JOHNSTON - Any game between defensive powerhouses like Strom Thurmond and North Augusta was going to be one of inches.
And it was the Rebels who went the extra mile on Aug.21 in the Peach Fields, handing the Jackets a 21-7 loss to kick off the year, their first loss in a season opener under head coach Richard Bush.
“We take a lot of pride in playing here,” head coach Andrew Webb said. “The guys take a lot of pride in playing here, and our goal is not to lose here. And it took everything we had tonight. Real proud of it.”
The first half was all defense, as both offenses struggled to gain momentum and get the upper hand going into halftime. Both quarterbacks, AJ Hillary for Strom Thurmond and Collin Tillman for North Augusta, took some time to settle into the game, making it a battle of the run game in the first quarter.
After making the most of all his previous starts for the Jackets, running back Jayden Hatcher was finally getting the nod as RB1, but the Rebels' defense knew exactly how to contain the playmaker. He finished the opening half with just 17 yards on 6 carries.
Ultimately, it was Strom Thurmond duel-threat Zy Rouse who put the first points on the board in an explosive series of plays. First, he intercepted the ball, bringing it 74 yards to the 1-yard line, and then he was the one to cross into the end zone two plays later to put the Rebels up 7-0.
“That dude is a dog,” Webb said. “Zy Rouse is a dog. He played running back, he played quarterback, he played wide receiver, he played safety. He's on special teams. He is a dog. And I love him. I'm glad he's on my team.”
And he wasn’t finished for the night either.
While the rest of the second quarter and the entire third went back to being a defensive battle between both teams, things started to get going again in the fourth. North Augusta did have its fair share of opportunities to score throughout the first three quarters, but two missed field goals from Jacob Degennaro kept the team scoreless heading into the fourth.
Early on in the final 12-minutes of the night, Rouse took the ball a couple of yards into the end zone again to give the Rebels a 13-0 lead following a failed point-after attempt.
However, North Augusta was determined not to be shut out, with Tillman finally settling into the pocket and connecting with his receivers in the second half. He found Zay Harris a few minutes later for a 34-yard touchdown to cut Strom Thurmond’s lead in half.
It was officially anybody’s game with more than five minutes left on the clock and both offenses getting fired up late.
That was until wide receiver Preston Holmes threw water on the Jackets' fire with a 91-yard kickoff return, followed by a two-point conversion, to give the Rebels a two-score lead.
North Augusta never recovered offensively to score again, but Tillman found some promising connections with freshman wide receiver LJ Springs late in the game. It’s the first loss to Strom Thurmond for the Jackets since 2022, before Bush took over the program.
The Rebels, on the other hand, gained some much-needed confidence with the messy victory over the Jackets at home.
Despite getting what has the potential to be a season-defining win, Webb says there are still a lot of areas for the team to improve in moving forward. It was a foul-heavy game on both sides, but the defense in particular gave up some big yards to North Augusta in the first half.
“We’ve got a bunch to clean up,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of work ahead. We’ve got a bunch of fighters that believe they're going to win, and we're going to keep getting better.”
Strom Thurmond heads on the road for week two to face Abbeville, while North Augusta returns home to take on Lexington, which lost its opening game to Midland Valley 49-42.
Scoring Summary
NA 0 0 0 7 - 7
ST 0 7 0 14 - 21
Second Quarter
ST – 11:16 Zy Rouse 2-yard run (Justus Daly PAT) 7-0
Fourth Quarter
ST – 10:07 Rouse 2-yard run (Daly PAT failed) 13-0
NA – 7:11 Collin Tillman 34-yard pass to Zay Harris (Jacob Degennaro PAT) 13-7
ST – 6:51 Preston Holmes 91-yard kickoff return (Rouse 2 pt. conversion) 21-7
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