Airport entered its Friday night match against Aiken looking for its first win this season. 

The Eagles were successful in their endeavor and beat the Fighting Green Hornets 34-16 in a game that was full of mistakes and penalties by both teams. 

Freshman quarterback Jay Eady threw for a touchdown, ran for a touchdown and even caught a touchdown to lead Airport to victory. Eady displayed his running ability throughout the contest and finished with 112 rushing yards, leading the team. 

Airport finally earned its first win after starting 0-3. The Eagles led at halftime in two of those contests but eventually fell apart in the second half. 

“We've blown it in the second half, and tonight, we had the lead at halftime again. The other team came out and scored, took the lead, but we answered the adversity,” Airport head coach Shane Fidler said. “Our whole theme this week was ‘embrace adversity.’ Bad stuff happens in life. It happens in football games, happens all the time. You can't run from it. You’ve got to run to it. Tonight we did that.” 

The Eagles took an early lead, scoring a touchdown less than three minutes into the game. The team was aggressive from the jump, going for it on a fourth and three in enemy territory. On that play, Eady tucked the ball and ran 24 yards to the endzone. The point-after try was no good, putting the Eagles up 6-0. 

“Can't win playing scared and we ain't won yet, so I told the kids, I said ‘We're here to win the game. Let's go for it. Let's go for the win,’” Fidler said. “All the kids were like, ‘Let's do it.’ And when you get your kids to buy into what you're doing, they play really hard.”

Late in the first quarter, Fidler reached into his bag of tricks. Eady gave the ball up to Avery Jones who then tossed the ball back to Eady downfield for a 12-yard score. 

Mistakes started to stack up in the second quarter. Aiken scored on its first possession of the quarter after a 46-yard pitch and catch. The Fighting Green Hornets lined up for a PAT, but a botched snap led to a broken play that resulted in a converted two-point try after an Aiken player came down with a jump ball pass. Airport’s lead was cut to five. 

Eady was picked off on Airport’s next drive, giving Aiken a shot at the lead. Their drive went backwards before ending up in a third and 25, but then, the flags came flying. 

A roughing the passer gave Aiken 15 yards and a first down. The team did nothing with that and wound up back in a third and long. But Aiken was again bailed out after Airport was flagged for another roughing the passer giving Aiken 15 yards and a first. 

That was not the last mistake on the drive from Airport. Aiken was again in third and long, but this time there was a flag for pass interference on the play. The 15-yard penalty did not result in a first down, but it did give Aiken a manageable third and three. 

The defense finally got off the field after forcing an incomplete pass with no flags. But the mistakes did not stop there. On the following possession, Airport had a miscommunication on a handoff and the ball hit the ground for Aiken to jump on.

“We start 11 freshmen and sophomores on offense, defense and special teams. You're going to have bumps and bruises, and I'm sure we're not over all of them yet,” Fidler said. 

Airport’s lead survived both of those scares in the second quarter, but it was not long into the second half before Aiken jumped on top. 

Aiken got the ball to start the third quarter and drove 65 yards downfield to score and take a three-point lead. Airport got the ball back and went on a long drive that lasted over five minutes of game time.

The Eagles drove 68 yards, converted on a fourth and three and punched the ball in from five yards out on a rush from Amari Lewis to retake the lead 20-16 before entering the final quarter. 

The fourth quarter couldn’t have gone better for the Eagles. Airport stopped Aiken on their drive at the beginning of the period after forcing a fourth and 32. Even though the Eagles came away with no points on their drive, punter Weston Mims pinned Aiken inside their own one-yard line.

That drive went nowhere and Aiken punted from its one, and the ball barely went downfield before being fielded and returned to Aiken’s 33-yard line. 

“Weston Mims and our punt team do a great job,” Fidler said. “Coach Stoudemire and the defense staff run our punt team. They did a great job scheming that up. And our kids did a great job recognizing where the ball was and going and knowing what to do.” 

Airport chewed the clock down on its next drive but it seemed to stall on the Aiken 27. The Fighting Green Hornets called timeout and Fidler used the opportunity to think of a game-sealing play. 

“I looked at the kids and they're upset. … I said ‘Y'all here to win?’ And they said ‘yeah,’ I said ‘All right, we're going to throw a touchdown here to Avery.’ They looked at me for a second. I said, ‘Believe me.’”

Believe they did, and Eady threw a beautiful pass that sailed past the Aiken defense and into the hands of Jones who ran in the score to go up two possessions with just over two minutes left. 

Aiken went four and out to turn the ball over on downs on their next possession. Airport took the ball from the Aiken eight and ran two plays before finding the endzone again, this time on a rush from Kendrick Pearson. 

The game was not over yet though as Aiken got the ball back with over a minute left on the clock. Down 18 a comeback was not probable, but technically not impossible. 

It became impossible a few plays later after Montrelle Keys went up and grabbed his second interception of the game. From there, Eady was able to snap the ball and take a knee, ending the game and giving the team its first win this season. 

Airport improved its record to 1-3 with the win, but more importantly, it improved to 1-0 in region play. The Eagles still have six region contests left, but Fidler is confident this was a step in the right direction. If the team can clean up some mistakes, he said his team has a shot to compete at a high level. 

“We’ve got to capitalize on the good because this team has a lot of potential, and we’ve got to keep growing up,” Fidler said. “We're young, but we’ve got to keep growing up so we can get better and better and better and keep winning.”

Area scoreboard 

Summerville: 53, Chapin: 32

Dutch Fork: 51, Oceanside Collegiate: 0

Irmo: 38, Myrtle Beach: 12

River Bluff: 44, Cheraw: 0 

White Knoll: 49, Cane Bay: 13

Brookland-Cayce: 34, South Aiken: 27

Gray Collegiate: 26, Midland Valley: 21

North Augusta: 37, Gilbert: 14

Barnwell: 14, Swansea: 7

Batesburg-Leesville: 60, Calhoun County: 0

Mid-Carolina: 49, Pelion: 14

Northside Christian: 54, Spartanburg Christian: 19