It was, no doubt, the loudest blocked kick in Midland Valley High history.
When the Mustangs’ defense and special teams unit brought the push to send North Augusta kicker Jack Stevens’ 41-yard game-winning field goal attempt harmlessly to the grass, you wouldn’t have needed to see the action in order to know the result.
The blocked kick on the last play of Friday’s 49-48 win over the Yellow Jackets touched off a raucous response of orange-and-blue-clad football fans and players alike — the kind of response fit for the program’s first-ever undefeated regular season and first region crown since 2010.
“These goalposts are gonna have to come down,” one fan said as he skip-jogged out to the middle of the field to help coach Earl Chaptman’s squad celebrate rarified air.
The goalposts stayed intact. But Midland Valley’s football futility did not.
Among the aforementioned firsts, Friday’s game with the Yellow Jackets also gave Valley its first winning season since the 10-5 2015 squad fell 35-0 to South Pointe in the South Carolina Class AAA state championship game.
It marked only the second double-digit win season in school history and it came after a four-year stretch (2018-2021) where the Mustangs combined for a 10-33 record.
But Midland Valley wants more.
State title or bust
“When we came out during the summer, coach Chaptman took us to Georgia camps and South Carolina camps, and at first we were losing, but then we started to pick it up and we started to figure it out,” quarterback Preston Butler said. “And Coach would tell us, ‘we’re bigger than the CSRA.’ That’s what he told us all year long. We’re bigger than the CSRA. We’ve got bigger things to go to and accomplish.”
The team played like it all Friday night as it traded offensive haymakers with North Augusta until defense and special teams won the day down the stretch with forced fumbles and a 2-point conversion stop in addition to the blocked field goal on a usually automatic kicker.
“At the end of the day, we focus on winning the next play,” Chaptman said. “Did we win every play? Cleary not. We gave up 48 points. But we won the plays when we needed to. We won that kickoff. We won the extra point attempt and the field goal at the end of the game. We played 70 plays, and as long as we win 36 of them, we’re going to have a chance to be successful.”
Traevon Dunbar, arguably the biggest star of the season, was given high accolades from his coach.
“He’s the best football player in the state if you ask me,” Chaptman said. And on Friday night he played like it.
Dunbar ran for a ridiculous 311 yards while scoring four touchdowns to push his regular season rushing total to 2,187. But Butler was one of the many unsung heroes in Friday’s history-making win. The 5-foot-10 junior signal caller’s stat line wasn’t gaudy. But his intangibles were.
For example, on a 4th-and-7, Butler dropped back to pass, scrambled around avoiding a sack before escaping North Augusta’s pass rush for a 7-yard pickup that kept a crucial scoring drive alive.
“My coach told me to believe in myself and do the plays I know how to make and make my reads,” Butler said. “They’re always going to follow [Dunbar]. He’s one of the best running backs in the state, and they’re gonna follow him, which means I’m going to have those plays to make, and I just have to make them.”
In the moment, Butler was laser focused on making each play count. But when it was all over, he not only allowed himself to get enveloped by the postgame celebration, but his emotions as well.
“It felt so awesome,” he said. “It’s something that’s never been done. I cried about it. It feels great.”
Thinking bigger than local
Both Butler and Chaptman echoed each other in their desire to quickly put it behind them and lock in on what’s now ahead. That’s where the “better-than-the-CSRA” statement comes in.
“I wanted them to think that we could compete in the state, not necessarily the CSRA only,” Chaptman said. “Yes, we want to compete in the CSRA, but for us to get where we want to go, it’s bigger than winning these games. Now, are these games a step in that process? Yes. But our mentality is ‘think big.’ And when we say think big, we think going all the way to Orangeburg.”
In other words, Chaptman and company feel like they’re state title ready. And that road begins Friday when Easley (4-6, 2-3 in Region 1-AAAA) comes to town for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff to begin the first round of the South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) playoffs.
Although Easley comes into Friday on a two-game skid, Butler insists that’s no reason to take the Green Wave lightly. Easley promotes a fairly balanced offense with featured tailback Logan Sullivan and his 918 rushing yards and six scores. He provides a suitable complement for sophomore quarterback Jay Stoker.
The 6-foot-1 signal caller has played admirably, completing 60 percent of his passes for 1,376 yards and 15 touchdowns with just one interception. His favorite target is 6-foot-2, 185-pound senior wideout Will Patton who’s snagged 43 balls for 709 receiving yards and seven scores.
Defensively, Talan Scott has been a terror with a team-leading 91 tackles, including 11.5 for losses and four quarterback sacks.
It’ll give Midland Valley plenty to prepare itself for Friday.
“We’ve gotta focus,” Butler said. “It’s going to get harder from here. That’s why I’m glad that we have that next playoff game at home. We’re really going to have to focus.”
Chaptman doesn’t think focus will be an issue for his bunch, considering their appetite for more.
“I don’t think it’s gonna be very hard at all for us to stay focused,” Chaptman said. “I think our guys are hungry. I think our guys are hungry to chase a state championship game. Obviously, [North Augusta] was a big one, and we [enjoyed] it. But we’ve turned the page Sunday and we’re getting ready to play Easley and try to make a run at the state championship game.”
Three years in to Chaptman’s program rebuild, the coach sees games like last Friday’s as a sign that Valley is poised to win the kinds of games it may not have one in the past.
“Seeing our guys compete and battle all the way to the end, when I took this job over, last year in a situation like that, we would’ve folded the tent because we weren’t mentally tough enough to win games like that,” Chaptman said. “But now we definitely are.”
