Simmons’ huge night leads Carolina Forest to emphatic win over West Florence

With junior running back Dyverse Simmons rolling up yardage from the start, Carolina Forest blasted visiting West Florence 41-3 in a Region VI-AAAA clash Friday night.

The Panthers (2-2 Region VI-AAAA, 5-5 overall) bounced back from a tough region loss to Sumter a week earlier by scoring touchdowns the first four times they touched the ball, opening up a 27-0 halftime lead and cruising past the Knights (1-9, 0-4).

“The kids played great, we played four quarters,” said Carolina Forest Coach Marc Morris. “It couldn’t have come at a better time than Senior Night. We’ve got a great group of kids who are seniors.’’

Simmons finished with 242 yards on 18 carries with three touchdowns. The 6-foot, 175-pound junior capped a torrid first quarter with a 65-yard touchdown run, finishing the first stanza with 136 yards on just nine carries. He added a 3-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and by halftime had 196 yards on 14 carries.

“I put all my trust in God and trust everything Coach Morris says and just hit the hole hard,” said Simmons. “It just opened up and next thing you know I was off to the races. You never know when your last game is due to injury or anything like that. Every time I touch the ball I try to take advantage of it.”

Running back Drake Stone, also a junior, added 58 yards on 11 carries with two touchdowns and Panther quarterback Matt Beale completed 7 of 11 passes for 178 yards as the Panthers amassed 489 yards total offense.

“I felt like our guys did a good job up front, things were able to open up in the passing game later and Matt did a great job of hitting some receivers,” said Morris. “ Just a good overall effort on offense and then our defense played absolutely amazing tonight. I’m just really happy with our defense.”

The Knights, who finished with 170 yards total offense, only drove inside the Carolina Forest 20-yard line once in the game, early in the fourth quarter with the Panthers leading 41-0. Carolina Forest defenders kept West Florence out of the end zone on that possession, forcing a 26-yard field goal by Galyn Hill that put an end to the scoring with 7:39 left in the game.

The Panthers close the regular season with a visit to neighborhood rival Conway, a clash that carries serious playoff implications.

“We feel like we need to win the last two to make sure we get in, including (West Florence) and obviously the Conway game next week,” said Morris. “This is the one we had to have - next week didn’t mean as much playoff-wise if we didn’t win this one. I thought our kids were focused on West Florence all week and played well tonight. Hopefully we can get things done next week and get in the playoffs.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 12:28 AM with the headline "Simmons’ huge night leads Carolina Forest to emphatic win over West Florence."