‘Glad we’re a part of it’: Strand high school football teams set for truncated playoffs
Just how important was North Myrtle Beach’s win over Myrtle Beach on Friday?
Well, it made the Chiefs the only Horry County high school football team that will be playing at home in the first round of the playoffs.
North Myrtle Beach is set to to host at-large selection James Island at 7:05 p.m. Friday. The game will be televised on WWMB (channel 8, Spectrum; channel 16, HTC) as the Friday Night Rivals game of the week.
“This is a huge win. One, we’re region champs. Two, we’re at home for the first two rounds of the playoffs,” North Myrtle Beach coach Matt Reel told The Sun News after Friday’s win. “Beating Myrtle Beach (5-2, 4-2 Region) is always huge, it’s a goal we have to beat our rivals. But, for us to be able to stay here and not have to drive 10 hours over the next two weeks, should we do what we need to do, that’s huge.”
Three other area teams will be in action as well.
The injury-riddled Seahawks will head to South Aiken in a matchup of No. 2 seeds for a 7 p.m. game time, second-seeded Carolina Forest will travel to Goose Creek (game time TBA) and No. 2 seed Aynor will be on the road against Oceanside Collegiate (7:30 p.m.).
A season hampered by coronavirus has set up a truncated postseason in which Myrtle Beach, Carolina Forest and Aynor will each be on the road despite No. 2 seeds.
“There’s a bunch of good football teams out there right now,” said Panthers coach Marc Morris, who said he believes game time will be 7:30 p.m. but hasn’t gotten official confirmation yet. “The top eight teams in Lower State 5A football, that’s going to be good teams. We’re glad we’re a part of it and we’ll see how it goes.”
