Three TDs in 8 minutes in the fourth quarter determine Myrtle Beach-NMB playoff matchup
Without star senior quarterback Luke Doty, Myrtle Beach wasn’t keeping pace with North Myrtle Beach through three quarters Thursday night in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium.
The Seahawks trailed 27-14 early in the fourth and had just punted after three consecutive incompletions.
They were desperate for a play.
Senior defensive lineman Quamil Spells provided that play.
The 6-foot-2, 297-pound defensive lineman scooped up a fumble at the North Myrtle Beach 42 and rumbled down the right sideline for a touchdown with Chiefs in close pursuit to pull the Seahawks within six points with 10:30 to play.
Myrtle Beach’s work wasn’t done, of course. It still trailed by six points.
Riding the momentum swing, a 23-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Burger to Adam Randall over the middle on fourth-and-7 with 6:21 to play gave the Seahawks a 28-27 lead, and Xayvion Knox scored on a 59-yard run on third-and-9 with about 2:30 remaining to give the Seahawks a 35-27 win.
“First of all he’s a phenomenal player. He’s just a great, great young man and it was so neat to see that happen to him, being in the right place at the right time and picking that ball up,” Myrtle Beach coach Mickey Wilson said of Spells, a Shrine Bowl selection. “He can run now for being as big as he is.
“That flipped the momentum. That was huge. Football is a game of momentum and we grabbed it there at the end and it was able to propel us into getting a win.”
The three touchdowns in eight minutes allows the reigning Class 4A state champions to reach the third round, where they will face the winner of Friday’s game between Airport and Lower Richland – at Lower Richland or at home against Airport.
The Chiefs finished the season 6-5.
“For as hard as we played, as well as we played for 85 percent of that ballgame, that 10 or 15 percent ended up getting us in the end,” Chiefs coach Matt Reel said. “Part of that is a testament to them for finding a way, and part of that is us still having to figure out how to finish off really good football teams in the fourth quarter.”
In addition to playing without their South Carolina QB commitment and Shrine Bowl selection, the undefeated Seahawks (11-0) played without leading receiver J.J. Jones for the third straight game because of an injury.
Doty missed the game with an injury to his throwing hand incurred in the first-round win, and the Seahawks remained quiet about his status all week leading up to Thursday’s game.
Wilson was optimistic after the game that Jones will play next week and Doty will be able to return either this week or sometime during the playoffs if the Seahawks continue to win.
“We’ll continue to see where [Doty] is at every week,” Wilson said. “Our training staff will keep checking on him and [orthopaedic doctors] over there will check on him. So we’ll see what’s going on. We kind of knew this week he most likely wasn’t going to be available but you never know with those injuries.”
Burger, a sophomore, was 13 of 21 for 243 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
“I’m really proud or Ryan Burger. He was a little nervous at the beginning of course, he’s just a sophomore, and it was raining. It seemed like every time we got the ball it was raining,” Wilson said. “He did great. That throw he made to Adam for the touchdown was a big-time throw. Just really proud of him for stepping up and playing well, especially in the second half. He didn’t get down on himself, he continued to play hard and push himself.”
Knox had 133 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns on 21 carries, with many of his carries coming via direct snaps in Myrtle Beach’s wildcat formation power Rhino package.
NMB senior running back Zyon Belle, playing with a cast on his right hand, gained 193 yards and scored two touchdowns on 15 carries. “He battled,” Reel said. “He wanted to play. He showed tonight the type of running back he really can be. He did a great job for us.”
Chiefs quarterback Ramsey Lewis gained 71 yards and scored a touchdown on 20 carries, and completed just 3 of 16 passes for 26 yards. Chase Simmons had two fumble recoveries, Trey Baker had an interception and Zane Smith hit field goals of 26 and 29 yards for the Chiefs.
“I believed it with every ounce of my being that we were going to come down here, we were going to play well, we were going to run the football better than we have, and we did, we just didn’t make enough plays in the air,” Reel said.
Burger threw a 43-yard TD pass to Rayshard Feaster on Myrtle Beach’s fifth offensive play to take a 7-0 lead. The Chiefs answered on their first drive with a 2-yard Lewis TD run to tie score at 7.
Feaster and Knox fumbled on successive Seahawks offensive plays, and the Chiefs converted short fields into 10 points with a Smith field goal and Belle 14-yard TD run to take a 17-7 lead three minutes into the second quarter.
The teams exchanged interceptions, with Baker picking off a deflected pass at the Chiefs’ 43 and Myrtle Beach senior defensive back Marcus Lugo getting the ball back for the Seahawks at their 6 in one-on-one coverage on a deep sideline pass.
Myrtle Beach then drove 94 yards for a touchdown to pull within a field goal at 17-14. Knox gained 18 and 21 yards and Burger hit Darius Hough for a 56-yard pass to set up a 3-yard Knox touchdown run.
Belle took the first play from scrimmage in the second half 80 yards to give NMB a 24-14 lead. The Chiefs had a 9-yard touchdown pass negated by a motion penalty and settled for a field goal to take a 27-14 lead before Spells started Myrtle Beach’s comeback.
“It’s really exciting,” Burger said. “We started off a little slow but we executed and pushed through it and faced adversity, and we did really well in facing that.”
Summary
North Myrtle Beach 7 10 10 0 -- 27
Myrtle Beach 7 7 0 21 -- 35
First quarter
MB - Rayshad Feaster 43 pass from Ryan Burger (Sullivan Hardin kick)
NMB - Ramsey Lewis 1 run (Zane Smith kick)
Second quarter
NMB - Smith 29 FG
NMB - Zyon Belle 14 run (Smith kick)
MB - Xayvion Knox 2 run (Hardin kick)
Third quarter
NMB - Belle 80 run (Smith kick)
NMB - Smith 26 FG
Fourth quarter
MB - Quamil Spells 42 fumble return (Hardin kick)
MB - Adam Randall 23 pass from Burger (Hardin kick)
MB - Knox 59 run (Hardin kick)
Individual leaders
Rushing - NMB: Zyon Belle 15-193, Ramsey Lewis 20-71; Myrtle Beach: Xayvion Knox 21-133, Rayshad Feaster 9-26
Passing - NMB: Lewis 3-16-1--26; Myrtle Beach: 13-21-1--243
Receiving: NMB: Malik Livingston 1-16, Belle 1-10; Myrtle Beach: Feaster 4-73, Randall 3-90, Jaylen Sparkman 3-22
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 9:44 PM.
