Oceanside Collegiate gets past BHP to claim 3A state championship

         By WORTHY EVANS

         Contributing Writer

ORANGEBURG – Moving up to 3A in the South Carolina High School League’s classification system didn’t bother Oceanside Collegiate. Neither did losing the head coach who led the Sharks to the 2A state championship last year. 

What mattered for Oceanside Saturday afternoon at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium was the steady guidance of interim head coach John Patterson, and sophomore quarterback Aidan Manavian connecting regularly with senior wide receivers against Belton-Honea Path.

Manavian was 21-for-26 in passing for 326 yards and four touchdowns in the Shark’s 35-17 victory over the Bears to capture the 3A state championship.

“It feels good. It beats the alternative, losing, I don’t like that,” Patterson said with a laugh. “It was a lot of adversity, but that’s what football is, that’s what life is. That’s what football teaches. You’ve got to keep showing up every day, grind, and if bad stuff happens you’ve just to to overcome it.”

Oceanside Collegiate (11-3) moved up to 3A this year when the High School League instituted a student multiplier for charter schools that had the ability to recruit athletes outside of their school zones. The Sharks had beaten Gray Collegiate 35-28 for the 2A state championship the year before, but opened the season with a 35-7 loss at Irmo in August.

After that defeat, head coach Chad Wilkes resigned for personal reasons. Patterson, an assistant with nearly 40 years of coaching experience, including head-coaching stints at Providence Day School in North Carolina and at James Island from 2007-2011, took over the Sharks. 

After that loss at Irmo, which played Northwestern Saturday night for the 5A Division 2 state championship, and a loss at Dutch Fork, which won its 9th state championship with a 5A Division 1 victory over Summerville, Oceanside Collegiate caught fire. The Sharks reeled off 10 straight victories and claimed a second-straight crown with the win over BHP (13-2).

“We knew how good Dutch Fork was, one of the top 15 teams in the country,” Patterson said. “We were outmanned and didn’t have all our ammunition either. We kind of flushed it: ‘there’s the game, and it’s over, flush it.”

Patterson added that the team asked him what he was happy about, “and I told them, hey, it’s like butter, because we’re ready to go on a roll, baby. That’s how that went down.”

Oceanside stayed on that roll Saturday, moving the football up and down the field with ease, 

Manavian’s chief target among his seniors was Will Virgilio, who had five catches for 134 yards. Peyton Shaw had five catches for 66 yards, and Gavin Gasper had four catches for 65 yards and two TDs. Junior Terrence Johnson had five receptions for 57 yards and a score.

“We come out every day to work as hard as we can, stay late, getting extra routes in,” Manavian said. “When you come out here and get a Dub, we’re already here, we’re on time, we’re ready to go. It feels great.”

On defense the Sharks absorbed the furious running of BHP running back and Clemson commit Marquise Henderson. 

Henderson came into the game with 1,934 yards and finished the day with 188 yards and a touchdown on 42 carries. He even filled in for quarterback Noah Thomas, who went down with an injury in the first half.

“Unbelievable player. Best to ever come through BHP,” Bears head coach Russell Blackston said. “He has 104 (career) touchdowns, I believe. The kid’s an unbelievable player, a Mr. Football candidate. A good player, man.”   

Oceanside built a 21-7 lead in the first half, scoring first on Manavian’s 9-yard touchdown strike to Johnson in the first quarter.

Belton-Honea Path responded in the second quarter with Henderson’s 3-yard TD run, but the Bears gave up back-to-back scores before the half.

Manavian connected with Shaw for a 25-yard touchdown art the 7:41 mark, and after BHP botched a pooch kickoff reception, the Sharks recovered and Johnson closed out the short drive with a 1-yard plunge into the end zone at the 5:58 mark. 

“They got an extra possession after we lost it in the sun,” Bears head coach Russell Blackston said. “We’d worked on that type of stuff all week, we just lost it in the sun.”

The Bears drove to midfield on a clock-draining possession, but turned the ball over on downs. Oceanside Collegiate eventually punted to the BHP 1-yard line, where the Bears ran two plays and called it a half. 

Belton-Honea Path started the second half down 21-7 to the Sharks, and without Thomas at quarterback. Henderson shifted from tailback to quarterback and kept the Bears running.

BHP moved downfield for most of the third quarter with Henderson running on most of the plays. On first and goal at the Oceanside 5-yard line he gave the ball to Justin Lathon, who barreled into the end zone at the 2:26 mark to cut the lead to 21-14.

BHP defender K.J. Miles picked off a Manavian pass on Oceanside’s next possession, which led to Bears kicker Christian Bridwell’s 42-yard field goal with 26 seconds left in the third. 

That was as close as Oceanside would let the Bears come. Manavian closed out the victory with fourth-quarter touchdown passes of 19 and 13 yards to Gavin Gaspar.

“We practiced for this every week. We’ve been ready for this, and we know what it’s like to be here,” Gaspar said. “I can’t say nothing bad about this team. I love everybody. No better way to go out.”

BHP was looking to win its first state championship since 2004, when the Bears beat Dillon for the 3A title. Unfortunately, the school will have to try again.

“I told them I loved them, told them that they had a good year,” Blackston said. “That a lot of teams would love to be where we’re at.” 

WIth two straight state championships in hand, Oceanside is in an enviable position itself. Patterson spread the wealth of victory among the entire team.

“It means a lot, but I’m just a guy on a team, man, seriously,” he said. “I don’t think my role on the team’s any different than anybody else’s. Sometimes you play, sometimes you film, sometimes you manage the trainers, sometimes you’re the assistant coach or the head coach. And the head coach gets way too much credit, honestly. All the credit should go to the assistant coaches and certainly the kids.”

Belton-Honea Path  0  7  10  0  – 17

Oceanside Collegiate  7  14  0  14 – 35

First Quarter

O - Terrence Johnson 9 pass from Aiden Manavian (Nate Sturm kick) 4:47

Second Quarter

B - Marquise Henderson 3 run (Christian Bridwell kick) 9:15 

O - Peyton Shaw 25 pass from Manavian (kick failed) 7:41

O - Johnson 1 run (Kyle Baldwin pass from Manavian) 5:58

Third Quarter

B - Justin Lathon 5 run (Bridwell kick) 2:26

B - Bridwell 42 field goal :26

Fourth Quarter

O - Gavin Gaspar 19 pass from Manavian (Sturm kick) 11:40

O - Gaspar 13 pass from Manavian (Sturm kick) 4:07 

                 BHP  OCA

First downs       17            16

Rushes-yds  59-234    14-22

Passing yds       16          326

Att-Com-Int    7-4-0   26-21-1

Fumbles-lost    2-1.          1-0

Penalties-yds   6-49      4-30

Punts-avg        2-32.0    3-36.7

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

B - Marquise Henderson 42-188, Noah Thomas 5-30, M.J. Earl 5-19, Justin Lathon 4-6, Tajeh Watson-Martin 1-2, Ty Parnell 2-7. 

O - Aiden Manavian 7-14, James O’Connor 4-9, Terrence Johnson 1-1, Team 2-2

PASSING
B -Noah Thomas 3-4-0, Marquise Henderson 1-1-0, Ty Parnell 0-1-0, Tajeh Watson-Martin 0-1-0. 

O-Aiden Manavian 21-26-1.
RECEIVING

B -Tajeh Watson-Martin 4-16 

O-Will Virgilio 5-134, Peyton Shaw 5-66, Gavin Gaspar 4-65, Terrence Johnson 5-57, James O’Connor 1-4, Kyle Baldwin 1-0.