Myrtle Beach makes key plays to edge Wilson in region opener

Inclement weather may have forced area teams to scramble for Thursday starts ahead of Hurricane Joaquin, but that didn’t slow the Myrtle Beach Seahawks, who outpaced the Wilson Tigers 42-28 at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium.

The Seahawks (3-3, 1-0), already up by seven points, put the finishing touch on the Tigers (3-3, 0-1) with 1:32 left in the game when senior quarterback Drayton Arnold found senior wideout Elijah Rice in the end zone for 19 yards and the final touchdown. The score closed out the Seahawks’ first win in Region AAA VII action.

“It was a tough turnaround starting a day early with the weather coming in like it’s supposed to but our kids did a good job of handling it well,” Seahawks coach Mickey Wilson said. “It started really coming down in the fourth quarter but we got out there and got it in before it got nasty.”

The Seahawks relied on key special teams plays to give them the edge. The Seahawks blocked three punts, the last and most crucial when the Seahawks recovered the ball on the 2-yard-line and were hanging on to a 14-13 lead in the third quarter. It took Myrtle Beach running back Brandon Sinclair two tries but the senior made well on the second effort and punched the ball in from the one-yard-line to give the Seahawks a 21-13 lead.

“Our special teams really did a great job tonight,” Wilson said. “We work every week in practice on blocking punts and we felt like going in tonight we had a chance to get that done.”

On the flipside, Tigers coach Chad Eaddy felt like his team’s effort on special teams was really the only part of their game plan that suffered as Wilson ran for 286 yards and three touchdowns. Junior quarterback Tyler Johnson added 148 passing yards and another score, connecting on 13-for-17.

“We played well on two phases of the game tonight,” Eaddy said. “We had some alignment problems on the front line and some of our blocking assignments were off. We had a couple of guys that weren’t in their normal positions due to injuries but you can’t blame the kids, they’re 14, 15, 16, 17 years old, they’re not professionals. We’ll mourn this loss for 24 hours then go back to the chalkboard and come back fighting next week.”

The Seahawks special teams made another key play when the score was tied 28-28 with just over nine minutes left in the third quarter. Myrtle Beach junior wideout Keyonte Sessions ran back a Wilson punt for 82 yards, going out of bounds at the eight-yard-line and setting up Sinclair his second of two touchdowns and the Seahawks a seven-point lead.

Sinclair was stymied for only 43 yards but his two touchdowns came at key moments. Arnold was 13-for-29 with 218 yards and four touchdowns, three of which were caught by Rice who ended the contest with 167 yards receiving on eight catches and three touchdowns.

Wilson standout sophomore Xavier Thomas ran for 196 yards on 19 carries including two touchdowns and a two-point conversion. Tigers senior wide receiver Christian Bruce also chipped in 115 yards on nine catches and a touchdown.

“Thomas is a special player,” Wilson said. “He’s being looked at by a bunch of Division I schools and he’s only a sophomore. Bruce is a real good player too. We knew both guys were great players and I feel like for the most part we did a pretty good job of holding them.”

Wilson says his team, which climbed back to .500 with the win, is just getting started and hopes to make this win the driving force heading into the upcoming regional play.

“Any time you start off the region 1-0, it puts you in the driver’s seat,” he said. “The region is really tough this year and there’s some really good clubs. Wilson is a much better team than last year and we gotta continue to get better but it feels good to get that first region win.”

The Seahawks will try to keep it rolling next week with another regional matchup with Lake City. The Tigers on the other hand host the Sharks of St. James next week in non-regional football action.

This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 12:21 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach makes key plays to edge Wilson in region opener."