After winless season, Green Sea Floyds starts 2015 with victory
Green Sea Floyds is back on the board.
Jacquez Geralds scored two touchdowns and Wyatt Upchurch ran for 134 yards to lead the Trojans to a 26-13 over Hannah-Pamplico on Friday night.
The win follows a 2014 campaign in which Green Sea Floyds went 0-10.
“I don’t really have words for it. I’m just ecstatic,” Upchurch, a junior, said. “I’m kind of speechless right now.”
After going into halftime tied at 6-all, the Trojans defense opened the second half with a stop and the offense followed with a scoring drive.
“At the start of the third when the defense got a stop,” Geralds said of the turning point of the game. “I knew at that moment that we was in good position. Last year, we’d be close in the third quarter and then we’d mess up. And that’s the game after that.”
Mahammud Graham and Shaquan Gilliard also got into the end zone for Green Sea Floyds.
“It felt really good. Everybody played as a team to get a ‘W’ tonight,” Geralds said. “That’s a good thing because one person just can’t do it all.”
The Trojans took advantage of a new philosophy of controlling possession and eating up yards on the ground. They wound up with 309 yards on 58 carries, and coach Tony Sullivan estimated that Hannah-Pamplico had less than 30 possessions.
“We kept ball away from them as much as possible and that was our game plan,” he said. “It worked out tonight.”
Said Upchurch: “We’ve been working since November and all through the summer, and coaches kept telling us that this offense would work and everybody bought in. We just went out there and we were confident. It’s power all the way and controlling the ball, and it’s working for us.”
Graham finished with 71 yards on the ground and Henry Moody added another 54.
“My first reaction was to give God all the credit,” Geralds said. “After that it was just giving praise to the O-line and the defense. Without the O-line tonight nothing would have been possible on offense.”
Friday’s win was nice revenge for the Trojans after falling to the Raiders 50-18 a year ago.
“After it was over everyone ran to the end zone and we were ecstatic,” Upchurch said.
Geralds said getting that first win will help boost Green Sea Floyds’ confidence the rest of the way.
“Getting the first one at the start of the season feels really good,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep on working and worry about the next team and get that second ‘W.’ The second one will be better than the first.”
For now, though, the Trojans are simply letting Friday’s win sink in.
“Man, it’s huge,” Sullivan said. “These kids have been with me the last two or three years and we ended a streak like this; we finally got one our side.
“It’s like a weight off your shoulders, a breath of relief.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2015 at 12:08 AM with the headline "After winless season, Green Sea Floyds starts 2015 with victory."