Conway keeps foot on gas, puts away Georgetown to win season opener

The extent of Chuck Jordan’s tricks the past few years consisted of him quick-punting with quarterbacks.

In the season opener against Georgetown on Friday, the Conway coach put two of his top weapons to use at an unconventional time.

Up a point in the fourth quarter and needing only to run some time off the clock, the Tigers instead used a 62-yard Peyton Derrick pass to Bryan Edwards to help put the game away for a 22-13 victory. The touchdown reception was the South Carolina commitment’s only influential play of the game, but it counted.

“He pumped the screen, he bit on it, and [it was] six,” Edwards said. “Georgetown did a great job for this game and a great job covering me. They had him on top of me and a safety over the top. They had a linebacker shaded. We just got them one time.”

Well, not exactly.

In the previous series, Derrick threw a similarly pretty long strike to sophomore Juwon Moody for a 42-yards touchdown. The two passes – and a two-point conversion following Edwards’ touchdown – equated to more points than Georgetown scored throughout, and it turned out to be the difference after three-plus quarters of ugly football.

Conway’s only other score came in the third quarter after Jerron Bellamy returned an interception to the 1-yard line. But it was a favor returned after Georgetown’s first points were earned in a similar fashion.

A mishandled snap in the first quarter gave the Bulldogs a possession at the Tigers’ 3-yard line, and the points from Tony Lara’s run on the ensuing play stuck until the second half. That was, in part, because Georgetown blew a goal-to-go situation from inside the 10-yard line with less to two minutes prior to half.

“We left a lot of points on the field in the first half,” Bulldogs coach Bradley Adams said. “I thought that we should have scored three touchdowns. We left those on the field.”

Conway made sure its defensive efforts weren’t wasted despite Edwards and the offense being bottled up for most of the game. Georgetown’s Cavonte Gamble, who was charged with covering the 6-foot-3 wideout, wasn’t on the field on the deep ball after getting hurt on the previous series while making a tackle.

“They did a great job against Bryan,” Jordan said. “He even made a comment to me at halftime about them being really good on defense. That’s where you need to have other players step up.”

Jah’Maine Martin (101 yards, two two-point conversions) and a trio of other receivers – Deandre Huggins (50 yards), Moody (49) and Darren Stanley (44) – did just that, proving all the attention paid to Edwards opened other avenues.

But that still didn’t stop the area’s to prospect from finally breaking through. Jordan said the call was made by receivers coach Steve Parsley.

And after the Tigers put the finishing touches on the victory, they were able to claim a season-opening win for the first time in three years.

“We’re young up front on defense, and we’re young up front on the offensive line,” Jordan said. “With young players, you’ve got to get them thinking right. I think this is a big win for us. We need some confidence.”

This story was originally published August 21, 2015 at 11:06 PM with the headline "Conway keeps foot on gas, puts away Georgetown to win season opener."