Aynor holds off Green Sea Floyds in lightning-delayed contest

Opportunities for fast starts have eluded Aynor throughout the years.

Unlike some of those other slip-ups that prevented 5-0 starts in the past, the Blue Jackets were able to escape a threat that may have cost them in previous seasons.

Aynor pushed its winning streak over Green Sea Floyds to six games with a 36-14 victory Friday. The Blue Jackets won the game – one that included a one-hour, 20-minute weather delay midway through the final quarter – only after a crucial defensive stop in the first play back.

“Thank God for lightning. I hate playing Aynor, and that’s what we were doing tonight,” Aynor coach Jody Jenerette said, referring to the Trojans’ similar style of play. “They were boring football, just like we are, and they did a good job. They bored us to sleep.

“After the rain delay, we finally played pretty good and finished up.”

Green Sea Floyds returned from the lightning delay with a fourth-and-1 on the Aynor 14-yard line. However, the Trojans were whistled for a false start, effectively taking their run game out of the equation. The Trojans were then unable to convert a pass to an open receiver in the end zone.

For Green Sea Floyds, its ended what had been a near-dominant quarter and a half to get back into the game. Aynor had run only four plays in the third quarter and were, as Jenerette put it, on their heels when lightning cleared the stadium and sent both teams to shelter.

“We controlled the game,” Trojans coach Tony Sullivan said. “… We know what we’re going to run and we jump offsides. That’s inexcusable. I’m really disappointed in that. The guys played better than that.

“[The delay] stopped momentum. We’re driving, and I feel like we get that fourth-and-short and we score. I really do.”

Aynor had done most of its damage in the second quarter. In addition to touchdown runs from Zach Todd and Colie Rodgers, the Blue Jackets took advantage of Green Sea Floyds’ lone turnover of the opening half. Blake Gore picked up a fumble behind the line of scrimmage and took it back 43 yards for the score.

Sullivan’s revamped team managed nearly 300 yards on the ground, including a team-high 145 from Graham. He was the third different Trojans player to top 130 yards in the team’s first three games.

The team also showed some solid progress by dominating yardage and time of possession in the third quarter. However, Jenerette’s squad scored in its lone true possession after the delay and put the game away.

It means Aynor is now one game closer to something it hasn’t accomplished since 1989 – a 5-0 start. The Blue Jackets have three consecutive home games (against Latta, West Columbus, N.C., and Lake View) in the following weeks. Aynor’s coach wasn’t as willing to talk about that as he was in the preseason, maybe because of some of his team’s miscues.

The Blue Jackets were dinged for 100 yards in penalties. It was part of the reason the Trojans were able to close the gap to a two-score game and put a scare into Aynor.

“I think we’ve read the newspaper too much in the last few weeks and they think we’re better than we are,” Jenerette said. “We can get them back in on Monday and ground them a little bit more.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 12:10 AM with the headline "Aynor holds off Green Sea Floyds in lightning-delayed contest."