Falcons get blanked by Myrtle Beach
By Drake Horton
Contributing Writer
From start to finish, it was a bad day for the Darlington Falcons.
Down numerous starters, the Falcons proved to be no match for the Myrtle Beach Seahawks, losing 49-0 in front of a smaller than usual home crowd due to the game being moved to Saturday at noon because of the still-lingering implications from Hurricane Florence.
Myrtle Beach, considered by most to be one of the best teams in all of 4A, scored 14 points in the first quarter, 21 points in the second quarter and 14 more points in the third quarter.
Up 35-0 at halftime, the game went to a running clock for the entire second half.
Myrtle Beach started the game off with the football and starting quarterback and current University of South Carolina commit Luke Doty took what looked to be a 60-plus-yard run to the house for a touchdown, but inexplicably fumbled the ball out of the back of the end zone for a touchback.
Instead of being down a touchdown the Falcons had a fresh start with the football on their own 20-yard line. That fresh start did not last longer, however.
On the fourth play of the drive the Falcons sat fourth and one on their own 29-yard line. Darlington opted to go for it instead of punt.
The result ended up being disastrous as the Falcons dropped what was a sure first down and ended up giving Myrtle Beach’s explosive offense the ball on the Darlington’s 29-yard line.
From there it took only three plays for the Seahawks to find the end zone as Jermani Green ran in from two yards out.
Following the score, Myrtle Beach never looked back. Doty connected with Daron Finkley for a 24-yard touchdown reception on the second score while Green added touchdown runs of five, 12 and 28 yards to run the Seahawks’ lead to 35 at the half.
While Darlington did not play its best in the first quarter, the second quarter was a complete nightmare. The Falcons dropped a touchdown pass, fumbled a kickoff and had a punt blocked.
On two of those three mistakes Myrtle Beach was able to capitalize and turn them into scores. Following the fumbled kickoff, Green scored his 12-yard touchdown on the very first play and on the blocked punt he scored his 28-yard touchdown run on the first play as well.
While Myrtle Beach’s offense cooled down in the second half, due to a combination of the running clock and the second string playing, the Seahawks’ defense decided to get in on the scoring action.
On the Falcons’ first series of the second half back to back bad snaps resulted in Sallm Sessions scooping and scoring from three yards out and then on the very next series he intercepted Brian Robinson’s pass and returned it for a 20-yard touchdown on Darlington’s very next offensive play following the fumble that gave him the first touchdown.
If it had not been for the running clock both of Sessions’ touchdowns would have come in a matter of 10 seconds or so.
Throughout the game Darlington appeared to be playing uninspired and head coach John Jones was the first to acknowledge that.
“You have to come out and play with a little more effort even when you are sometimes outmanned,” Jones said. “I didn’t think our effort was there from the beginning. We had a lot of guys out, but that doesn’t excuse effort.”
The Falcons are now 0-5 on the year and 0-2 in the region.
