Socastee coach Illing likely out for Friday’s game after ejection last week

In 18 years as a head football coach, Doug Illing has never missed one of his teams’ games.

Until now.

The Socastee coach was ejected from the Braves’ loss to Myrtle Beach last week after receiving a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct flags from officials in the first half. As stipulated by South Carolina High School League rules, Illing must now sit out his team’s game on Friday at North Myrtle Beach.

Socastee has filed an appeal on his behalf. However, referees are rarely overruled on coaching ejections.

“Hopefully they’ll allow it, but I committed the crime. I’m willing to pay the consequences,” said Illing, who added that he was ejected from a game 25 years ago while he was an assistant. “It was very early in my coaching career. I thought I had learned very well from my mistakes.”

In addition to a $300 fine from the SCHSL – and this may seem like the harsher portion of the penalty – coaches who are serving post-ejection suspensions are not allowed to watch the game in person, even from the stands.

“I’ll try to figure out a way to get into that stadium,” Illing joked. “I’ll probably wear glasses and a mustache.”

Longtime Socastee assistant coach Steve Hodge took over in lieu of Illing’s absence last week, and he’ll do so again on Friday against the Chiefs.

The players seemingly responded to their coach’s ejection, hanging with Myrtle Beach until the very end. A failed two-point conversion with less than 2 minutes to play was the difference in the Seahawks’ 34-32 victory.

It was as close as Socastee (0-4) played any of its first four opponents this season, and quarterback Brandon Goswick was a big reason why. He threw for 306 yards, the most yards for any Socastee quarterback in at least 14 seasons, if not longer.

Receiver Taylor Karnap also posted his second 100-yard game.

The problem, however, was that the Braves couldn’t stop Brandon Sinclair. The Seahawk tailback went for 294 yards and five touchdowns.

Against North Myrtle Beach this week, Socastee will be facing a similarly talented rushing attack, albeit from multiple players. It will be the biggest thing standing in the way of the Braves’ eight-year winning streak over North Myrtle Beach continuing.

Either way, barring a unlikely successful appeal, Illing probably won’t be there to see it.

“I’ve got great assistant coaches,” Illing said. “They know the game plan.”

Panthers look for pseudo three-peat over MB

After pulling off an upset in 2013 and then getting some postseason relief via Myrtle Beach’s use of an ineligible player in the game last year, Carolina Forest has an opportunity to make it three in a row against the Seahawks on Friday when the teams meet in The Sun News Game of the Week.

Neither coach has wanted to make too big of a deal of last year’s forfeit, which was originally a 52-35 Seahawk victory on the field.

“It’s one of those things that happens,” Myrtle Beach’s Mickey Wilson said. “It was an unfortunate situation. You shake your head and you move forward.”

At the time, it actually stripped Wilson of what would have been his 70th career win at the school and left Morris with his 100th overall coaching victory between his stops in North Carolina and South Carolina. Both have since made that a moot point with a pair of wins so far this year.

The forfeit, though, also brought with it some history between the two schools.

If Carolina Forest wins this week, it would be just the second time in school history that it pulled the three-peat over Myrtle Beach. The Panthers did so from 1998-2000, when the Seahawks were on the tail end of seven consecutive losing seasons.

In between, Myrtle Beach was rarely even tested by Horry County’s second-newest high school. From 2001-2012, the Seahawks won 11 of the 12 games. Eight of the 11 wins came by at least 20 points, including each of the first five after Carolina Forest made the jump to Class AAAA.

Needless to say, Wilson and Co. believe this to be a truer game against a team from the state’s largest class than it has been in some of the past seasons.

“You’ve got a team is a couple plays away from being 4-0 right now,” Wilson said. “They could have easily upset the No. 2 team in AAAA [Fort Dorchester]. Those guys are playing well. They’re fundamentally sound. Marc Morris is doing a really good job right now.”

HTC Game of the Week

HTC will also head to Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium for its Game of the Week program on Friday. Carolina Forest-Myrtle Beach will be broadcast live on HTC Channel 4, as well as HTCConnect.com.

A replay will be available on Monday.

It will then feature Myrtle Beach’s trip to Conway for the annual Victory Bell rivalry game on Sept. 25.

BASEBALL COMMITMENT

Another Carolina Forest baseball player has made a verbal commitment to Coastal Carolina.

Senior catcher Ryan Gold, who recently moved to the area from New Jersey, is the younger brother of current CCU baseball walk-on Jared Gold.

The two were among the biggest pieces of Moorestown High School’s program the last two seasons.

“He’s one that fell into our lap,” Carolina Forest coach Jack Jolly said. “We were fortunate that he moved into our attendance area.

“Obviously he’s got some talent and ability, or he wouldn’t [have been able to] commit.”

Last month, Carolina Forest junior pitcher Bryar Johnson made a verbal commitment to Coastal. That came less than a week after senior pitcher Jakob Frishmuth gave his verbal commitment to College of Charleston.

The Panthers were the Class AAAA Lower State runners-up last spring.

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Socastee coach Illing likely out for Friday’s game after ejection last week."