Conway knocks off South Florence despite Edwards leaving with injury

There was a discernible lull in Conway’s intensity Friday night when star senior receiver Bryan Edwards went down without contact midway through the third quarter and had to be assisted off the field, unable to put any weight on his right leg.

The Tigers had a 13-point lead over South Florence and the ball.

An interception four plays later, followed by a South Florence touchdown and a Conway three-and-out had the Tigers on their heels and on the wrong side of momentum.

Without Edwards for the remainder of the game, Conway still managed to wrestle momentum back from the Bruins and pulled away with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to earn a 50-29 win.

“It’s more of an emotional thing than anything else, because you’ve got a guy that everybody believes in, and he goes down like that, and what do you do?” Conway coach Chuck Jordan said. “But I thought we reacted and responded well. I was proud of the kids. They went out and took care of business and we did what we had to do.”

The victory improves Conway (8-1) to 3-0 in Region VI-AAAA and sets the Tigers up for a showdown at Sumter (7-2, 3-0) next week that is ostensibly for the region championship. The loss drops South Florence (4-5) to 1-2 in the region.

“That’s the way it’s supposed to be in Region VI, Conway and Sumter,” Jordan said. “It hasn’t been recently but hopefully it will become that again.”

Edwards went down without contact on a pass play and was in obvious pain as he grasped at his right leg and took off his helmet. He attempted to get up but went back down to the ground and had to be helped off the field without putting any pressure on his right leg.

Though it appeared to possibly be a serious knee injury, Edwards posted on his Twitter page shortly after the game: “Thanks for all the well wishes it doesn’t seem to be too serious hopefully I will be back soon!”

At the time of Edwards injury, Conway led 35-22 and had the ball following an Antonio Long interception. Junior quarterback Peyton Derrick threw his only interception of the game four plays later and the Bruins then drove 85 yards in 11 plays to pull within six points.

The Tigers lost yards during a three-and-out on their next possession.

But with Bruins quarterback Lindsey Robinson out with his own leg injury, Conway benefited from a fumbled shotgun snap for a 5-yard loss that helped hold South Florence without a first down on its ensuing possession, and an errant snap on a punt attempt sailed back to the Bruins’ 7, where Conway took possession.

Derrick hit Malachi Miller for a 4-yard TD pass on a slant to give the Tigers a two-score advantage, and on South Florence’s next possession, Darren Stanley stepped in front of a quick throw to the sideline by South Florence junior backup quarterback Brock Dawkins and returned it 65 yards for a touchdown with 3:10 left to put the game out of reach.

“There was a little sigh right when he went down. We all were kind of like, ‘Dang,’ ” Derrick said. “But coach Jordan talked to us on the sideline and told us it’s about the team, not one person makes a team. We had to calm down and keep truckin’, and that’s what we did.”

Unable to do much on the ground all night – Conway was held to 37 yards on 24 carries and Jah’Maine Martin was held to 24 yards on 15 carries – Derrick carried the offense on his right arm.

He was 22 of 32 for 262 yards and four touchdowns, and was particularly impressive in the first half, completing 14 of 18 passes for 193 yards and three touchdowns.

His touchdown passes were of 30 yards on a screen pass to Martin, 57 yards down the right sideline to Darren Stanley, and 4 yards each to Juwon Moody and Malachi Miller. Eight Tigers caught passes, led by five receptions by Edwards and four each by Martin and Stanley.

“We knew South Florence usually has some hosses up front, their front seven is usually pretty good,” Derrick said. “They tell us each week we don’t really have a game plan going into it, we’re just going to take what they give us. Fortunately tonight they gave us the pass and we took advantage of it and had a pretty successful night.”

Edwards displayed his explosiveness and brilliance with a 62-yard punt return for a touchdown late in the first quarter. He accepted a punt after a couple bounces at the right hash mark and streaked to the left sideline, where he picked up a crushing come-back block from Martin that opened up the sideline for his score.

The Bruins were essentially made one-dimensional following their first drive, when starting senior quarterback Lindsey Robinson injured a leg on a tackle near the sideline following an 11-yard run to the Conway 2. He was out for the remainder of the first half and played sparingly in the second half.

Conway held a 28-15 lead at halftime and scored just 1:35 into the third quarter a 1-yard Martin run that was set up by a 58-yard kickoff return by Tyreke Weaver, during which he broke several tackles, and 34-yard pass from Derrick to Moody to the 1 that was dropped over a defensive back in tight coverage.

South Florence quickly answered on a 21-yard halfback option pass from White to Ty King prior to Edwards’ injury.

Starting junior running back Hykeem White spelled Robinson and attempted just four passes in the Bruins’ shotgun-formation offense, and Dawkins attempted four late passes.

“We got behind the eight ball early and it just was too much of a monkey wrench in what we were trying to do to try to come back from,” said South Florence coach David Prince, whose team was also missing his two starting offensive tackles. Robinson is also the Bruins’ punter and holder on extra points. “We had to coach some kids up on the sideline,” Prince said.

White and Michael Grimsley gashed the Conway defense all night. White rushed for 123 yards and three scores and threw for a 21-yard TD on a halfback option pass, and Grimsley gained 109 yards on 18 carries.

“Defensively I didn’t feel we tackled well, but [White], he’s a great back,” Jordan said. “He’s really, really special and we kept losing leverage on him.

“You have to give them a lot of credit. They had a lot of reasons and a lot of times just to kind of quit and they never did. They just kept coming.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 12:07 AM with the headline "Conway knocks off South Florence despite Edwards leaving with injury."