Sumter rolls over Conway to win Region VI-AAAA

A showdown for the Region VI-AAAA championship between teams ranked in Class AAAA turned ugly quickly for Conway on Friday.

Sumter scored on its first offensive play and the Tigers trailed by 37 points before it could register a point in a 51-14 loss on Freddie Solomon Field at Memorial Stadium.

“I told our kids, ‘There were two problems. You played a good football team No. 1, and No. 2 you played poorly,’ ” Conway coach Chuck Jordan said. “And when you put those two things together it’s not good.”

Conway (8-2, 3-1 in Region VI-AAAA) is ranked ninth in Class AAAA while Sumter (8-2, 4-0) is ranked 10th and wrapped up its first region title since 2009 and a home game to begin the playoffs.

“We win the region and we’ll have a great playoff spot,” said senior running back Quentin Anderson, who scored six touchdowns Friday. “This gives us momentum to play against the next team [Socastee] and move on to the playoffs.

“They’re a good team and we’re a good team so I thought it would be a little competition, but we came out with the win tonight.”

The Tigers can still claim second place in the region and would be considered to host a playoff game with a win next week against Carolina Forest.

“We’ve got to get used to playing in these kinds of games because this is a playoff type game,” Jordan said. “This game was important for seeding and the region championship, and the game next week will be important for seeding.”

But this one will sting.

“I give Sumter a lot of credit because they did a great job. They outplayed us, they outcoached us, they outmanned us,” Jordan said. “Yet we shot ourselves in the foot over and over. We just struggled on offense to get going and just really, really put our defense in a bind early. And with their style of football – they want to control the ball – that’s the worst thing you can do.”

Conway played its first game this season without wide receiver and kick returner Bryan Edwards, a South Carolina commitment who injured his right knee in the third quarter of last week’s win over South Florence and will be out for the remainder of the year.

The Tigers went three-and-out on their first three possessions and trailed 21-0 by the end of the first quarter.

Sumter’s first play from scrimmage was a 60-yard pass down the right sideline from sophomore quarterback Zykeem Jackson to Anderson, who rolled down the sideline from the backfield. “We practice that in practice almost every day. It was the perfect play,” Anderson said.

Anderson added TD runs of 24 and 16 yards on Sumter’s next two possessions.

The Tigers earned their initial first down early in the second quarter before punting three plays later, and Sumter regained possession with a sack of quarterback Peyton Derrick and fumble recovery following a fumbled punt.

A 7-yard Anderson TD run, safety on an intentional grounding penalty against Derrick in the end zone and a 10-yard Anderson TD run gave Sumter a 37-0 lead with 1:35 remaining in the first half.

A 43-yard run by Jah’Maine Martin set up a 2-yard Tyrone Bennett TD run to get Conway on the board with 45 seconds left in the first half. The Tigers recovered a pooch kick and drove to the Sumter 6 before turning the ball over on downs, with Anderson adding his sixth TD of the game on a 3-yard run on the opening possession of the second half to squelch any hopes of a comeback.

That was it for Sumter’s starting offensive unit, and Anderson finished with 92 yards on 16 carries and the 60-yard TD reception.

“There can be a lot of reasons why [the blowout] happened but I’m going to give our players a lot of credit,” said Mark Barnes, Sumter’s fourth coach in four years who won a state championship last year at Shelby (N.C.) Crest High. “We executed well at the beginning of the game. … When it mattered the most it was the most complete game we’ve played.”

The Fighting Gamecocks (8-2, 4-0), who lost to York in their opener and Dutch Fork just prior to region play – before Jackson was called up from JV and inserted as the team’s starting QB – gave up just 10 points to its first three region opponents combined and just seven to Conway before the Tigers scored against backups in the fourth quarter.

“We’re a physical football team on both sides of the ball and that’s what we hang our hat on,” Barnes said. “We preach that every Friday. We want to be the most physical football team and I thought we were on both sides of the ball tonight.”

Derrick finished 18 of 29 for 118 yards and two interceptions, and Martin gained 100 yards and scored a late touchdown on 12 carries to go over 900 yards rushing on the season.

“We’re not going to allow this game to define our season,” said Jordan, whose team was 2-9 last season. “Our goal was to flip our record, and we’ve got a chance to flip it next week.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 12:06 AM with the headline "Sumter rolls over Conway to win Region VI-AAAA."