Irmo hammers past River Bluff and into the playoffs
From the start of the year, one almost has to marvel at how far Irmo has come.
The Yellow Jackets, losers of five of their first six games, came out Friday night and imposed their will on a River Bluff squad with a much better record. Irmo (4-7, 3-2 Region 5-4A) took home the 44-17 victory in the Swamp, and with it, second place in the region and spot in the postseason.
“I just felt like if we could keep our eyes on the big picture, it would help us down the stretch,” Irmo coach Reggie Kennedy said. “Those games early that we lost helped down the stretch tonight. It’s important for our program to be able to play well this time of year.”
The loss likely leaves the Gators (7-4, 2-3) out of the playoffs after they could not slow Irmo early and lost three of their final four regular season games.
TURNING POINT
Irmo’s Mac Eason recovered River Bluff’s onside kick to open the second half and the Yellow Jackets scored to go up 31-7.
KEY PERFORMERS
Jeff Tharp, RB Irmo: Ran for 128 of his 159 yards in the first half, including runs of 65 and 30 yards before cramping.
Shakeem Bradley, RB Irmo: Carried the heaviest rushing load with 20 carries for 121 yards and two touchdowns.
KEY NUMBERS
3.2: Yards per carry for River Bluff runners (excluding a batted fumble late).
41.5: Irmo’s average starting field position in the first half, often because of Nick Jenkins’ explosive punt returns.
THEY SAID IT
“It’s always good to bounce back because last season, we also started off in a deep drought, but we filled it up this year. So now I feel like we’ve gotten better and we can do more.” – Jeff Tharp, Irmo running back
“We were going three-and-out, three and out, so our offense is putting a lot of pressute on our defense and then defensively, we didn’t do a good job of stopping them. They’re scoring every time they had the ball.” – David Bennett, River Bluff head coach, on first half.
HOW THEY SCORED
1st Quarter
I – Tharp 3 run (Cates kick), 0:19
2nd Quarter
RB – Tillmon 3 run (Salters kick) 6:02
I – Heath 9 pass from Smith (Cates kick), 3:49
I – Smith 7 run (Cates kick), 0:57
I –Cates 37 FG, 0:00
3rd Quarter
I – Smith 1 run (Cates kick), 9:28
I – Bradley 16 run (kick blocked), 1:40
4th Quarter
RB –Salters 48 FG, 11:53
RB – Connell 18 pass from Tillmon (Salters kick) 7:53
I – Bradley 4 run (Scott kick), 1:43
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: I: Tharp 12-159, Bradley 20-121, Smith 11-49, Jamison 4-1, TEAM 1-(-4). Totals: 48-326. RB: Tillmon 7-24, Glenn 5-15, Lynch 2-10, Pollard 2-5, Johnson 3-6, TEAM 1-(-25). Totals: 20-35.
Passing: I: Smith 10-16-0-120. RB: Tillmon 17-40-1-226.
Receiving: I: Jamison 4-52, Love 3-36, McDuffie 1-17, Heath 1-9, Tharp 1-6. RB: Connell 3-59, Johnson 3-55, Ledell 3-37, Kight 3-38, Pollard 2-22, Glenn 2-1, Senter 1-14.
This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 11:47 PM with the headline "Irmo hammers past River Bluff and into the playoffs."