Friday night was the kind of win that does more than move a record. It changes how a team sees itself.
It didn't start that way. The opening kickoff hit the turf, JL Mann recovered, and the Patriots turned that gift into an early field goal and a lead. BHP's next possession ended in a punt. The one after that ended on downs. Three drives in, and the Bears had nothing to show but field position going the wrong way. On another night, against a team carrying a worse record than the moment felt like, that stretch is where a season tips over.
It didn't tip. On JL Mann's next drive, Ty Dubose read a swing pass, jumped the route, and took it back for a pick-six. That was the hinge. From there the BHP defense turned the game into a wall: punt, punt, punt, and the clock to close the half. Four straight Mann possessions that went nowhere.
Then it went somewhere no BHP defense has gone in the play-by-play era. Five interceptions in a single game. Going back to 2013, there is no other night in the database where the Bears reached five, and this wasn't one player having the game of his life. Five picks, five different Bears.
The offense didn't light up the scoreboard. What it did do was hold the ball, and against a defense you're asking to make takeaway after takeaway, that matters more than the yardage line suggests. BHP controlled possession for more than 30 minutes, which kept a defense that was doing the heavy lifting fresh into the fourth quarter. Nick Sargent and Malachi Bohler each pulled in five catches, and 10 of the team's 11 receptions went to those two. When the passing game did work, it worked through the players it's supposed to work through.
But the number that matters most is the one in the win column. First of the year for the Bears, first for Coach Crane at BHP. I can tell you how much work this team and this staff put in to get the first one across the line, and how long the wait felt. More will come. This one gets to be first, and first always keeps a little something the others don't. Like interest compounding on that first deposit, the return on Friday night should keep paying out the rest of the way.
Week 4 Preview
Now BHP goes looking for something it hasn't had yet this season, a road win. The Bears travel to Abbeville on Friday sitting at 1-2, riding the defensive performance that finally broke through against JL Mann, and hoping it packs for the trip.
BHP has played Abbeville 15 times and holds a 4-10-1 record in the series, the second-worst winning percentage against any opponent the Bears have faced 10 or more times. Only T.L. Hanna (8-19) sits lower. Abbeville has taken eight of the last nine meetings. The last BHP win in the series came back in 1993, a 35-27 result, and the last time the Bears actually made this drive to A-Town, in 1995, where they lost 17-6.
Abbeville arrives 2-1, with wins over Saluda (35-33) and Crescent (33-6) and a lone loss to reigning 2A state champion Strom Thurmond (33-0). Their scoring splits tell a specific story: they've outscored opponents 28-0 in third quarters, but been outscored 59-27 in the first and fourth combined. This is a team that comes out of the locker room at halftime ready to play. Getting to them before the break, and closing on them after it, is the window.
On offense, Abbeville runs a system BHP already has a feel for. A lot of it echoes what the Bears saw from Hanna in Week 1, and a lot of it mirrors concepts BHP runs itself. That familiarity plays into the strength of this defense, the front seven. In that Hanna game, the Bears held the opponent to 56 rushing yards in the first half. The physical work up front has to be the center of this week's preparation, because Abbeville has the backs to punish a defense that isn't ready for it.
It starts with Jamiere Killingsworth, who owns both an outstanding name for a running back and the game to back it up. He has the strength to run between the tackles, the agility to make sharp cuts behind the line, and the willingness to throw downfield blocks on sweeps. Abbeville also lines him up as a wildcat quarterback and runs option with a motion man, which stresses the front and the linebackers in a hurry. Kingston Marshall and Aden Harrison give the offense two more explosive pieces to feed. And the quarterback is a threat in his own right: Jakob Wilson, a sophomore, runs the show, keeps the ball on reads, punishes defenders on called runs, and can connect with the playmakers outside.
When it all hums, it's the offensive line making it go, maybe the largest group BHP has faced this year. Tackle Tre Jackson (6-3, 326) and guard Artavion Jordan (6-2, 260) anchor it, and with tight end Jay Ford alongside them, they can move most fronts they've lined up across. Add the speed in the backfield, and Friday shapes up as the toughest ground test the Bears have seen.
For all of that, the defense is the real headliner in A-Town. The athleticism on that side of the ball looks like more than single-A talent. The line is smaller in total mass but built in the modern mold: fast, long, quick to shed blocks, and disruptive all season. Linebacker Zach Jordan, lineman Devin Brown, and linebacker Collins Brown seem to be around every tackle. But the calling card is the secondary. Jaiden Moss, Corde Hadden, and Jo'Vareon Dixon play back there like linebackers who wandered downfield, eager to fill run lanes and deliver hits, and dangerous the moment the ball goes up. This group reminds me of the Clinton teams of recent memory, defenders who look like they're playing eight positions at once and somehow occupy all eight.
Keys to the game
Even with all that, BHP matches up in ways that give the Bears a real path. Three of them matter most.
Start fast. BHP has done this all year, outscoring opponents 21-10 in the first quarter, and Abbeville has been a slow starter. Jump ahead early, hand the lead to this defense, and let them play downhill. That combination is exactly what Friday calls for.
Extend drives and keep the ball. The Bears did this well last week with their 30-plus minutes of possession, but the emphasis this time is converting early in the down series, not just surviving to third down. Move the chains, steal momentum, and keep an Abbeville defense that plays a lot of two-way athletes on the field longer than it wants to be. That bill comes due in the fourth quarter.
Turnovers, both directions. This defense forces them, and that has to continue, whether it's a short field or a stalled Abbeville drive. On the other end, ball security has to be close to perfect. BHP has five turnovers on the season. Beat one of the historically winningest programs in the state on its own field, and you don't get there giving the ball away.
The building isn't friendly and the history isn't either, with one BHP win in this series since 1993 and a loss the last time the Bears made this drive. But Abbeville is a slow starter that lives in the third quarter, and BHP has spent the season getting out front early. Jump ahead, hold the ball, protect it, and let a defense that just made history do the rest. That's the road win, if the Bears can go get it.
Quick Stats
- BHP has faced Abbeville 15 times and are 4-10-1 in those games.
- Abbeville has won 8 of the last 9 matchups. The last BHP win against Abbeville was 1993, 35-27.
- The 31-17 was a scorigami for BHP (a final score combination that has never happened before in the relevant history).
- The 31 points scored by BHP last week was just the 8th time BHP has scored exactly 31. BHP is 7-1 in those games.
- The 3 non-offensive TDs scored against JL Mann was only the 5th time since 2013 that BHP scored 3 or more non-offensive TDs in a game. BHP is 5-0 in those games.
- Last week was the first game BHP scored more non-offensive TDs than offensive TDs (with play-by-play data going back to 2013).
- BHP has forced 6 interceptions through the first three games, the most in the first three games dating back to 2013.
- The 5 interceptions in a game was the first time BHP had ever done that since play-by-play data collection began in 2013.
- With the two pick-sixes last week, BHP has now had a game with two pick-sixes in each of the last 4 seasons.
- BHP beat JL Mann 31-17 despite producing only 185 yards of total offense, the lowest offensive-yardage total in any BHP victory in the database since 2014. The previous low was 205 yards in the 49-0 win over Walhalla in 2024.
- Last week James Johnson went 5/5 on PATs, 1/1 on field goals, and had 4 kickoff touchbacks. Those numbers have been surpassed only once: Peter Bertoni in 2023 vs. Palmetto, with 7/7 PATs, 2/2 field goals, and 6 kickoff touchbacks.
Wrap Up
Last week gave Bear fans the result we had been waiting on, and the way it arrived matters as much as the number. This wasn't a perfect night. It was a defense putting five different names on the interception sheet, an offense doing its job by keeping the ball and its playmakers involved, and a first win that finally landed for a team and a coach who'd earned the wait.
Now BHP travels. Abbeville is the harder assignment, on a field where BHP hasn't won in decades, against a program built to make Friday uncomfortable for larger schools. The formula that worked against JL Mann still applies: start fast, keep possession, and win the turnover battle on both ends. Do that in A-Town, and the first road win of the season follows the first win of the season by exactly one week.
Prediction: BHP 24 - Abbeville - 17
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