Northwestern quarterback Mason Rudolph accounted for five touchdowns, including a TD pass in overtime lifting his team to a wild 42-35 win over visiting Byrnes.
File photo by Jim Dedmon
The much-ballyhooed battle in the Palmetto State lived up to all hype with flying colors, as in flying footballs.
The showdown between South Carolina's top two teams and top two passing offenses combusted with
Northwestern (Rock Hill) pulling out a wild 42-35 overtime win over visiting
Byrnes (Duncan) on Friday night.
Oklahoma State-bound quarterback
Mason Rudolph connected with
Julian Shockley on the first possession of overtime and
Shuler Bentley, who accounted for all five touchdowns for Byrnes, was intercepted to end the fantastic contest.
See the Qwixcore game logBentley, who now has accounted for a remarkable 27 touchdowns in three games, scored on a 1-yard keeper with 16 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime.
Rudolph also accounted for all six Northwestern touchdowns, throwing for five.
Bentley got things going right off the bat as Byrnes took the opening kickoff and traveled 87 yards, capped by an 18-yard touchdown keeper from the senior quarterback giving his team a 7-0 lead.
Northwestern answered with a 23-yard TD screen pass from Rudolph to
Dupree Hart, tying the game at 7.
A 16-yard touchdown pass from Bentley to
Greg McHam gave Byrnes a brief 14-7 lead before Northwestern closed the half with 21 straight second-quarter points.
Rudolph ran for a four-yard touchdown, then completed scoring tosses of 2 and 4 yards to
Quadarius Fair and
Mustafia Love, respectively, giving the home team a 28-14 lead late in the second quarter.
Byrnes looked like it would close to within a touchdown just before the half, but
Isaiah Hill was stopped inside the 1-yard line on fourth-and-goal and Northwestern took its two-touchdown cushion into the half.
Byrnes and Bentley didn't flinch. He fired a beautiful 68-yard touchdown pass to
Jake Bentley, cutting the Northwestern lead to 28-21 early in the third quarter.
After Northwestern kicker
Sully Foy had a 37-yard field goal glance off the right post, Bentley threw his third touchdown pass, a 29-yarder to
Tavin Richardson to tie the game at 28 with 1:49 left in the third quarter.
Both quarterbacks came into the game on fire.
Bentley tied a state record with nine touchdown passes in an 82-49 win over Woodruff last week. The Old Dominion recruit also ran for a score, pushing his tally to 22 total touchdowns in two games. Oklahoma State-bound Rudolph had five of his career 81 touchdown passes in the Trojans' 65-7 blowout of South Aiken last week.
Byrnes beat Northwestern last season, 32-28, and the Trojans broke a two-game losing streak to the Rebels.
