AAAA State Football Championship, Currence, Brown power South Pointe past South Florence
By WORTHY EVANS
Contributing Writer HSSR
ORANGEBURG – J’zavien Currence and the South Pointe Stallions ran, ran, and ran again on a rainy Saturday afternoon at South Carolina State’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium Saturday afternoon.
All South Florence seemed to be able to do was watch as Currence, a Mister Football finalist who signed with South Carolina three days before, and R.J. Brown, run away with the Bruins’ hopes for a second straight SCHSL AAAA state championship.
Currence accounted for 124 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, and 5 tackles on defense. Brown bulldozed past South Florence defenders for a personal best 193 yards and two TDs on 21 carries to lead the Stallions to a 35-14 victory, their first state title since 2021 and eighth state title in South Pointe’s history.
“It was a super special week for us,” Currence said about his signing while working to finish the season with a championship. “A week of focus and a week of having fun at the same time. It means everything to me. Going out fighting with the guys I came in with, that’s it.”
Brown’s productivity came after a week of focusing on the team’s rushing attack.
“We worked for this. I did a lot of film study, I did a lot of work on my body, I worked for this,” Brown said. “It means the world to me and I know it means the world to my teammates and my coaches.”
Fourth-year Stallions head coach Bobby Collins praised his team’s year-round work ethic, which showed in the final week of preparation.
“These are blue-collar kids. They come to work every day,” Collins said. “No ego guys. Nobody on the sidelines with bad body language, coaches pushing them to the next level, I’m excited for my kids. They deserve this moment.”
South Pointe (14-1) limited South Florence (13-2) to 113 total yards. Messiah Jackson, who led the Bruins with 1,628 passing yards and 22 touchdowns in addition to 660 rushing yards and 22 scores going into Saturday, was 8-for-16 with for 36 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions.
Currence, who is set to be in the Gamecocks’ secondary in 2026, had 2,764 yards and 24 touchdowns along with 1,497 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns before Saturday.
The Stallions enjoyed a free rushing attack in the first half and finished the afternoon with 316 rushing yards on 47 snaps.
“I told every coach on my staff that we’re not throwing this football right now,” Collins said. “It’s either going to be in 0’s (Currence’s number) or 4’s (Brown’s number) hands.”
The Stallions opened the game with Currence leading a 9-play, 80-yard scoring drive, and he finished it with a 12-yard touchdown run.
Later in the first quarter C.J. Wherry intercepted a Jackson pass in the end zone, and the Stallions kicked off another 80-yard scoring drive, with Brown’s 47-yard touchdown run putting South Pointe up 14-0 with 11:39 in the second quarter.
Currence closed out a third scoring drive with 1:31 left in the first half with a 9-yard TD.
While the Stallions offense ran wild in the first half, South Pointe held the Bruins to 61 rushing yards and minus-1 yard passing in the first two quarters.
The defensive onslaught continued when Kadin Watkins snagged his second interception on the Bruins’ first possession of the second half and returned it 13 yards to the end zone to put the Stallions up 28-0 with 10:23 mark of the third quarter.
South Pointe looked to continue the rout, but two Stallions fumbles, both recovered by Bruins Defender Willie Kennedy, put South Florence back into the game.
Currence fumbled to set up South Florence at the Stallions’ 29-yard line. Jackson capped the short drive with an 11-yard TD run with 2:59 left in the third.
The next turnover came on a bad snap that resulted in Jackson’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Gabe McLaughlinat the 1:10 mark.
South Pointe stopped the Bruins rally with a grinding 14-play, 80-yard scoring drive that ate up most of the fourth quarter.
“That last drive, it was all 0. His perseverance on that last run, they stropped him three yards in the backfield, but his legs kept moving.”
On the run that Collins described, the Stallions faced a fourth-and-3 at midfield and Currence kept driving his legs over the first-down marker for a 5-yard gain.
“He’s the most humble, hardworking kid I’ve ever been around,” Collins said of Currence. “Him making the plays in the end, that was no shock for me, he’d do that every day in practice.”
Brown broke free on that drive with a 29-yard run to the 1-yard line, then closed it out on his push through the goal line with 4:54 left in the game.
“It was super important to us,” Currence said. “Coach always tells me to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. When times get tough just keep the guys cool and level headed. We had been in moments like these before and we had to rally together to get it done.”
After that score South Pointe forced the Bruins to turn the ball over on downs. From there the Stallions ran out the clock.
“They’re such a great football team,” South Florence head coach Drew Marlowe said about South Pointe. “Our first-half offense really struggled to do anything. We couldn’t separate from them and couldn’t get away from them.
Marlowe, who led the team to the last four 4A state championship games and winning two of them, credits the seniors with finishing their final game as Bruins with a trip to Orangeburg.
“It says a lot about this senior class,” Marlowe said. “They maxed out their careers, they got to play in 60 football games and four state championships. They came up short today, but I’m so thankful that the Lord brought me to Florence and has allowed me and us to experience this incredible ride.”
South Florence 0 0 14 0 – 14
South Pointe 7 14 7 7 – 35
First Quarter
SP - J’zavien Currence 12 run (Lawson Miller kick) 8:04
Second Quarter
SP - R.J. Brown 47 run (Miller kick) 11:39
SP - Currence 9 run (Miller kick) 1:31
Third Quarter
SP - Kadin Watkins 13 interception return (Miller kick) 10:23
SF - Messiah Jackson 11 run (Coy Joyner kick) 2:59
SF - Gabe McLaughlin 22 pass from Jackson (Joyner kick) 1:10
Fourth Quarter
SP - Brown 1 run (Miller kick) 4:54
SP SF
First downs 19 12
Rushes-yds 47-316 34-77
Passing yds 18 36
Att-Com-Int 3-2-0 16-8-3
Fumbles-lost 3-2 2-0
Penalties-yds 14-115 4-40
Punts-avg 2-30.0 2-36.0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
SP - R.J. Brown 21-193, J’zavien Currence 18-124, Rasean Brown 4-32, Zymier Gordon-Miles 1-2, Team 3-35.
SF - Messiah Jackson 20-36, Cameron James 8-31, Gabe McLaughlin 6-10.
PASSING
SP - J’zavien Currence 2-3-0.
SF - Messiah Jackson 8-16-3.
RECEIVING
SP - Dalian Duncan 2-18.
SF - Gabe McLaughlin 1-21, Ja’Aun Perkins 2-9, Malik Robinson 2-5, Cameron James 2-2, Semaj Parker 1-1.
