Rock Hill made its point early in the 2026 South Carolina high school football season.
Behind two first-half touchdown passes from Jonah Young and a defense that came up with three turnovers, including a pair of interceptions late, the Bearcats beat Irmo 24-14 at W.C. Hawkins Stadium in a matchup of High School On SI South Carolina Top 25 teams. Irmo fought back from a 17-0 halftime hole and got within three, but Rock Hill’s secondary shut the door in the fourth quarter.
The Bearcats’ back end was the difference. With All-State talent already in place in Myles Brooks and Nigel Lightner, Rock Hill added South Pointe transfer Zymier Gordon-Miles, and he made a huge play when it mattered most. After Irmo trimmed the lead to 17-14, the North Carolina A&T commit intercepted Britton Davis at the Yellow Jackets’ 15 with 3:44 left.
“Our coaches are depending on us,” Gordon-Miles said. “We’ve got playmakers back there which is true. So, whenever we get a chance to make a play, we make a play.”
Irmo got one more chance, but that ended the same way. Donovan Franklin picked off Davis near the Irmo 20 and returned it to the 2-yard line. On the next snap, Gordon-Miles took the handoff and finished the job with 2:15 remaining.
Rock Hill coach Leon Boulware was happy to keep the focus on his defense.
“I said it before, I feel like I don’t have to say it again,” Boulware said. “Those guys are going to come out now and show up every time. We count on those guys every week to do what they’re supposed to do on the back end.”
The Bearcats also got production from another newcomer, Lewisville transfer Jay'Sean Culp. He had two sacks, and one of them turned into a game-changing play when he forced and recovered a fumble, setting up Young’s second touchdown pass of the first half - a 14-yard strike to Devan Erby.
Young’s first touchdown throw went to Jalen Culp for 13 yards. Jalen and Jay'Sean both played for Boulware at Lewisville before joining him at Rock Hill.
“It sends a message across the state that we’ve been working all off-season,” he said. “We’re not looking to call anybody out, but we’re going to look to show up every night and play football.”
For Irmo, the night turned into a frustrating pile of mistakes. The Yellow Jackets came in after a loss to Northwestern in the Class 5A Division I final and then ran into another rough finish, this one marked by three turnovers, 22 penalties and missed chances.
“We’ve got to coach it better,” he said. “We’ve got to behave better, especially in between the whistle. We’re just so arrogant and not being able to answer the bell with that arrogance.
“It’s me. It’s got to be me because you can’t say the things I said and expect your team to do the things that we did, expect your team to do what we’re supposed to do and then just lay an egg.
We laid an egg tonight. It was not fun to coach tonight.”
Davis accounted for both Irmo touchdowns in the third quarter. He hit Jay Eady on a 39-yard scoring play and later ran it in from 8 yards out.
Up front, defensive lineman and University of Miami commit Jaiden Bryant recorded a sack, and University of South Carolina offensive lineman commit Nate Carson was also occasionally part of the pressure. Running back and Alabama commit Tai Phillips had a 17-yard touchdown run wiped out by a penalty and was productive on Irmo’s first scoring drive.
The game had been building toward that kind of edge before kickoff, and it showed once the teams got going. The result was a physical, high-level opener that also came with a heavy whistle. Rock Hill and Irmo were flagged close to 35 times combined, including two straight plays that ended with offsetting personal fouls.
“We’ve got to clean this all up,” Boulware said. “We had too many flags.
We gave them opportunities to get back in the game. There are some things we’ve got to fix and clean up and get back to work next week.”
“It’s the first game,” Brand said. “We’ll get better.
We’ll be better next time out. But it doesn’t matter who we play.
If we just keep shooting ourselves in the foot over and over and over. We’ll get a 20-yard play, they bring it back.
We get another 20-yard play, we get another personal foul at the end of it.
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