Gallery by Greg Barnett
Princeton – Ty Patton ran through snow, rain, freezing winds and South Harrison’s defense all night long, striking the Hawks harder than any of those elements.
The senior fullback rushed for a career- and season-high 168 yards and a touchdown leading Class AA No. 8 Bluefield to a 20-18 win over the No. 9 Hawks Friday night in the first round of the Class AA state playoffs at Hunnicutt Stadium in Princeton.
The win sends Bluefield to the Class AA state quarterfinals for the first time since 2021 where it will face the winner of Frankfort-Westside.
While Patton’s offensive dominance highlighted the evening, his fumble recovery on defense on the Bluefield 1 with six minutes to go preserved the final score and crushed South Harrison’s last hopes of scoring.
“I saw Jeff (King) come over, punched the ball out and the ball was there and I jumped on it,” Patton said.
The play which started at the Bluefield 3 was the perfect summation of South Harrison’s struggles inside the Bluefield 5. The Hawks went 0-for-2 on two-point conversion attempts with their two offensive touchdowns coming from 60 and 11 yards out.
They finished the game 1-for-3 on red zone opportunities with drives stalling at the Bluefield 14 and 1.
The Beavers weren’t perfect either as the Hawks corralled a bad snap in the end zone for a score on a Bluefield punt attempt and set up their 11-yard scoring run after a 3-yard punt from the Beavers later in the game.
But the inability to execute on special teams ultimately hurt South Harrison more than it did Bluefield.
“We talked about how crucial special teams is in all playoff games, but I think the weather probably played the biggest factor in special teams,” South Harrison head coach Brett Hathaway said. ”We were able to come up with a couple of them, but the missed PAT early on kind of forced us to go for two, and we weren’t able to capitalize on either one of those and each team scored three times. They get a couple of PATs and we don’t.”
With the elements howling, the slow methodical ground games took over for both teams.
Jaden Hatfield broke the school’s single-season rushing yards record with 144 on 31 carries while Patton served as the workhorse for Bluefield in the absence of leading rusher Willis Wilson who missed Friday’s game after an ankle sprain suffered on Nov. 7 against James Monroe.
It proved to be one of the Beavers’ most efficient offensive outings of the season as they never turned the ball over and strung together drives of 77, 60, 53 and 75 yards, all spanning four plays or more.
“Having Ty run the ball up inside, he’s more of a power guy so that’s gonna take some time off the clock,” Bluefield head coach Fred Simon said. “Instead of you know, getting 20 yard runs and scoring all of a sudden, we’re getting those so that helps us there. We completed some shorter passes and our receivers ran hard, Jeff King some broke some tackles, (Tyrese) Powell did too. And Kisean (Smith) made a nice run on a sweep when we had to.”
South Harrison’s offense wasn’t heavy on explosive plays but moved the chains.
Hatfield opened the scoring with a 60-yard run at the 7:30 mark of the first quarter, leading to a Bluefield answer on the following drive. Patton, who came into the game with 423 yards rushing on the season, capped a nine-play, 77-yard drive with a two-yard plunge to establish a 7-6 Bluefield lead.
For an encore the Beavers strung together a seven-play 60-yard, ending when QB Max Simpson found King for a 15-yard score.
The Beavers, plagued by miscues on special teams all evening, gave away a score when a snap from their own 19 went into the end zone and was recovered by South Harrison’s Corey Saltis. A failed conversion attempt made it a 14-12 score in favor of the hosts heading into the break but another punt attempt in the third quarter broke the Hawks’ way.
A three-yard punt set the visitors up at the Bluefield 11 where QB Madden Maxwell happily charged in from on the next play to give the Hawks an 18-14 lead.
A 46-yard kick return by Tyrese Powell and South Harrison penalty set the Beavers up in the red zone where it took them just three plays to score, this time courtesy of a Simpson sneak.
A missed PAT kept the Hawks in it with a FG but disaster struck on their next drive when King stripped Hatfield. Still needing to burn clock, Simon rolled the dice on fourth-and-1 from his own 10. A jet sweep run by Kisean Smith picked up five yards and Patton did the rest, picking up 55 yards on the penultimate drive of the game.
South Harrison got the ball back on its own 24 with 16 seconds to go but failed to muster a positive play before the clock expired.
“I knew I was gonna have to take most of the load,” Patton said. “Coach Simon, he talked about me having to get the ball more. I took that to heart and it just feels good.”
“(Patton’s) a heck of a player and we knew that on film,” Hathaway said. “There late I think he wore on us. I really do. For about three quarters I think we went toe-to-toe with them physicality-wise but there in the fourth quarter I’ll be the first one to admit I think we got worn down a little bit. So props to Bluefield. They wore us down and won the game in the fourth quarter.”
SH (8-3): 6 6 6 0 – 18
B: (5-5): 7 7 6 0 – 20
Q1
