Hartsville outlasts T.L. Hanna 14-7

As Coach Jeff Calabrese told his players afterward, in the playoffs it’s all about surviving to play another day, and that’s what the Hartsville Red Foxes (10-2) did by outlasting T.L. Hanna 14-7 Friday to set up a second round contest against Northwestern this week.

The most overheard sentence in the parking lot before the game? “I heard Radio is going to be here tonight.” Indeed, James “Radio” Kennedy, a T.L. Hanna fan and student made famous by Hollywood, attended the game, leaving disappointed when the Foxes took advantage of a 265 to 115 team rushing advantage to win in the Class 4-A Division II playoffs.

The Red Foxes (ranked No. 7) will now face a powerful Northwestern team (ranked No. 2) Friday at 7:30 p.m. on the road, a week after the squad dismantled South Florence 53-0. It took a goal line stand several weeks ago for Hartsville to defeat South Florence. The winner faces the victor of the North Augusta (No. 5) at Goose Creek (No. 4) game. If Hartsville was to win, that would be another road game since either potential foe is ranked higher than the Foxes.

Calabrese knows it will take a strong performance to get past Northwestern.

“They are a very talented ball team --- Coach [Jimmy] Moose Wallace, their coach, has won a ton of ball games, but we won ourselves a chance,” he said. “We’ll give it everything we have and hopefully give them a good game.”

But first Hartsville had to defeat T.L Hanna, and key was a balanced rushing attack, highlighted by running back Dre Scott, who delivered with 139 yards on 14 carries with one big touchdown (he also led receivers with 2 catches for 46 yards).
“It wasn’t our sharpest game, but a lot of that was about T.L. Hanna. They are a very physical bunch. It’s just about finding a way to win and move on to the next round,” Calabrese said.

The biggest play of the game for Hartsville’s offense came two plays in, when Dre Scott ran through a sealed left side of the line and turned on the after burners to race 67 yards for an early 7-0 lead.

“We’re a style of ball they’re probably not used to seeing, and it probably took them a little time to get acclimated,” Calabrese said. “We were fortunate to pop that one off early.”

T.L. Hanna moved the ball its first possession but botched a field goal attempt.

With 5:22 to go in the first quarter, Hartsville took over at its 11-yard line. Running back Eric Williams (9 carries for 43 yards, 1 TD) soon would cross the 50-yard line for a first down, which was followed by quarterback Shawn Smith (4 of 8, 54 yards, 2 INTs) rolling left to hit receiver Brandon Beans (1 catch for 10 yards). Running back Ronnie Jackson (9 carries for 61 yards) would snake his way down to about the 8-yard line, with help from Williams, who would finish off the drive by powering it in as time was running out in the first quarter. It was 14-0 Hartsville.

That was it for Hartsville’s scoring on the night as the defense would hold T.L. Hanna to 169 total yards to make the 14 points stand up. The defensive performance would include a pass break-up on a 4th down pass into the end zone. T.L. Hanna’s lone score would come on a 4th-and-nine pass across the middle.

Later, kicker Teal Davis would try to put the game out of reach with a 33-yard kick that was struck well but sailed wide left, setting up a tense final stand for Hartsville’s defense.

With about two minutes to go, T.L Hanna started at about its own 43-yard line. Working out of the shotgun didn’t help, as Hartsville forced a 4th-and-10.

On the play, Calabrese and company gambled by bringing a blitz, and defender Ernest Wallace broke through untouched to sack T.L. Hanna’s quarterback to seal the win.

“We knew we had to get some heat on them,” said Calabrese, pointing out T.L. Hanna’s tremendous size at wide receiver. “We had some big stops on defense.”

The performance came despite the fact two starting linebackers were out for the game. Leading tackler was Dexter Scarborough with 13, who was followed by Adam Bell with 11 and Victor Venson with 7 (who also recovered a fumble).