North Myrtle Beach rallies in second half to knock off Carolina Forest

The North Myrtle Beach defense could muster little resistance in the first half against Dyverse Simmons, Matt Beale and the rest of the Carolina Forest offense Friday night.

Simmons had 80 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns, Beale had 46 yards and a pair of touchdowns rushing and completed 6 of 9 passes for 105 yards, as the Panthers held a 28-14 lead at halftime.

Things were different in the second half.

Simmons was held to 19 yards rushing on 11 carries, Beale was tagged with negative yards rushing following a sack on the final play, and the visiting Chiefs pitched a shutout to earn a 36-28 non-region win.

“In the first half we lost our focus a lot and bad plays happened and we had to pick ourselves up,” Chiefs quarterback Ronnie Bass said. “Really we just came together at halftime and said, ‘Hey, we’re better than this. We practice all week for this and worked hard all summer.’ It just came together.”

North Myrtle Beach improved to 3-1 while the Panthers fell to 2-2.

“They did a great job at halftime evidently, better than we did adjusting, and really took it to us in the second half,” Carolina Forest coach Marc Morris said. “We couldn’t get a flow on offense. … We’ve just got to finish the game. But credit goes to them tonight more than the non-credit goes to us for playing poorly.”

In the second half, Bass, a junior, was 5-for-5 passing for 50 yards, scored two touchdowns rushing and threw for a third, and operated an effective option offense without a turnover.

Bass was just 3 of 10 in the first half with an interception and touchdown on a short pass that Tyler Gore took 68 yards to the end zone.

“He responded well in the second half,” Chiefs coach Blair Hardin said. “I got on him pretty good in the first half because he made some decisions that could have been a lot better, I’ll say that. He’s still young and he’s learning. He came back and responded and led his team to [22] points in the second half.

“That characteristically wasn’t us last year at all, but we’ve got new life and new leaders and I’m proud of this group.”

The Chiefs scored on each of their four second-half possessions.

A 34-yard run by Kered Class set up a 7-yard TD reception by Merrill Moss on a curl pattern near the right sideline on their first possession of the second half.

Carolina Forest reached the Chiefs’ 9-yard line twice on a pair of 29-yard receptions by Jason Craft – the second after the Panthers lost 24 yards on a high shotgun snap – but missed a 27-yard field goal attempt that would have pushed its lead to 10 points.

The Chiefs had a pair of close calls go their way inside the 10-yard line to score a TD on the ensuing possession, which included a contested catch over the middle at the 3-yard line that a Panther had possession of after both players had gone to the ground. That was followed by a quarterback sneak by Bass on fourth-and-2 that was ruled a first down following a close measurement.

Another Bass sneak from the 1 on first down pulled the Chiefs within a point and they missed the extra point.

The Panthers reached the Chiefs’ 16 on their next possession, but turned the ball over on downs after fumbling a short run out of bounds on fourth-and-5.

The Chiefs then drove 85 yards in eight plays for the go-ahead score, a 4-yard run by Bass with 4:36 to play.

Beale attempted a couple deep passes on Carolina Forest’s next possession and it turned the ball over on downs with 3:46 remaining on its 38 after a dropped fourth-down pass. The Chiefs opted for a 30-yard field goal with about 30 seconds remaining after nine plays to push the advantage to eight points.

A pair of R.J. Graham receptions for 17 and 14 yards helped the Panthers reach the Chiefs’ 34 with about 12 seconds remaining, but Beale never got a pass away on the final play as he was sacked after scrambling in the backfield.

Beale completed 9 of 15 passes for 143 yards in the second half but couldn’t get his team in the end zone against a Chiefs defense that lost three players over the course of the game to injury.

“Our guys focused and did their job, and our defensive coaches did a great job of having our kids in position,” Hardin said. “We tweaked something with one of our linebackers and it helped out, and we just played team defense.”

Carolina Forest took its 14-point halftime lead with three touchdowns in the final 5:24 of the first half, outscoring the Panthers 21-7 over that time.

The Panthers controlled the ball for 5:30 on a 10-play, 68-yard drive that was capped by a 9-yard Beale keeper around the left end. The drive included a 19-yard pass down a seam from Beale to Xavier Lynch on a fourth-and-5 near midfield and gave the Panthers a 14-7 lead.

A Bryce Garrell interception and short return to the Chiefs’ 27 set up a 5-yard Beale keeper for a score with 3:07 left in the half.

Dequan Montgomery answered for North Myrtle Beach with a 19-yard TD run just 40 seconds later that followed a 34-yard Montgomery run.

But a 55-yard Lynch reception to the 9-yard line set up a 4-yard Simmons TD run.

“We thought our offensive line did a great job controlling the game up front in the first half,” Morris said “… We felt like their defensive box did a better job on our offensive line preventing us from running the ball in the second half, and they were able to lock us down throwing the football a little bit better.”

The Panthers gained the services of Damon McDowell, who had four catches for 65 yards and a 40-yard kickoff return in his return from an injury, but receiver Victory Woods did not play Friday for an undisclosed reason.

This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 12:32 AM with the headline "North Myrtle Beach rallies in second half to knock off Carolina Forest."