Carolina Forest comes up just short against Summerville in first round

Summerville opened the Class AAAAA playoffs with a 45-35 win over Carolina Forest on Friday night at McKissick Field.

The 6-5 Green Wave scored the go-ahead points on Jonathan Bennett’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Andre Banks and a 2-point conversion pass to Olin McCurry for a 38-35 lead in the final minutes. And Summerville iced the game when linebacker Allen Fields scooped up a fumble, caused by Taishon Smalls and Deonte Geddis, and ran 30 yards for a TD with less than a minute to go.

“The offense moved the ball down the field when we had to have it,” Summerville coach Joe Call said. “We had some turnovers, but we finally got to the point where we said ‘we are not going to lose, not tonight, not at home.’ Our guys found a way. We’ve had so many games this year where our defense has kept us in it so it was nice to see our offense keep us in it tonight. And our defense made some big plays like when we scoop it for a score there at the end.”

Largely behind the playmaking of Carolina Forest running back/defensive back Anthony McAfee, the Panthers rallied from an early 27-7 deficit to take 35-30 lead, only their second of the game, with just less than three minutes to play.

The Green Wave will play No. 1 seed Dutch Fork, a 27-7 winner over Ashley Ridge, in the second round. Carolina Forest was eliminated from the playoffs with a 6-5 record.

Banks had two TD receptions in the game and threw a touchdown pass on a trick play for Summerville’s second TD. Bennett lateraled to the receiver, and Banks threw to a wide-open Cameron Burnette for a 52-yard TD reception.

Bennett threw three TD passes on the night, two to Banks and one to Burnette. The sophomore QB also had some key runs to pick up first downs.

McAfee scored on runs of 20, 2 and 44 yards. He also caught a 49-yard TD pass from Beale and set up a scoring pass with a big kickoff return.

Summerville took the early 27-7 lead on a 5-yard TD run by Dallas White, the trick pass to Burnette, a 26-yard TD pass to Burnette and a 10-yard pass to Banks.

But in the final 4:22 of the first half, Carolina Forest got two scoring runs from McAfee to get back in the game.

This story was originally published November 18, 2016 at 11:47 PM with the headline "Carolina Forest comes up just short against Summerville in first round."