Waccamaw narrowly holds off St. James in thriller

A potential game-tying two-point conversion went awry with less than a minute to play for visiting St. James on Friday night, as the Waccamaw Warriors withstood a spirited second-half rally by the Sharks for a 19-17 victory.

The Warriors (1-1) never trailed and controlled the first half behind a punishing ground game led by stocky Antrix Green, a 5-foot-7, 185-pound junior running back.

Waccamaw led 13-3 at halftime and when James Alston hauled in a 27-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Stecz to cap the Warriors’ first drive of the third quarter, the lead had swelled to 19-3 with 6:24 left in the quarter.

But Sharks coach Robby Brown had put in sophomore quarterback Berkeley Young late in the first half, moving the starter, Sage Pascoe, to receiver, and went almost strictly to the passing game.

“We went to our spread game, just moving it up and down the field and for matchup purposes,” Brown said. “We had a lot more success.”

Young, who connected on 22 of 32 passes for 221 yards, came with an eyelash of bringing St. James all the way back.

First, the 6-foot, 145-pound Young connected with Gage Flohr for a 15-yard touchdown with 4:00 left in the third quarter. Pascoe found Trey Myers for the two-point conversion to pull the Sharks within 19-11, setting up a frantic finish.

When the Sharks took over on their own 43 with 2:28 left in the game, a wild drive ensued.

On the first play, Young found Chris Anderson for a 20-yard gain, and after a 15-yard horse-collar penalty was tacked on, the Sharks quickly had a first down at the Waccamaw 22.

After St. James moved to a first-and-goal at the six-yard-line, the Warriors’ defense grabbed the momentum with a pair of sacks by Liam Sullivan and Trey Franklin, and the Sharks faced third-and-goal from the 23 with 57 seconds to play.

But from there, Young found Hayden Davidson in the end zone down the left sideline for a dramatic touchdown, pulling the Sharks within 19-17 with 52.5 seconds to play.

After Waccamaw was flagged for offside, St. James went for the potential game-tying two-point conversion from just outside the one-yard line.

Young, who had been operating out of the shotgun, moved under center for the conversion. But the snap was mishandled and Young fell on the ball between the 1 and 2 yard line as the conversion failed.

“I don’t know what happened with the center-snap exchange but we dropped the ball,” Brown said. “That could be on anybody, it’s on all of us as a team. We’ll go to work Monday and work on that.”

Dominic Gullo pounced on the Sharks’ ensuing onside kick, and the Warriors had secured their first win of the young season.

“I was afraid we were going to run out of gas there at the end,” said Waccamaw coach Tyronne Davis. “I credit the players, I think they really worked hard for this game and to get this win is really big for our program.

“We told them we had to be more physical and we wanted to run the ball between the tackles. We tried to establish the line of scrimmage early by running the ball and I think we did a great job.”

The Warriors asserted their dominance quickly in the first quarter, forcing St. James to a three-and-out on the first possession of the game.

Led by Green, who finished with 205 yards on a whopping 36 carries, the Warriors grabbed a 7-0 lead on their first possession of the game as Ladarious Taylor bulled into the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown run.

Taylor capped another drive with a three-yard touchdown plunge with 8:05 left in the second quarter to give Waccamaw a 13-0 lead.

St. James got on the board with a 26-yard field goal by John David Vereen to pull within 13-3 at halftime.

The Sharks fell to 0-2, but have something to build on after the second-half comeback.

“We got behind the 8-ball in the first half but they fought back,” Brown said. “They did a wonderful job of fighting back and not giving up.”

This story was originally published August 27, 2016 at 1:15 AM with the headline "Waccamaw narrowly holds off St. James in thriller."