North Myrtle Beach needs to continue to better protect ball against opportunistic Lake City

North Myrtle Beach’s turnover issues of the first three games of the season have improved some in the last two games.

The Chiefs picked a good time to start correcting the problem.

Coach Blair Hardin’s team will play host to a Lake City team that has caused a rash of turnovers already this year. The teams will meet Friday in The Sun News’ Game of the Week in Little River.

“They’re a big-play team,” Hardin said of the Panthers. “Their touchdowns are from 50-60-80 yards. They can score defensively and on special teams as well.”

Lake City (4-1) forced a pair of fumbles in a win last week against Crestwood. The week before that, the Panthers forced another and returned a blocked punt for a score. In the season-opening win over Lakewood, they also had three scores of at least 70 yards.

But gauging exactly how good Lake City is going to be in region play isn’t going to be easy. The team’s opponents so far have combined to go 4-21.

If North Myrtle Beach reverts back to its fumble-happy ways of earlier this year, though, it may not matter against a team that won this matchup 14-9 a year ago. In addition to four lost fumbles in those first three games, the Chiefs put the ball on the ground five other times.

That’s a direct contrast to what the team’s coach is going after as he heads into a Region VII-AAA slate in which five of the six teams have winning records. Much of the team’s success in turning things around can be attributed to another running back coming into the mix.

Dequan Montgomery has emerged as one of the area’s 10 best tailbacks, something that reasonably only happened after Cullin Mitchell went down for two games with a concussion. One of Montgomery’s touchdown runs against Socastee two weeks ago was picked up by Fox Sports (via Hudl) and broadcast nationally through various internet channels.

Now, with Mitchell healthy again, it means the two of them, Kered Class (fourth in the area with 483 yards) and quarterback Ronnie Bass will have opportunities to remain fresh.

“We’re really a system team. If one guy goes down, the next one comes in,” Hardin said. “We want to run the football. … We’ve got running backs who fit what we do. They run downhill.”

HTC GAMES OF THE WEEK

The next two HTC Games of the Week have been announced, and the provider will be profiling two region games between all local teams.

This Friday, HTC will head to St. James for the Sharks’ Region VII-AAA opener against Georgetown. The following week, it will broadcast Socastee’s trip to Carolina Forest in a Region VI-AAAA tilt.

Both games will be aired on HTC Channel 4 and HTCConnect.com.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 3:47 PM with the headline "North Myrtle Beach needs to continue to better protect ball against opportunistic Lake City."