How an undefeated showdown between Myrtle Beach and Hartsville turned into a beatdown

Tiyon Evans celebrated Halloween a day late, breaking out his best Superman impression on Thursday to lead his team to a Region 6-4A title and an undefeated regular season with a 70-34 win over Myrtle Beach at Kellytown Stadium.

Hartsville’s senior quarterback accounted for six touchdowns – four rushing, one on a kick return and one passing – to build an insurmountable lead against Myrtle Beach (7-1, 4-1 Region 6-4A) in a matchup of unbeaten teams.

The Seahawks fell behind by 42 points and made a charge, led by their defense, in the third quarter with two defensive touchdowns on fumble recoveries and returns.

A third turnover by Hartsville led to a long Seahawk offensive drive, but an interception of Luke Doty in the end zone killed the scoring chance. A score with 5 seconds in the third quarter, a 12-yard strike from Doty to Marcus Grissett, cut the Red Fox lead to 22 points.

“The biggest thing is that we came out and put ourselves in a hole with some turnovers in the first half,” Myrtle Beach head coach Mickey Wilson said. “I thought we played great in the third quarter and got back in the game, but the deficit was too great to overcome against a great team like Hartsville. They’re extremely fast and don’t make many mistakes.”

Hartsville (9-0, 5-0 Region 6-4A), the top ranked team in Class 4A, raced out to a 22-0 lead, eventually growing the advantage to 49-7. While their quarterback was heroic, the Hartsville defense was dominant, holding the Seahawk running game to less than 75 yards on the night.

“I am so proud of (my) guys tonight,” said Hartsville coach Jeff Calabrese. “In this conference, this is a major achievement. We’re so excited. I don’t think we could have dreamt this up, that we could do this. It’s a difficult conference with great coaches, so we’re so excited.”

For Myrtle Beach, Doty did his best to keep his team in the game, attempting more than 50 passes and running another 11 times, many of which happened when the junior tried to escape quick pressure by Hartsville.

“We battled tonight, but the little things can’t go wrong like they did early,” Wilson said. “This is one of those games where things kind of snowballed on us. We had mistakes early, then another one and another until we’d gifted them good field position or points.”

Both teams now turn toward the Class 4A playoffs, with home games next Friday in round one. Myrtle Beach hopes Thursday’s game will serve as a learning experience to fuel a playoff run.

“It’s a hard lesson to learn, but we’ve got to get better from this game,” Wilson said. “It’s a great opportunity to learn from our mistakes – penalties, turnovers, all of that silly stuff. We’ll be ready. We’ve got a good senior group and they didn’t quit fighting tonight. My guys will be ready to go, for sure, come playoffs.”

Scoring

First Quarter

HAR – Tiyon Evans 4-yard run (Caleb Caldwell kick) 10:43

HAR – Team safety 5:23

HAR – Evans 23-yard run (Kick good) 4:45

Second Quarter

HAR – Dariyan Pendergrass 12-yard run (Kick failed) 8:38

MB – Luke Doty 8-yard run (Chad Toone kick) 6:45

HAR –Evans 5-yard run (Kick good) 4:03

HAR –Evans 62-yard run (Kick good) 2:05

Third Quarter

HAR – Evans 98-yard kickoff return (Caldwell kick) 11:43

HAR – Evans 75-yard pass to JD Pendergrass (Kick good) 8:33

MB – Austin Randall 88-yard fumble return (Kick failed) 6:39

MB – Xayvion Knox 14-yard fumble return (Kick good) 6:17

MB – Doty 12-yard pass to Marcus Grissett (Kick good) 00:05

Fourth Quarter

HAR – Collins Bishop 4-yard run (Kick good) 11:11

MB – Doty 4-yard pass to Da’Ron Finkley (Kick good) 8:20

HAR – Bishop 14-yard run (Kick good) 7:17

HAR – Bishop 4-yard run (Kick good) 3:17

Individual Stat Leaders

Passing: MB – Luke Doty 30-52-3--269. HAR – Tiyon Evans 7-15-0--153.

Rushing: MB – Luke Doty 11-51 TD. HAR – Tiyon Evans 13-164 4TDs.

Receiving: MB – Marcus Grissett 11-92 TD. HAR – JD Pendergrass 3-86 TD.

This story was originally published November 2, 2018 at 12:49 AM.