Carolina Forest blows out Socastee to start region play 1-0

Throughout the years since Carolina Forest moved to the state’s top class, there was a consistency not only in the losses, but when they came.

No matter how good or bad the first few games of the year were, it was a solid bet the Panthers dropped the region opener. It happened six of the team’s first seven years in Class AAAA, and many of them weren’t even close.

So on Friday, in the first “important” game of Marc Morris’ second season, it was obvious early that this wasn’t going to be another region-opening dud. Carolina Forest jumped all over Socastee with the running game, threw it just enough to keep the receivers interested and rolled to a 55-6 win over the Braves, its largest margin of victory in more than four years.

“Right now, it’s the most important time of the year,” Morris said. “The goal is to try to win three of them and get your tail into the playoffs and go from there.

“We like our team. We’ve got a great group of guys coaching our kids. There are four games left. The goal is to win two out of the four. If we get the two out of the way, try to go win the conference.”

Despite blowout victories by Conway and Sumter – over West Florence and South Florence, respectively – it wouldn’t be out of the question to include Carolina Forest in the top tier of teams in Region VI-AAAA after some of its performances this year.

There was the narrow loss against then-No. 2 Fort Dorchester and a solid win over Myrtle Beach. There was the loss to North Myrtle Beach in there, too, as well as a blasé win over St. James . But against the Braves, the team’s offensive impact early certainly looked above and beyond closer to its top efforts than its lesser ones.

Junior tailback Dyverse Simmons had three touchdown runs in the first quarter, and finished the game with 181 yards, all in the first half. Backup Drake Stone had 98 yards and two scores on just six carries.

And it wasn’t anything fancy. Quarterback Matt Beale was basically just handing the ball off to those two and letting them run up the middle. The more physical Carolina Forest line did the rest, a solid reason the two Panther tailbacks tallied six carries of 20-plus yards.

“When you can’t pull his flag in the first couple plays of the game, you know you’re getting whooped up front,” Socastee coach Doug Illing said, using a flag-football reference to illustrate how big the holes were along the Carolina Forest line. “It’s a lack of effort.”

Said Morris: “We were telling our offense to play faster than they could play. We felt like our offensive line had a good shot to control the line of scrimmage. That was a big part of it.”

The reason for it was simple. Despite an off week that allowed Socastee running back Malachi McClendon to return after missing back-to-back games, the Braves’ list of available players was noticeably depleted.

Outside of an option pitch on Simmons’ third touchdown, pretty much all of his damage was done in cut-and-dry fashion. Socastee didn’t have an answer.

“I don’t think we laid it on the line,” Illing said. “I was embarrassed in our effort. … I think they looked at the sideline, looked at the injuries and felt the pain of everybody.”

The Braves, who fell to 1-6 overall and 0-1 in region play, will have to find a way to re-group in a hurry. They face a tough Conway team next week, having already lost 43-8 to the Tigers earlier this year.

Carolina Forest, meanwhile, appears to be headed back in the right direction after losing two of their last three. The win over Socastee was its most lopsided win since a 68-0 victory over lowly Kingstree in 2011.

Having a similar result against a region team, and with Beale attempting only seven passes, shows how dangerous the Panthers can be.

“When it clicks, it clicks. When it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” Beale said. “If we run the ball like that, against any team, we can be great. I’m fine not throwing it if we’re running it for 10-12 yards a clip.

“We could be the best team in the conference.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Carolina Forest blows out Socastee to start region play 1-0."