St. James shuts down North Myrtle Beach for key region win

Based on wins, this season’s St. James football squad is the best in school history – at least one of them.

The Sharks used a physical brand of football to take down North Myrtle Beach 17-7 on Friday night in a pivotal Region VII-AAA contest that had historical significance for the young St. James program. The Sharks now have five wins, which ties the 2006 and 2008 teams for the most victories in a season in the 12-year history of the program. In addition to the win total, the public address announcer told the crowd at the end of the game it was the first time the Sharks had won a homecoming game.

“It is a big group of seniors,” St. James coach Robby Brown said. “They have stuck in here and believed. It is all a matter of time before a school is going to break those records. I am not really worried about those records. Our goal is to have a winning season and make the playoffs. We still have work to do, but it has been a good year for us so far and hopefully we have a few more games left.”

The Sharks’ win leaves four teams in the region at 2-2 – Georgetown, Lake City, North Myrtle Beach, and St. James. While Myrtle Beach has wrapped up the region title and Wilson has been eliminated from postseason contention, seeds 2-4 are wide open, but only the top three seeds from the region are guaranteed a playoff spot.

On Friday, it was a story of interior lines as both teams played well in the trenches.

“I thought we did good up front on both sides of the ball along the defensive and offensive lines,” Brown said. “I am proud of the way we played. … We got a few breaks and kept them off the scoreboard. I thought our offensive line and running backs did a good job just getting first downs and just keeping the ball.”

Early on points were hard to come by with the only score of the first half a 40-yard field goal by St. James’ Charles Ouverson with 6:59 left to play in the second quarter. The Sharks missed two field goal attempts while the Chiefs missed one in the opening half.

St. James opened the second half with a 14-play, 73-yard drive that ended with Jay-Mion Pressley scoring from the 1 on a fourth-and-goal to give the Sharks a 10-0 lead.

North Myrtle Beach had a chance to answer as it put together a long drive of its own as the Chiefs’ offensive line started creating holes for running backs Kered Class and Dequan Montgomery. Facing a fourth-and-2 at the Sharks’ 16, a first-down run was called back for holding. On the next play, a fourth-and-12, Merrill Moss was called for offensive pass interference on a touchdown pass from Ronnie Bass. The back-to-back penalties forced the Chiefs into a punting situation.

“We got whooped up front tonight,” North Myrtle Beach coach Blair Hardin said. “We had some missed opportunities. … We got to be better in the red zone. We didn’t capitalize on the few times we were in the red zone. … We have to finish better and be more consistent.”

St. James went up 17-0 with 8:35 left in the game as Pressley scored from the 2 for his second touchdown of the night to cap off a 13-play, 73-yard drive.

North Myrtle Beach finally got on the board on its ensuing possession as Montgomery scored from the 4 with 5:52 to play. The Chiefs’ onside kick was recovered by the Sharks and St. James ran out most of the clock to earn the big win.

“We had a lot of missed tackles,” Hardin said. “We are young in a lot of areas, and we have a ton of injuries right now. [The injuries are] something that has happened all year, but next man has to be ready. That is our philosophy.”

St. James will play at Lake City while North Myrtle Beach hosts Myrtle Beach in next week’s regular-season finales.

“Next week is going to be another big week just like this week,” Brown said. “Getting to 3-2 (in region play) is going to be big for everybody in this region. Our fourth-place team is an at-large so you don’t really know if you are going to get in or not.”

Even a win next week may not be enough depending on the tiebreaker scenario as Georgetown, North Myrtle Beach, and St. James all could end 3-2 in the region.

The Sharks have only made the playoffs twice – in 2006 when they finished 5-6 and 2010 with a 2-8 regular-season mark.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 12:36 AM with the headline "St. James shuts down North Myrtle Beach for key region win."