Todd Shanesy, Greenville NewsSat, November 29, 2025 at 4:47 AM UTC·2 min readBelton-Honea Path senior running back MJ Earl waited patiently for the opening and burst through it.
Earl, stuck behind Marquise Henderson, the school’s all-time leading rusher for the past three seasons, is a first-year starter who has given Belton-Honea Path a chance to win its first high school football state championship since 2004.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Bears beat Powdersville, 35-7, in the SCHSL semifinals on Nov. 28 to win the Class 3A Upper State title as Earl rushed for 212 yards and four touchdowns on 21 carries.
Belton-Honea Path (14-0) will play for the state championship at noon Dec. 5 against Oceanside Collegiate in Orangeburg. Oceanside (12-2) beat Loris, 38-7, to set up a rematch of the 2024 final.
Earl’s talent was overshadowed because Belton-Honea Path had Marquise Henderson, who rushed for a school record of 6,580 yards in his career. Earl went over 1,000 yards for this season on his first carry of this game and has 1,209 yards with 24 touchdowns.
“Everybody thought BHP was nothing without Marquise Henderson,” Earl said. “But I had to show that we are something. Don’t take us out. Don’t remove us from anything. BHP is still BHP whether we have Marquise or not. We have a balanced team. We can do everything.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBy halftime, Earl had 177 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries.
“He’s such a good player,” Belton-Honea Path coach Russell Blackston said. “MJ is such a great competitor and has such good vision. For the first 10 yards, he’s just as fast as Marquise. He doesn’t have the same top speed, but the shifts and the cuts are the same.”
Belton-Honea Path’s defense made an interception late in the first half, and Earl had a 64-yard touchdown on the Bears’ first snap to make it 21-7.
Earl might just now be hitting his stride.
“He got hurt and missed two games early,” Blackstone said. “We had a lot of blowouts, and we wanted to make sure we kept him healthy and got him to this point where we are right now.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementEarl said the motivation for this season began during the Bears’ run to the championship game in 2024.
“Last year motivated me a lot,” Earl said. “I had Marquise in front of me and he was a great player. I knew that this year would be when I could really show what I could do.”
Todd Shanesy covers high school athletics for the Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal and Anderson Independent Mail in the USA TODAY Network. Contact him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly called Twitter, at @ToddShanesySHJ.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: How MJ Earll helped Belton-Honea Path reach SCHSL 3A state championship
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