‘Miracles can happen’: Late magic works in Carolina Forest’s favor at South Florence

Carolina Forest can add the Miracle at Memorial to its newfound football ways.

The Panthers, trailing by three points with 1:36 to go, drove 80 yards to go ahead on South Florence before adding a defensive touchdown and winning 20-10 at Florence’s Memorial Stadium.

The biggest play of the drive included a double pass in which back-up quarterback Jackson Weatherwax found receiver Derek Alston for a 44-yard gain to set up at the very least a short field goal attempt. Instead, Alston caught a 5-yard touchdown reception from Matt Beale three play later to push the Panthers ahead and allow them to get the key road win.

Had it not been for the trick play, the ending would have likely been much different.

“We just did it in walk-throughs today; we don’t practice it,” Alston said. “We’ve done it one time, maybe twice, but we don’t practice that.”

Carolina Forest coach Marc Morris clarified that the team regularly does it in walk-throughs, but not at full speed. More importantly, they’ve yet to do it with this crew against live competition.

Against the Bruins, however, it allowed Carolina Forest to defeat South Florence for the first time in Morris’ tenure and just the second time in school history. The other victory came in 2009.

Carolina Forest, which moved to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in Region 6-5A, will now await the other two region contests on Friday, when Conway heads to West Florence and Sumter plays at West Florence. Both Conway and Sumter also enter the night 1-0 in Region 6-5A.

The Panthers will head to Sumter next Friday. Win there, and the Panthers would be assured of a playoff berth.

Turning point

The 44-yard pass from Weatherwax to Alston turned a would-be Carolina Forest loss into a sweet road victory. Up until that point, the Panthers’ offense had hurt itself time and again with penalties and miscues. But the Alston reception made all of those a moot point.

Key performers

Derek Alston, Carolina Forest: The Carolina Forest receiver finished the game with nine receptions for 132 yards and the go-ahead touchdown with 22.8 seconds to go.

R.J. Richardson, Carolina Forest: The Panthers’ senior defensive back put the game on ice with his 34-yard interception return for a touchdown in the waning seconds.

Tony McFadden, South Florence: The South Florence tailback had 21 carries for 115 yards.

By the numbers

20

Carolina Forest scored all 20 of its points in the final quarter.

17

The Panthers’ 17 first downs showed how well they moved the ball throughout the night, despite the lack of scoring until late.

6

Carolina Forest was whistled for six penalties in the first half. One eliminated a first down and another nullified a touchdown. The Panthers trailed 3-0 at halftime.

They said it

“Miracles can happen.” - Derek Alston

“We felt like our offense played a pretty good game. Then we’d get in the trenches and we’d have a penalty, a hold, whatever. But that last drive, we needed a big play. We needed to do something a little different.” - Marc Morris

“The last drive, our kids went out there with a whole lot of confidence.” - Morris

Up next

Carolina Forest (5-2, 2-0 Region 6-5A): at Sumter

South Florence (1-6, 0-2): at Conway

This story was originally published October 5, 2017 at 10:19 PM with the headline "‘Miracles can happen’: Late magic works in Carolina Forest’s favor at South Florence."