WELLSTON - It took a little longer than he wanted, but South Point coach Dan McDavid saw a spark in his Pointers.

Although the Pointers lost 35-22 at the hands of the Wellston Golden Rockets Friday, McDavid was pleased with the effort of his players as they outscored the Rockets in the second half 16-9.

"We started playing a little bit of defense in the second half, " McDavid said. "Our kids played hard. They came out the second half and played with a lot of emotion."

The Pointers wasted a strong passing performance by sophomore quarterback Chris Smith who hit 11 of 36 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns. He was intercepted twice.

A big problem for the Pointers offense was the running game that produced only 17 yards on 15 attempts.

Wellston had little problem moving the ball on the ground. The Rockets rushed for 391 yards with Josh Ewing picking up 152 yards on 19 tries. Wellston had 502 total yards.

Quarterback Zane Holzapfel threw for 111 yards and two touchdowns on a 5 of 11 performance while running 12 times for 41 yards and a TD.

Holzapfel's 1-yard run put Wellston up 7-0 in the first quarter. He then threw a 16-yard scoring pass to Josh Osborne

that put the lead at 14-0 early in the second quarter.

Wellston (2-1) went ahead 20-0 on a 43-yard run by Ewing, but South Point countered with a 4-yard scoring pass from Smith to Jerrell Dean and it was 20-6.

Ewing then ran 12 yards for a touchdown with 3:14 left in the half and it was 26-6.

A safety gave the Rockets a 28-8 lead and

24-yard pass from Holzapfel to Jake Walburn extended the lead to 35-6.

South Point (0-3) then got in gear and scored on the ensuring play after the kickoff as Smith hook up with Anthony Ross on a 53-yard touchdown pass and it was 35-14.

Smith had another long TD pass as he found Dean on a 66-yard catch and run play with 3:01 to play.

South Point0688-22

Wellston71990-35

First Quarter

We - Zane Holzapfel 1 run (Lance Phillips kick) 4:25

Second Quarter

We - Josh Osborne 16 pass from Zane Holzapfel (Lance Phillips kick) 9:58

We - Josh Ewing 43 run (kick failed) 7:42

SP - Jerrell Dean 4 pass from Chris Smith (kick failed) 5:18

We - Josh Ewing 12 run (run good) 3:14

Third Quarter

We - Safety

5:53

We - Jake Walburn 24 pass from Zane Holzapfel (Lance Phillips kick) 1:48

SP - Anthony Ross 53 pass from Chris Smith (pass good) 1:28

Fourth Quarter

SP - Jerrell Dean 66 pass from Chris Smith (run good) 3:01

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SPWel

First downs822

Rushes-yards15-1753-391

Passing yards217111

Total yards234502

Cmp-Att-Int11-36-25-11-1

Fumbles-lost3-16-3

Penalties-yards4-2011-75

Punts-average5-24.50-00.0

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING-South Point: John Crager 7-18, Chris Smith 8-1; Wellston: Josh Ewing 19-152, Noah Walton 7-75, Andrew Johnson 6-49, Zane Holzapfel 12-41, Steve Gillman 6-33, Scott Baldwin 8-33, Jake Walburn 2-8.

PASSING-South Point: Chris Smith 11-36-2

217; Wellston: Zane Holzapfel 5-11-1

111.

RECEIVING-South Point: Anthony Ross 2-108, Jerrell Dean 2-70, Tommy Haner 3-17, Aaron Patterson 2-15, John Crager 2-7; Wellston: Josh Osborne 3-74, Jake Walburn 1-24, Josh Ewing 1-13.