Conway’s hot start continues with win over Myrtle Beach to reclaim Victory Bell

Chuck Jordan never wanted to make this much out of the game against Myrtle Beach.

It’s something – the Conway coach has said throughout the years – for the community. This year, though, a victory over the Seahawks will serve as a nice exclamation point to a non-region schedule that has proved the Tigers are head and shoulders above where they’ve been the past few years.

Courtesy of a 25-22 win over Myrtle Beach and his former quarterback on Friday, Jordan’s squad is 5-1 and has plenty of momentum going into the most crucial part of the season. Considering the Tigers were 1-5 this time last year, yeah, the Victory Bell is a healthy reminder of how far this team has come.

“Obviously that’s a better place to be,” Jordan said of his team’s record. “Confidence is such a big thing with kids. Not just confidence in themselves, but how it extends through your team, and your coaches. I don’t feel like we’re there; but I feel like we’re beginning to understand that.”

Against the Seahawks, confidence came from the team’s Big Three, but also some understudies who made huge plays that salted the game away after Myrtle Beach made it another close game in the series.

Following Seahawk quarterback Drayton Arnold’s 21-yard touchdown pass to Will Vereen and a successful two-point conversion throw to former Tiger Cortez Brown, Conway took over on its own 20 needing to burn 4:30 off the clock.

Instead of Jah’Maine Martin (who ran for 174 yards and three scores) or USC commitment Bryan Edwards, who had a number of nice plays earlier, it was backup tailback Daiquawn Clark and receiver Darren Stanley who iced it.

Clark had four carries for 25 yards and Stanley caught a quick slant for another first down.

“You hear all the time about particular people on our team, especially Bryan,” Derrick said. “It proves that our depth is so much better than people give us credit for. We have guys like Daiquawn Clark and Darren Stanley that barely get any love but who make great plays like they did.”

It was a blow for Myrtle Beach, which fell to 2-3 for the second time in three years. But there were also signs that Mickey Wilson’s team was developing.

The Seahawks got another strong effort from Brandon Sinclair, who ran for 140 yards and added another 68 receiving. Quarterback Drayton Arnold had maybe his best game of the year, throwing for 244 yards while completing more than half his passes. And Brown and first-year receiver Elijah Rice started to emerge as viable targets.

Still, the Seahawks had two trips inside the Conway 25 that didn’t yield any points, proof that this team is a work in progress.

“I really love this team,” said Wilson, who played quarterback under Jordan at Conway High. “We’re getting better. We’ve got to speed it up, but I love our effort tonight. I think this team has a chance to be really good.”

“That’s why we play the schedule we play. We play tough, AAAA opponents. It makes us better.”

The Tigers’ all-time lead in the series stands at 33-13 after the win. Mickey Wilson is 5-2 against Conway, while Jordan is 22-9 against the Seahawks.

The Tigers can roll the end of a three-year losing streak to Myrtle Beach into a Region VI-AAAA schedule in which they’d have to be considered one of the top two teams. Conway will be the lone squad among the six with five victories when region play opens in two weeks.

It will be up to Conway to keep everything they’ve done so far going. And although the Victory Bell is “another region game,” as Jordan put it, it can still draw on some of what it has already done.

“We have to have the same intensity we did with Myrtle Beach, Hartsville and Marlboro County,” Derrick said. “We can’t get complacent.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 11:41 PM with the headline "Conway’s hot start continues with win over Myrtle Beach to reclaim Victory Bell."