Carolina Forest comes up short against Goose Creek in first round of playoffs

Carolina Forest kept Goose Creek at bay as long as it could.

The Gators simply proved a little too much.

After taking a lead into halftime, the Panthers were unable to a hold off a powerful Goose Creek offense in a 39-27 loss in the first round of the Class AAAA playoffs.

“We played really well. Defensively, we played really well in the first half,” said Carolina Forest coach Marc Morris, whose team led 14-12 at the half. “In the second half we just couldn’t get stops. Goose Creek is a good team.”

The Panthers’ Dyverse Simmons had a pair of rushing touchdowns and Matt Beale connected with Jason Craft for a pair of scores through the air.

“Matt Beale played a great game tonight. Dyverse (got going as) the offensive line did a good job of controlling them up front,” Morris said. “We put some good drives together early.”

However, Carolina Forest was unable to sustain that success in the second half. After having a big pass play called back to stall their first drive of the second half, the Panthers saw the Gators take the lead on the ensuing possession and control the game from there.

“They slowed the game down and ran their big fullbacks,” Morris said. “That was the difference in the game.”

Carolina Forest ended the season 5-7.

“It was a good year for us,” said Morris, whose team played a tough early schedule that helped the Panthers get into the playoffs. “It’s a long process and we’ll keep building on it. I congratulate our seniors the last two years for leading our program and turning it around to get us going in the right direction.”

Simply making the playoffs was big for the Panthers, Morris said.

“It was a good experience tonight,” he said. “I really thought our kids handled everything well all week. They did a good job the last two weeks preparing. It was fun watching them prepare and watching them grow up.”

As for next season as realignment forces Carolina Forest to move up to the new AAAAA class?

“We’ve got a good group of kids coming up and we’ve got a good group of young men coming back,” Morris said. “Hopefully in the offseason we’ll put in a lot of hard work and see how it goes next season.”

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 12:31 AM with the headline "Carolina Forest comes up short against Goose Creek in first round of playoffs."