second-half plays offensively, Portsmouth still gained 122 yards on those 17 plays and finished with 432 yards.
Penalties, however, proved to hurt Portsmouth. The Trojans committed eight infractions for 90 yards, with three face-mask penalties, including two on back-to-back plays, leading to two drives on which South Point scored touchdowns in the contest. A 47-yard pass connection from the Trojans' two most electrifying players — Cam Williams and Mekhi Berry — was also called back due to an illegal man downfield.
All of those matters, in addition to South Point eating close to two-thirds of the second-half clock offensively, kept the ball out of Portsmouth's hands enough to keep the Trojans from pouncing further.
"We couldn't convert offensively in the second half on key downs and we couldn't make the tackles in key spots," Trojans coach Brandon Sammons said. "That's a recipe for the clock running away from you in the second half and not being able to get enough possessions."
Portsmouth didn't need many yards at all to punch in its first opportunity.
The Pointers did not cover the opening kickoff, and Portsmouth senior JJ Henderson fell on the football at the Trojans 15-yard line. A defensive encroachment penalty then allowed Portsmouth to go just 10 yards for the game's first score, with senior running back Fernando Poxes churning for an 8-yard touchdown run with 11:16 still to play in the opening quarter.
"We haven't seen a lot of things bounce our way this year when it comes to those things," Sammons said. "A guy letting the ball sit there to start the game was kind of nice."
South Point's next two attempts at putting matters together were much more fruitful.
In a matter of 10 offensive plays, the Pointers scored 14 points behind the efforts of Napier, who caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from South Point quarterback Ethan Hunt to tie the game, then dashed for a 69-yard touchdown run following a Portsmouth punt to give South Point a 14-7 lead with 5:44 remaining in the opening quarter.
"When you have two running backs like them, you don't have to worry about wearing down," Wroten said of Napier and Vance. "You can alternate them. Robert would start for anybody else in our area. He's very good."
Williams then pulled out his bag of tricks.
First, Williams found Berry for a 22-yard gain on third-and-10 and then again for a 10-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-6 to pull Portsmouth within 14-13 with 11:10 remaining in the first half.
Then, Williams gave the Trojans the lead — rushing for 22 yards on fourth-and-6 down to the South Point 1 after a series of sensational scrambles that resulted in the senior scoring on the next play, and running in the two-point conversion with 6:51 remaining to give Portsmouth a 21-14 lead.
And if that wasn't enough, Williams even atoned for a mistake. Following an interception by South Point's Anthony Neal, the Pointers fumbled at the Portsmouth 3 — resulting in Williams taking full advantage by dashing a school-record 97 yards to paydirt on the next play, and finding his cousin, Trey Pendleton, for a two-point conversion pass.
With 46 seconds left in the opening half, Portsmouth led 29-21, as the senior signal-caller has thrown for two scores and rushed for two more.
Williams finished the evening amassing 310 of Portsmouth's 432 yards of total offense, rushing for 148 yards on just eight carries and completing nine of his 23 passes for 162 yards.
"We are explosive," Sammons said. "Cam told me on that long run, 'I'm going to get it. I'm going to take it.' I said, 'All right.' Then he went and does what Cam does. He's a lot of fun to watch. A lot of fun to try to give him a blank canvas and then go create, and just get out of his way.
"We didn't do a good enough job of that in the second half. I didn't put him in enough positions with some of the play calls I made in the second half. That's on me."
South Point answered behind the play of Vance and Napier.
Vance scored each of South Point's last four touchdowns, producing a 44-yard house call in between Williams' trio of second-quarter scores, and then scoring again from 6 yards away to pull the Pointers to within 29-27 just before halftime.
In the opening half alone, Vance ran for 172 yards on 13 carries, while Napier nabbed 107 yards on just five carries — and on the two putaway drives in the second half, the duo toted the rock on each of the Pointers' 16 plays in between a critical safety on a kickoff that Portsmouth fumbled out of the end zone to seal the come-from-behind win.
The safety, which came following a two-yard touchdown run by Vance that capped off an 8-play, 75-yard drive with 9:18 to play in the fourth quarter, saw a kickoff that was fumbled by Portsmouth roll backward toward the end zone.
An official rulebook, upon the Trojans' protest as Portsmouth kick returner Jemarkus Parker battled the ball forward inside the Trojans' own five, was brought out after illegal touching was ruled on the play, resulting in the safety.
With the football again and 9:10 to play in the game following Portsmouth's kickoff after the safety, South Point embarked on an eight-play, 49-yard drive where Vance scored again from a yard out with 3:11 to play.
The 15-point swing turned a 29-27 halftime deficit into a 42-29 lead for the Pointers, who scored 21 unanswered points between its last drive of the first half and its last two possessions of the second.
Vance ultimately ran for 230 yards and four touchdowns on 24 carries while averaging just under 10 yards per tote, while Napier well exceeded 10 yards per carry on his rushes, popping off for 180 yards on 15 touches on the ground and adding in a 13-yard touchdown catch to boot. The pair ultimately combined for 410 yards rushing on 39 carries for five scores on the ground with Napier's 13-yard touchdown reception from South Point's Ethan Hunt, which started the scoring, capping off the production.
"Landon Vance is a phenomenal running back," Wroten said. "Him and Robert Napier, they block for each other too ... they're very selfless. What more can you ask for? Two guys that are selfless like that. Everybody calls them Batman and Robin. They're two really, really good football players, and we're fortunate to have them."
Portsmouth kept South Point on alert three plays later when Williams found Berry behind the defense for a 63-yard scoring strike, cutting the South Point lead to five after Williams found Berry on the two-point conversion pass. But two first down runs by Vance on the next series proved to be enough for the Pointers to come away with the victory.
Sammons was pleased with the fight of his younger players, where Portsmouth's talented youth, namely the super sophomore Berry as well as freshmen skill players Da'Monie Wood, Trey Pendleton and Nick Poxes, were among those who stood out. Mason Vetter is another freshman who has seen extended playing time for the Trojans on both sides of the line as well.
"There's freshmen and sophomores making plays all over the field for us," Sammons said when asked about the underclassmen. "That's terrifying that you have to have freshmen and sophomores step up as they have, but man, for the future, these guys are getting a lot of valuable experience this year. There's a lot of freshmen who are getting a lot of minutes. It bodes very well for the future."
South Point travels to Gallipolis to play Gallia Academy (3-6, 3-2 OVC) on Friday, while Portsmouth (3-5, 3-3 OVC) finishes the regular season out with its annual Week 10 rivalry matchup at Ironton.