Seven of the 11 area games were completed Friday night with two finished Saturday and two more played entirely Monday. I have updated the following post to include everything through the three days of action.
Friday night
Myrtle Beach 24, Conway 7
Latta 34, Green Sea Floyds 18
Loris 38, Hannah-Pamplico 12
C.E. Murray 29, St. James 12
Andrews 28, Garrett Tech 0 (official game, called with 5:30 left in second quarter)
Waccamaw 49, Aynor 17 (official game, called with 55 seconds left in third quarter)
South Columbus (N.C.) 42, West Bladen (N.C.) 19
Saturday
Hemingway 7, Carvers Bay 6 (suspended Friday at halftime)
KIngstree 32, Georgetown 7 (suspended late second quarter Friday)
Monday
Carolina Forest 10, Socastee 7
West Brunswick (N.C.) 41, South Brunswick (N.C.) 16
This week's top area performers:
>>Waccamaw running back John Gibbs: 16 carries for 194 yards and six touchdowns rushing in only three quarters of play
>>South Columbus (N.C.) quarterback Brian Riggins: 9 carries for 164 yards and two touchdowns rushing and 7-for-12 for 111 yards passing
>>Myrtle Beach quarterback Everett Golson: 14-for-25 passing for 296 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
>>Andrews quarterback Ken Funnye: 8 carries for 143 yards and two touchdowns rushing and 2-for-2 for 48 yards passing.
>>Loris running back R.J. Brown: 21 carries for 242 yards and four touchdowns rushing
>>Socastee running back P.J. Brave: 17 carries for 131 yards and a touchdown rushing
Random thoughts from Friday:
>>A good time for rain: Conway played tough, but the weather was a big ally for the Tigers. Coming into the game Myrtle Beach had run 200 offensive plays on the season with 121 of them passes. Against the Tigers in the rain, Myrtle Beach ran the ball 27 times and passed 25. Conway has a bye next week before starting region play at home against West Florence. Myrtle Beach will host Lake City next week in a very meaningful game. The winner of that one is likely the region champion and will have home field in any rematch in the playoffs.
>>Record-breaking night: Waccamaw senior John Gibbs had a huge night in the absence of fellow running back Matt Smith, who was out with an injury. Gibs came into the night with 433 yards rushing on 55 carries for 7.9 per carry average
and three touchdowns. He had 194 yards on 16 carries (12.3 ypc) and a school-record six touchdowns in an abbreviated game. Waccamaw opens region play next week when Hanahan visits Pawleys Island. Hanahan beat the Warriors 31-7 last season.
>>Running wild: The St. James box score didn't make Saturday's paper because the game ran late due to the weather, but I received the stats late Friday. The Sharks' biggest problem in the loss to C.E. Murray was they couldn't stop the War Eagles' rushing attack. C.E. Murray rushed for 306 yards on 48 attempts (6.4 yards per carry) and picked up 23 first downs. By comparison, the Sharks managed just 100 yards on 36 carries (2.8 ypc), 66 yards passing and 10 first downs. The Sharks had just one offensive touchdown, a 1-yard run by quarterback Chase Smith. Nathaniel Holmes returned a fumble 30 yards for the team's other score.
>>Brown back for more: For the third week in a row Loris junior running back R.J. Brown rushed for more than 200 yards and he scored four more touchdowns this week. That brings him to 722 yards and nine touchdowns in the last three weeks. Brown had just 25 yards rushing in the team's first two games.
