Just as it looked like Hilton Head Christian Academy’s season was dead as the cold November air, Hayden Shinn and JP Peduzzi led the squad back in an unforgettable 42-28 win over defending state champion Florence Christian on Friday to advance to the SCISA 2A state title game.
It’s their first trip to the championship since 2013.
The hometown Eagles trailed 28-7, but then rattled off 35 unanswered points, and Florence did not score for the rest of the night. Shinn threw for 331 yards and five touchdowns and fired up the offense after a slow start in the first half.
But the star of the show was Peduzzi, who was a one-man wrecking crew, catching eight balls for 111 yards and three scores, recovering a fumble, returning an interception for a touchdown, and kicking 6-for-6 on PATs.
“Some of us had their heads down after halftime, but I was thinking we gotta get this W,” Peduzzi said. “I made sure of it when we got back out.”
In a classic tale of two halves, the visitors pounded the hosts early. After a Shinn-Peduzzi connection opened the scoring, Florence Christian masterfully ran the ball down the field again and again, capped off by a Robbie Jordan QB sneak into the end zone and three Marshall Brown rushing touchdowns. Brown and Ethan Kelly both went over 100 yards in the first half alone. Meanwhile, the HHCA offense was trying to find a rhythm as Shinn kept losing yards on first down, making seemingly every series second and long. After Florence Christian took a commanding 28-7 lead, HHCA put together a last-minute drive, finished by a 23-yard pass to the far right corner to Peduzzi for his second TD, making the halftime tally 28-14.
In the second half, all of Florence Christian’s unstoppable rushing attack was snuffed by a sudden defensive stranglehold by the home team. Kelly and Brown rushed for 278 yards in the first half and just 34 in the second.
“We were overplaying some of the rushers in the first half,” HHCA coach Ron Peduzzi said. “They beat us back on the cutback so we adjusted there. Our defensive line just kept coming and played like junkyard dogs that half.”
After an initial FCS three-and-out, the hometown team went on a promising drive that ended with a Shinn interception by Andre Aikens inside the Florence 15-yard line. It looked like Florence Christian would start to salt the game away with a long successful drive, but a key penalty led to another punt. And this time the HHCA offense delivered, with Shinn overcoming 4th-and-long and a costly holding call to eventually find Floyd Hargrove in the end zone for 5 yards and six points.
Things snowballed quickly for Florence Christian. Brown fumbled on the ensuing series, and JP Peduzzi fell on it, setting up HHCA at the Florence 32 and leading to Shinn’s fourth TD of the night, a 26-yard catch and run by JP Peduzzi, whose extra point tied the game at 28. After a fourth-and-4 stop at the FCS 33, HHCA went right back to it and took the lead for good on a 6-yard strike from Shinn to Cameron Strickland. The finishing blow would be courtesy of JP Peduzzi — yep, him again — picking off Jordan and returning the ball 54 yards for a touchdown. Following another HHCA stop, Daniel Harrington ran out the rest of the clock, sending the home Eagles flying into the championship game.
Harrington ran nine times for 61 yards and made eight tackles, Jace Blackshear caught two passes for 52 yards, and Shinn added 29 yards on the ground. Kent Camp also recorded eight tackles on defense, including a sack.
“It’s a dream come true, never something that I thought I would be able to do,” said Shinn. “I can’t ask for anything more than being with a great group of guys.”
The Eagles will look to claim the SCISA 2A state title next Saturday at Benedict College in Columbia against Trinity-Byrnes Collegiate. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
— Wes Kerr