Brilliant second half helps Seahawks advance

With a half of football left to go, it’s hard to say that a quirky Myrtle Beach play gave the Seahawks a win.

But it sure helped Mickey Wilson’s team find a much-needed spark.

After a 44-yard hook-and-lateral went for a touchdown as time expired in the first half, Myrtle Beach went on to a 41-26 win over Dreher in the first round of the Class AAA playoffs on Friday at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium.

“Any time you can go into halftime with a big momentum swing — which that was — it can ignite you in the second half,” said Wilson, whose team moved on to a second-round home playoff game against Hilton Head Island. “I think it did. Our kids realized in the first half we weren’t playing great. That play said ‘OK, we’re fine. Let’s settle down. Let’s play.’”

Even with the Drayton Arnold-to-Keyonte Sessions-to-Elijah Rice gimmick play, the Seahawks led just 14-7 at the break. But the tempo and feel from there was Myrtle Beach-heavy, and the Seahawks never trailed again. Will Vereen caught a 13-yard touchdown from Arnold and tailback Brandon Sinclair pumped in his second rushing score of the night before the end of the third.

Then in the fourth, Arnold found Brown on a pair of touchdown receptions. Of Arnold’s seven second-half passes, three were touchdowns. Sinclair, who finished with 158 rushing yards, had all but 34 of those in the second half.

It was a pace that started with the hook-and-lateral.

“Give them credit for making a play right there,” Dreher coach Treigh Sullivan said. “That’s a heck of a play. They have some talented receivers.”

Myrtle Beach also made the necessary adjustments to slow down Armstrong so the dual-threat quarterback couldn’t keep his team in the game. He had 170 total yards in the opening half and 321 for the game, but was responsible for just one touchdown.

The Blue Devils (5-6) punted just twice in the game, but of their seven trips into Myrtle Beach territory, only three resulted in points (Dreher’s fourth touchdown came on a 99-yard Anthony Salters’ kickoff return).

“Everybody was filling in their gaps,” Myrtle Beach defensive lineman Isaiah Rumley said. “Once we started doing that, there was nowhere for him to go. It doesn’t matter how shifty he is.”

While the game was announced last Saturday when the Class AAA brackets were released, the match-up was not official until after three appeals by Broome High School to take Dreher’s place were denied by the AAA football committee, the South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) Executive Committee and the SCHSL appellate panel.

Both Dreher and Myrtle Beach (8-3) continued to prepare almost entirely for each other while the appeals process played out. But after Friday, it was the Seahawks, led by a strong final two quarters plus one play, who were still alive.

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 11:37 PM with the headline "Brilliant second half helps Seahawks advance."