Myrtle Beach rolls past Georgetown, secures region crown

Mickey Wilson and his football team have been in this position before. Several times, actually.

Myrtle Beach, courtesy of a 42-7 win over Georgetown on Friday and some help from the rest of the region, is the Region VII-AAA champion with a week to spare. And with the extra week added to the regular season to allow teams around the state catch up, the Seahawks have three weeks to prepare for their playoff opener.

They’ll be a No. 1 seed and have three guaranteed home games as long as they continue to win. Then again, a similar path didn’t work out so well this time last fall.

It was then that Myrtle Beach lost the regular-season finale to North Myrtle Beach, got more of a push than expected from its first two playoff opponents, lost its top two quarterbacks and had to wonder what could have been after a loss to Marlboro County.

“Last year, how we went out, that left a sour taste in everybody’s mouth,” senior tailback Brandon Sinclair said. “And we like being the underdogs. We don’t like for people to have that big target on our back. We like to sneak up on people.”

Sure, the Seahawks (6-3 overall, 4-0 Region VII-AAA) don’t have the No. 1 overall ranking they did after nine games last season. But what they do have is a head full of steam.

Friday’s victory over the team still best equipped to challenge Myrtle Beach for the region title proved that.

Sinclair rushed for 134 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Drayton Arnold had arguably his best game of the year with a 24-of-28 passing performance that led to 303 yards and three touchdowns. Receivers Cortez Brown (103 yards) and Elijah Rice (91 yards) were on point, and Rice added a late punt return touchdown just for good measure.

Even more impressive was the performance of the Seahawks’ defense. It kept Georgetown quarterback Jarvis Brown - the area’s top touchdown producer coming into the game - to 120 yards passing, 42 on the ground and just one score.

“With us - you’ve heard me say this before - we play a non-region schedule that is going to make us better,” Wilson said. “Sometimes you’re going to be on the losing side of that, like we did in ‘13. I’m just proud of our guys.

“This is exactly where we want to be. But like I told our kids, we still have some things we need to get better.”

That may sound like nit-picking, but Wilson’s goal of his team playing this well at this point of the year does hold significant weight, especially given what was on the line.

Myrtle Beach has now won 10 in a row over Georgetown, a team that’s only outright region championship came in 2001. In 2005, the Bulldogs won a share of the title when it finished in a three-way tie with Myrtle Beach and Dillon.

Georgetown finds itself in another tie-breaker scenario this year. The Bulldogs, Lake City, St. James and North Myrtle Beach are all 2-2 in region play. Three of those teams appear destined for the playoffs, with one being left behind.

Georgetown coach Bradley Adams, though, doesn’t know exactly what he’ll have at his disposal next week when the Bulldogs play Wilson. Brown left the game in the fourth quarter with a knee injury. The staff didn’t immediately know the extent of the damage, but they already know this is a different team without him.

It was an additional blow for what was already a mentally painful game.

On the other side of the blowout was a Myrtle Beach squad gaining significant traction with plenty of time before the postseason begins.

“Monday, when we hit practice, it’s time to go to work - head-hunting, that’s all we’ve got to do,” linebacker Quan Ludley said. “I want to [get ready] for the playoffs and make a run.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 12:07 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach rolls past Georgetown, secures region crown."