Early Success Costly for Chiefs
By: Wayne White

Getting off to a good start can never be a bad thing...right? Well, sometimes you can get to much of a good thing.

That may have been the case for the North Myrtle Beach Chiefs football team this past Friday night in the Region VII-AAA opener against Socastee. In less than five minutes of action in the game, the Chiefs led 10-0 and Socastee had a pair of turnovers. Unfortunately, that was all that NMB would put on its side of the scoreboard as Socastee posted a 31-10 victory.

“Sometimes you get off to such a great start that you worry about your team letting up on the intensity a little,” said North Myrtle Beach Head Coach Denver Cromer. “You are dealing with teenagers and sometimes things can come too easy. We got early turnovers, scored on our first play, it was just all going our way. As a coach, you just get a feeling when the team’s intensity starts to drop.”

That great start for the Chiefs included a recovered fumble by NMB’s Brandon Johnson on the third play of the game. On the very next play, the first offensive play of the night for the Chiefs, Timmane Bellamy took off 38 yards for the first score of the contest.

On the ensuing possession, Socastee moved the ball well against the Chiefs before quarterback Zack Elliman threw an interception into the arms of Dedrec Searcy. The Chiefs’ cornerback intercepted the ball at the NMB 38-yard line and returned it all the way to the Socastee 9-yard line. The next three plays may have set the tone for the game as the Chiefs could not find the endzone and had to settle for an 8-yard Zack Crowl field goal.

Socastee seized the momentum, scoring on a 38-yard field goal by Andrew Musgrove on its next possession. The Braves then tied the game with 10:56 remaining in the first half when Darryl Simmons recovered a fumble after a punt and ran 43 yards into the endzone. Both defenses tightend and the score remained tied at 10-10 entering halftime.

In the second half, the Socastee defense tightened even more as the Chiefs found no room for their potent ground game. In fact, the ground attack was stuck in park as NMB gained just 31 yards in the second half. The Chiefs’ defense allowed Socastee yards during the third quarter but was able to keep the game tied as the game entered the final six minutes. NMB’s bend but don’t break defensive style finally stretched a little too thin when Michquan Brown ran around the right side untouched for a 21-yard touchdown to give Socastee a lead with 5:37 to play in the final quarter.

Following the kickoff, NMB quarterback Clint Cole fumbled the ball on an attempted pitch to running back Kelton Chestnut and the Braves recovered the ball on the Chiefs’ 11-yard line. Brown made a nice run up the middle, spinning into the endzone, on the very next play for his second touchdown in the span of 15 seconds. Following another stand by the Socastee defense, Elliman connected with Stoan Waldrop for a 55-yard touchdown pass to cap the scoring.

“I would like to think that it was not the case, but it sure did look like we just lost all of our intensity and thought that we were going to coast after the first few minutes,” said Coach Cromer. “You have to give a ton of credit to Coach (Tim) Renfrow and his players as they came in here on a short week after just playing Monday and fought hard. We just could not get anything going in the second half offensively. The defense played tough and kept us in the game until late in the fourth quarter.”

For the Chiefs, the loss in the Region VII-AAA opener sets up an almost must-win situation this Friday at Georgetown. On paper, the game is not a must win but with two of South Carolina’s top-5 ranked programs in Myrtle Beach and Lake City in the same Region, a playoff spot will be near impossible without a win against the Bulldogs.

“It is not really a must-win game this Friday, but it is about as close as you can get,” said Cromer. “We had a great week of practice this week but fell short. It is time for our guys, both coaches and players, to dig deep and put together a week of preparation that will give us the best possible chance to win.”

This week’s game will start 30 minutes earlier than usual as Georgetown’s home games kickoff at 7:00 p.m. The game can be heard live on WRNN 99.5 FM and on-line worldwide at www.NMBChiefs.com beginning at 6:30 p.m. on the Charlie Stuart State Farm NMB Chiefs Radio Network.