Conway routs Socastee for first 3-0 start since 2008

After Friday’s game, Chuck Jordan sat in his office eating chicken wings with his coaching staff.

The Conway coach called it a good time to be a Tiger.

And rightfully so, Conway got out to a big lead early on and cruised to a 43-8 win over Socastee to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2008.

“It’s nice being 3-0. This time last year we were 0-3,” Jordan said. “It’s much better. We’re playing with a lot of confidence, which we haven’t done in quite some time.”

The Tigers were poised from the get-go as it was all Conway to start the game. On the first play, Conway’s Juwon Moody took a 99-yard kickoff return to the house to set the pace for the Tigers, who had three touchdowns in the opening quarter.

“We came out ready to play. Our kids were ready, there’s no question,” Jordan said. “Of course when you put one up quick like that it gets them excited.”

And Conway never stopped trucking.

Quarterback Peyton Derrick threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Deandre Huggins and halfback Jah-Maine Martin had a 57-yard rushing touchdown to highlight the big quarter as the Tigers got out to a 22-0 advantage in the opening frame.

“It was good. Coach told us we needed to come out, put it on them early and that’s what we did,” Martin said. “Moody, he runs shifty and fast. He got that ball, made one cut and it was over with. We had a huge first quarter and that really gave us some momentum.”

Martin had some explosive runs en route to a big night as he finished with 156 yards on just eight carries and had two touchdowns.

“I give a lot of credit to my [offensive] line,” Martin said. “The holes were there and I just took it and went up the field.”

Martin reversed the field a few times but was able to find some success with it. He had four runs of 20 yards or more when cutting to the other side of the field.

“I don’t particularly like when they do that. At the same time, I tell them if they reverse field they better get some dadgum yardage,” Jordan said. “But Jah-Maine runs the ball hard. He’s got a really big heart and he plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played and I think his enthusiasm kind of spills over to some of the other guys.”

Tigers wide receiver Bryan Edwards – a South Carolina commit – and Derrick had a nice connection Friday as both had big nights. Edwards caught five passes for 123 yards and a touchdown, while Derrick finished 7-for-13 with 133 yards, an interception and two touchdowns.

The pair’s biggest highlight Friday came when Edwards gained 73 yards on a screen pass from Derrick in the first quarter.

“That’s huge. If [Edwards] is catching the ball down the field, the other team has to look at him and that opens up space for me,” Martin said. “If I’m running the ball and getting yards, that opens up the field for him and the other receivers. We all work together.”

Meanwhile, the Braves (0-3) were doomed from the very beginning. Quarterback Brandon Goswick was picked off by Conway’s Antonio Long on Socastee’s first drive of the game and the Braves had three turnovers in the first half.

“We got beat by a good team and we gave them a lot, you know with all those turnovers in the first half. But I thought our kids fought extremely hard,” Socastee coach Doug Illing said. “We were moving the football and we kept putting it on the ground and threw an interception early; bad decision there. We’re a better football team than that and we’ve got to grow and develop confidence if we want to be good. But I thought my kids fought extremely hard.”

Socastee got pretty banged up on Friday, too. The Braves had two players exit the game with possible concussions, including Goswick – who scored the Braves’ only touchdown on a 6-yard rush in the second quarter – as he limped off the field in the third quarter.

Socastee halfback Malachi McClendon – who had 119 rushing yards at halftime – also exited the game due to injury in the third quarter, but he returned late in the fourth.

“We had a couple of them that took a few licks,” Illing said. “It’s a physical football game and I thought we matched their physicality early; we just didn’t tackle real well. We’ve got a couple that I think have some concussions and got a little dizzy and they wouldn’t let them play.”

And Illing said he expects his quarterback to miss next Friday’s game when Socastee hosts Myrtle Beach at 7:30 p.m. Illing’s nephew, Hunter, a sophomore, finished the game in place of Goswick and is expected to start Friday.

“It [will be] another challenge for us,” Illing said of Friday’s contest against Myrtle Beach, which beat the Braves 23-22 last year. “But we’re taking this as a preseason and we’re trying to develop our kids and keep moving forward. I feel like we made some progress this week during a tough week; we just had some bad luck tonight. We’re going to need to play a lot better [against Myrtle Beach] and it looks like we’re going to have a backup quarterback playing. He doesn’t have any experience so we’ve got to get him a lot of experience this week in practice and get him ready to play. Our team has to rally and I know they will.”

Meanwhile, the Tigers have some confidence heading into Friday when they host Hartsville, which has been in the Class AAA state championship twice in the past three years and won in 2012. Martin believes – with hard work – Conway will be in the running for a state title.

“I think this could be the year,” Martin said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys but they’re all maturing and we’ve got some good solid players. I think we’ve got it this year.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 1:24 AM with the headline "Conway routs Socastee for first 3-0 start since 2008."