Marquese Henderson may be the state’s top running back. The Belton-Honea Path star, bound for Clemson, made a believer of Laurens in a 55-6 verdict on Friday night in Honea Path.

The Bears as a whole rank at the top of Class 3A. The Raiders played without their top two quarterbacks.

Game. Set. Match.

Will Thompson (shoulder) and J.T. Campbell (concussion) both went down in Laurens’ loss to Clinton the previous week.

Henderson rushed for 218 yards in 11 carries, a mere 19.8 yards a pop, and scored three touchdowns.

All the Raiders could muster were two Brock Franklin field goals, a 21-yarder with 36 seconds remaining in the first quarter and a 33-yarder on the last play of the second.

In total offense, Belton-Honea Path (3-0) piled up 446 yards to Laurens’ (0-3) 139. The Bears outrushed the Raiders, 334-106, and outpassed them, 112-33.

Called to duty, Laurens’ Brayden Patterson completed 2/4 passes, both to TyJ Jones, for 33 yards.

On the game’s opening play, Henderson raced down the right sideline for 74 yards.  Christian Bridwell added the conversion. Nehemias Fernandez rushed 12 times for 41 yards.

Then Henderson dashed 30 more yards to the end zone with 8:44 remaining in the first quarter. Bridwell – he was 7/8 – added another kick, and it was 14-0.

BHP’s Noah Thomas connected on 3/6 passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns. He was intercepted once by Laurens’ Jones.

Thomas’s scoring connections went to Tajeh Watson-Martin for 74 yards and to Ryan Lee for 39.

The Raiders take to the road for the third straight week, visiting A.C. Floria (2-1) in Columbia next week.

Freshman David Harner ran the second fastest five kilomers in the program’s history and junior Isabel Whitman ran the second sub-20 minute 5K in her career to pace the Presbyterian Blue Hose men’s and women’s cross country teams at the UNCW Beach Blast on Friday evening.

Harner posted a time of 17:01.9, which was the second fastest time in school history. Sophomore Noah Kaufmanwas the second fastest Blue Hose men’s runner with a time of 17:07.5.

Whitman finished in fifth place with a time of 19:48.0.

The Blue Hose fell twice at the Wofford Invitational volleyball tournament, both in five sets.

Campbell (1-3) edged PC (1-4) by scores of 25-20, 20-25, 25-16, 22-25 and 15-12.

Queens (1-4) prevailed 28-20, 21-25, 25-19, 25-23 and 11-15.

“Tough battles,” stated PC head coach Steve Benson. “We went back and forth with Campbell and did some good things. In the beginning of the season, there isn’t a lot of data or film, so we have to go out there and make on-the-fly adjustments. I thought we did well. Unfortunately, couldn’t get it in the fifth set, but overall just a good experience and good play from our team.”

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