Green Sea Floyds battles but falls short against powerful Lake View

The Green Sea Floyds football team came into Friday’s game looking to measure up to one of the best football programs in South Carolina in Lake View.

The Trojans’ coach, Tony Sullivan, feels like his squad performed well against the No. 2 team in Class A despite a 28-8 loss.

“I feel like my kids played hard and fought to the end,” Sullivan said. “We gave them (Lake View) everything they wanted, they probably don’t want no more. That’s one of the best games we’ve played against them in the five years I’ve been here. We want to build off that.”

A series of big plays allowed the Wild Gators (6-0) to climb ahead of Green Sea Floyds (3-3) in the first half. While the first quarter had no scoring, the second quarter saw Lake View’s quarterback, Duane Nichols, put up two touchdowns. After running back De’Ante Bridgett pounded in a 5-yard touchdown run, Nichols navigated the Wild Gators past a number of mental mistakes to a 55-yard pass to Tyshawn McDaniel.

“My guys were able to hit on a couple of big runs in the first half that opened up some big passes,” said Lake View coach Daryl King. “It was a heck of an effort from those guys. They’re sore, they’re beat up – this is the most beat up they’ve been after a ballgame.”

Before the half ended, Green Sea Floyds would hit on a big play of its own, when Mahammud Graham broke loose for a 51-yard touchdown run. The Gators’ Nichols would respond with a rushing score of his own, from 62-yards out, to give Lake View a 22-8 halftime lead.

“They’re just more athletic than we are; they have a quarterback that makes people miss and a running back that packs a load and runs downhill,” said Sullivan on the challenge of facing Lake View. “You’ve got to take on both of those guys at the same time and that’s tough. We had them in the backfield several times, but we just couldn’t put them on the ground.”

The second half would be a low-scoring affair, with Nichols hitting McDaniel for another big passing touchdown, this one from 22-yards out, to end the scoring. Green Sea Floyds would finally get its offense going in the fourth quarter, with a drive lasting more than eight minutes. Sullivan said that was what he was looking for from his offense, though it came far too late in the contest.

“We’re a good football team, I still believe that,” he said. “We’ve just got to do a little bit better up front and take care of the mental mistakes that we made. We’ve got to figure out where we did good, what we want improve and get ready for homecoming next week against Creek Bridge.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 11:59 PM with the headline "Green Sea Floyds battles but falls short against powerful Lake View."