PHOTO GALLERY: Turnovers doom Hartsville against North Myrtle Beach
The Hartsville Red Foxes fell to North Myrtle Beach on Friday night. Here are some photos from the game by Drake Horton, sponsored in part by Gerald Malloy for State Senate.
PHOTO GALLERY: Hartsville v. North Myrtle Beach
Photos by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton
Contributing Writer
2020 has been quite a year for everyone involved and it showed its ugly face once again this past Friday night at Kellytown Stadium for the Hartsville Red Foxes as they lost to the North Myrtle Beach Chiefs 40-21.
“We played very sloppy, there is no doubt about it,” Hartsville head coach Jeff Calabrese said after the game.
“We didn’t deserve to win this football game and we have to learn to battle for 48 minutes, we have to show some character when times are tough and we have to keep battling. I thought we were a little bit, then things didn’t go our way again and we ducked our head a little and didn’t play Red Fox football.”
The key story line for the entire game was the fact that Hartsville was its own worst enemy, turning the ball over seven times and committing two errant snaps on punts, with one resulting in a safety and the other in a touchdown.
“We can’t afford to play that way,” Calabrese said. “North Myrtle Beach is a great football team. Turnovers are going to be the story of the game, but my hat’s off to that football team — they found a way to come in here and play well, didn’t make mistakes and beat us. We have to be a better football team, period, and it certainly starts with taking care of the football.”
Hartsville took an early 7-2 lead in the second quarter, but a pick-six and fumble returned for a touchdown quickly changed the score to North Myrtle Beach’s favor as the Chiefs went up 16-7.
But the bleeding did not stop there. The Red Foxes committed their third straight turnover on the next possession and two plays later North Myrtle Beach cashed in the Hartsville mistake on a 13-yard touchdown run with 7:32 left in the game.
Down 23-7, things were not looking favorable for Hartsville, but the Red Foxes closed the opening half out with back to back touchdowns, and just like that, a 16-point North Myrtle Beach lead was back down to 2.
“As poor as we played, we had a chance,” Calabrese said.
The second half, however, proved to be more of what the first half had been for Hartsville and that was turnover after turnover with North Myrtle Beach capitalizing on the mistakes.
“You know you have to seal it out,” Calabrese said. “We come out of the break and make a couple mistakes just to push us back.”
Hartsville was held scoreless for the entire second half and three of the four quarters with all 21 points coming in the second quarter.
To go along with the two defensive touchdowns, safety and field goal North Myrtle Beach had scoring runs of 13 yards, four yards and two yards while the Red Foxes had touchdowns runs of one yard, six yards and 30 yards with Dariyan Pendergrass scoring all three of those touchdowns.
The Red Foxes did block two field goals, both coming in the first quarter. Hartsville takes on West Florence on the road this Friday.
OTHER SCORES: The Darlington Falcons were on the road this past Friday taking on the Myrtle Beach Seahawks. In a one-sided affair, the Seahawks dominated the Falcons 69-0.
