McAfee, Carolina Forest run past West Florence in second half

Carolina Forest running back Anthony McAfee rushed for 189 yards and three touchdowns as the Panthers rallied past West Florence for a 28-16 victory on the Knights’ senior night.

The Panthers, who trailed 16-14 going into the fourth quarter, scored on a 62-yarder by none other than McAfee to take the lead for good. Then, with 1:01 left in the game, Richmond Collier scored from 10 yards out to put the game away.

For West Florence coach Trey Woodberry, whose Knights trailed 16-7 at halftime, this was a tough loss to take.

“Our defense played extremely well,” Woodberry said. “But we left them on the field too much. You can’t make the turnovers and dropped passes and holding calls. That’s stuff in the second half you can’t have.”

But they happened, especially in the middle of the third quarter.

Carolina Forest got back into the game with help from West Florence’s’ temperament after a fumble apparently recovered by the Knights’ Sharrod Simmon at the Knights’ 20 was overruled. A West Florence unsportsmanlike penalty followed, moving the ball to the 10. Then, a face-mask penalty moved the Panthers to the 5, where McAfee scored his second TD of the night to move his team within 16-14.

In the fourth quarter, Carolina Forest’s Samson Torres recovered an Ailym Ford fumble at the Panthers’ 24. Then, McAfee scored his final touchdown in impressive fashion. During his 62-yard run, he broke through two West Florence defenders 15 yards away from the end zone before crossing the goal line for a 21-16 lead.

Big games like McAfee’s have helped the Panthers fill the void since star Dyverse Simmons was injured early in the season.

“Anthony’s a great player,” Carolina Forest coach Marc Morris said of McAfee, who also had 50-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. “Anthony came out against Myrtle Beach (on Sept. 16) and broke his hand. The thing tonight was his will to win. He ran so hard and did a great job, both him and the offensive line. Things changed in the second half for them, and it was really good.”

On the Panthers’ final scoring drive, starting from their 15, a third-down completion for 30 yards from quarterback Matt Beale to Tyler Marchese kept the drive alive. And McAfee took over from there to set up Collier’s TD.

The first half, though, belonged to West Florence, which accounted for 249 yards at halftime and found several ways to attack Carolina Forest.

Roberts, who passed for 129 yards and that included scoring tosses of 24 yards to Devin Merrick and 18 to Vick Johnson.

In between those two scores, midway through the second quarter, Carolina Forest’s Stephon Alexander blocked a 23-yard field goal attempt by Michael Hayes. But an inadvertent whistle allowed Hayes another attempt, which he made for a 10-7 advantage.

Leading the ground game was Ailym Ford with 90 yards.

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 11:45 PM with the headline "McAfee, Carolina Forest run past West Florence in second half."