Waccamaw runs away from Green Sea Floyds for victory

Waccamaw coach Tyronne Davis gave all the credit to his offensive line Friday night.

And while the Warriors’ unit came up huge, three turnovers by Green Sea Floyds didn’t hurt.

The Warriors rushed 47 times for 280 yards and despite leading by just two scores at halftime, Waccamaw came up huge in the second half en route to a 40-8 victory over the Trojans.

“I thought our kids played with a lot of heart tonight,” said Davis, whose team improved to 2-3. “The offensive line blocked well; we had a lot of rushing yards and they came out ready to play tonight. The line was huge tonight.”

Also coming up big was the Warriors’ defense, which held the Trojans to just 173 total yards and forced two late turnovers to seal the victory.

Green Sea Floyds senior quarterback Jacquez Geralds threw a pick to junior defensive back Jordan Marshall with about 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Warriors capitalized as sophomore RJ Knowlin scored on a big run to put Waccamaw up 27-8.

After another Warriors score, senior defensive back Darnell Dadd scooped up a fumble in Green Sea Floyds territory and returned it for a touchdown with about a minute and a half left in the game to wrap it up for Waccamaw.

“Big interception and also the fumble recovery before the end of the game was huge,” Davis said. “With Green Sea Floyds’ offense, you’ve really got to prepare and we worked all week trying to shut down their rushing attack. Our defense stepped up.”

The Trojans made it close after halftime, finally finding the scoreboard as senior halfback Anthony Wilson scored on a 68-yard rush to get within 5 points.But that was as close as Green Sea Floyds would get.

“We led by two scores at halftime, but [Green Sea Floyds] came out and scored quick to make it 13-8 and I thought we responded well,” Davis said. “I was proud of our kids; we had some adversity. We started the second half with some penalties and we challenged them to bounce back and they did a good job responding.”

Kevin Gasque paced the Warriors on offense as he picked up 97 yards on 22 carries and had one score. Gasque found the end zone on a 1-yard rush in the first quarter to put the Warriors up 7-0.

Knowlin scored twice and senior quarterback Kelton Grant also scored on the ground.

“Gaque did a great job tonight. So did RJ and Kelton,” Davis said. “Those guys scored all the touchdowns running the ball and that’s what we like to do.”

Meanwhile, Green Sea Floyds coach Tony Sullivan was frustrated with his team following the loss.

“You can’t win when you turn the ball over,” said Sullivan, whose team was also hurt by seven offsides penalties. “We fumbled. We fumbled. You can’t get positive yards when you fumble. And when you can’t tackle, you can’t stop the other team from scoring and that’s what happened. I don’t know what else to say.”

Sullivan said he was happy with his team after their first four games, including a pair of losses to Aynor and Loris. But he said Friday night was a step in the wrong direction.

“I know we’re a better team than that. The last four games we played good,” said Sullivan, whose team beat Hannah-Pamplico and East Clarendon to start the year 2-0. “I thought we played Hannah-Pamplico and East Clarendon good. I thought we played Aynor and Loris well. I thought we were going to come out here tonight be able to play good but this was our bad week.”

The Trojans don’t play next week and have two weeks to prepare for a matchup at Lake View on Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m.

“We got a week off to kind of lick our wounds and recover,” Sullivan said. “We just got hit in the mouth and we didn’t like it.”

Waccamaw is also off next week and will host Mullins on Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Davis just wants his team to step up again like it did Friday.

“We’ll go back to work next week and get ready for Mullins,” Davis said. “We’ve got two weeks to prepare. Now that the weather is on our side and with the numbers that we have, we need to take advantage of everything we can get. Now that our kids are in better shape and it’s a lot cooler out, we can play at a higher level.”

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 12:16 AM with the headline "Waccamaw runs away from Green Sea Floyds for victory."