Hough rallies past South Pointe in Panthers’ Keep Pounding Classic
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Hough broke a three-year opening loss streak by edging South Pointe 14-10.
- Ethan Royal's late-game 38-yard pass set up the decisive touchdown run.
- South Pointe QB J’zavien Currence sparked a rally but threw a late interception.
Head coach DeShawn Baker had many conversations with his team ahead of Hough’s opening game against South Pointe on Friday night. He hoped they somehow might change the Huskies’ fate.
For three years in a row, Hough had played a South Carolina power to start the season — and for three years in a row, Hough had lost to a South Carolina power to start the season. The Huskies lost to Rock Hill-Northwestern by a point last season, and Duncan Byrnes and Dutch Fork in the two years before that.
So, Baker talked to his team about adversity and how to fight through it.
“I told the boys before the game, I said, ‘Guys, we want to face some type of adversity,’’’ Baker said. “And that’s what I kept telling them. It’s the adversity we got to get over.”
Somehow, they got over it. Even when a field goal threatened the same outcome late in the fourth quarter, Hough ended the jinx Friday night at Bank of America Stadium in Uptown Charlotte, beating South Pointe 14-10.
The Huskies got a big special teams play and a big pass to rally and snap that string of losses.
It was Hough’s first opening-day win since beating Myers Park, 32-16, in 2021.
“Today showed me what we can be,” Baker said. “I’m not worried about if something happens and we give up a touchdown, like how are we gonna respond? They showed me how they are gonna respond.”
This is how it happened:
Hough’s offense, which had been dead since the first quarter, finally got going when it needed to.
South Pointe had just taken a 10-7 lead on a 21-yard field goal by Lawson Miller for its first lead of the game with 4:04 to play.
Baker had flashbacks.
“I thought about a year ago today, letting the game slip away,” Baker said. “And there’s one thing about this team, and this team is a lot different from the team we had last year.”
After Miller’s ensuing kickoff, Hough’s Jamarion Morrison returned the ball near midfield.
A few plays later, quarterback Ethan Royal hit Tyran Evans, a Miami Hurricanes recruit, with a 38-yard pass down to the South Pointe 2.
“Once I threw that post to Tyran, I said, ‘Yeah, we’re getting to the box,’” Royal said.
The quarterback then approached Baker. The player told his coach the Huskies needed to run the ball.
“From me to hear him say that lets me know he wasn’t shocked,” Baker said. “He wasn’t fazed.”
Royal scored one play later on a QB draw, his second of the game.
South Pointe had one more chance, but QB J’zavien Currence — who had 143 yards passing in the second half — was intercepted by Drew Johnson with 81 seconds to play.
South Pointe’s second-half bounce back
Currence replaced Cam McMillon at halftime after the Stallions struggled to move the ball in the first two quarters.
“We went two or three series, I bet we went three and out,” head coach Bobby Collins said. “We couldn’t get nothing going.”
On his first possession at QB, Currence helped South Pointe cross midfield. Then after a bad snap and a Josiah Lewis recovery gave the Stallions the ball at the Hough 36, Currence led his team to the end zone.
Currence, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior, ran 15 yards to tie the game with just over five minutes to play in the third quarter.
Hough didn’t have the ball much in the third quarter and struggled to move the ball, giving Currence more opportunities. And Currence, committed to South Carolina, nearly led his team to the win from behind.
With the loss, Collins plans to figure out the mistakes ahead of next week.
“(Losses are) always gonna hurt because I’m a competitor,” Collins said. “My players are competitors and we gotta do a better job as coaches.”
Notes
— South Pointe coach Collins was the first coach in Hough’s school history, starting in 2010. Collins coached at Hough for four seasons, going 25-20. His final two teams were 19-5.
— Since going 2-8 and 4-7 in its first two seasons, Hough has never won fewer than seven games in a season and has not had a losing season.
— South Pointe is No. 1 in the S.C. 4A preseason coaches poll and No. 12 in The Carolinas’ Top 25, a ranking of the best N.C. and S.C. teams combined. Hough is No. 6 in the Carolinas Top 25 and No. 2 in the N.C. 8A statewide rankings.
GAME SUMMARY
Hough 7 0 0 7 — 14
South Pointe 0 0 7 3 — 10
First quarter
H: Ethan Royal 3 run (Cole Johnson kick)
Third quarter
SP: J’zavien Currence 15 run (Lawson Miller kick)
Fourth quarter
SP: FG Miller 21
H: Royal 2 run (Johnson kick)
This story was originally published August 22, 2025 at 6:40 PM.