Carvers Bay wears down Andrews, opens region play with a win

Apparently a brutal early season schedule has paid off.

In its first game against a fellow Class 2A team, the Carvers Bay football team cruised to a 20-0 victory over Andrews on Friday night.

“A lot of it had to do with that tough schedule at the beginning. That non-conference was rough,” Carvers Bay coach Nate Thompson said. “We played a 4A, a 3A, a 3A and then a 4A [team]. Now we came back to 2A and they play kids on both sides of the ball like we do.”

Levi White scored rushing touchdowns from 1 and 2 yards out, and Byron Young ran one in from 20 yards out to complete the Bears’ scoring.

“We ran it. We kept our offense on the field versus keeping our defense [on the field],” Thompson said. “We kept their defense on the field more so than our defense and that makes a difference. When we can wear the defense down, that helps.”

Carvers Bay took advantage of the Yellow Jackets’ pass-denying scheme.

“We ran the ball most of the night. We knew it was going to be hard to throw. They back up pretty deep,” Thompson said. “They’re not going to give up the deep ball, so we were able to take advantage of them backing up and try to attack them at the different areas and get some counters. Just keep them chasing the offense. With them chasing, they’ll get tired, and that’s what we’re counting on.”

The Bears also took advantage of a few turnovers by Andrews.

“Andrews has got a good team. Don’t let nobody fool you,” Thompson said. “We took advantage of some breaks that they gave us tonight when they put the ball on the ground. So we took advantage of those things. But defensively, we rose to the occasion.”

Thompson did note, however, that the Yellow Jackets were without starting quarterback Jaizell Murphy and had to pull a player up from JV to start.

“That made a difference in what they could do,” Thompson said. “They were kind of limited there.”

Nonetheless, it was a nice bounce-back win after losing at home against North Myrtle Beach last week.

“I think they did quite well,” Thompson said of bouncing back. “Andrews is one of the tougher teams in our region. … They responded well. When you got beat the week before that to very good 4A teams and then you come back and kind of held your own tonight.”

Having seven teams in Region VII-2A, the win allowed the Bears to get off to a quick start in league play.

“That’s a big plus,” Thompson said. “Anytime you can get ahead of the schedule that a big plus.”

This story was originally published September 17, 2016 at 12:05 AM with the headline "Carvers Bay wears down Andrews, opens region play with a win."