Yannick Smith leads Summerville to 62-27 win over Berkeley
Summerville – Summerville and Berkeley met for the 89th time on Friday night in a rivalry that began in 1923.
Summerville senior wide receiver Yannick Smith put his personal stamp on the game, leading the Green Wave to a 62-27 win over the Berkeley Stags at Memorial Stadium.
Smith had a remarkable first half with four touchdowns, two via the air and two on the ground, as Summerville opened a 35-6 halftime lead. The 6-3 East Carolina commit had touchdown receptions of 45 and 33 yards from quarterback Jaden Cummings, and also ran for scores of 11 and 47 yards. Cummings also tossed a touchdown pass to Sheldon Green in the first half. Cummings threw for 262 yards in the game.
Running back Trae Green had two rushing touchdowns and Ashton Allen-Hawkins had a score
Summerville head coach Ian Rafferty, while pleased with the win, feels his No. 1 ranked Green Wave have work to do. The Green Wave improved to 2-0 after a week one win over Carolina Forest.
“Still too many mistakes, penalties, things like that,” Rafferty said. “We have to do a better job of putting teams away early, not letting them hang around. We get caught with 12 people on the field. Sometimes we had 10 on the field. We got a little better, scored more points, but we have to get better.”
Summerville scored on the second play of the game when Cummings connected with Green on their 60-yard touchdown less than a minute into the game.
After forcing a Berkeley punt, Summerville scored again on their second snap with Cummings and Smith combined on a 33-yard pass and run and the Green Wave led 14-0 with 9:28 left in the first quarter.
Summerville’s defense was up to the task as well early on, limiting the Stags to just four total yards in the first quarter. The Green Wave went up 21-0 on Smith’s 11-yard rush out of the wildcat formation, That score was set up by an interception and return of 74 yards by Jaden Kelly to thwart a Berkeley drive.
Berkeley put together its best drive of the first half, driving 86 yards on nine plays with freshman quarterback Henry Rivers scampering in from 19 yards to trim the lead to 21-6. Rivers finished with 251 yards passing and two touchdowns through the air.
But Smith was not done, adding a 47-yard run out of the Wildcat and catching a 45-yard pass from Cummings to give Summerville the commanding halftime lead.
“Glad we have him,” said Rafferty of Smith. “We can do so much with him. He tries to score every time he touches the ball.”
Berkeley put together a scoring drive, aided by a key Summerville penalty on fourth down, to open the third quarter. Rivers capped the drive with a 40-yard pass to Kaden Bash, cutting Summerville’s lead to 35-13 with 8:28 left in the third.
Berkeley’s Logan Gaskins picked off a Cummings pass but the Stags were forced to punt. Summerville responded with an 85-yard drive, culminating on Green’s five-yard scoring run to push the Green Wave to a 42-13 lead with 2:18 left in the third.
Allen-Hawkins opened the fourth quarter with an eight-yard touchdown run to give the Green Wave a 49-13 lead. After Berkeley’s Dominic Fox scored a touchdown early in the fourth, Green scored his second touchdown of the night on a one-yard run with 6:12 remaining in the game.
The Stags got on the board once more with Rivers tossing his second touchdown pass of the night, a 28-yarder to Kevin Boone with 3:40 left.
The final minutes were played with backups and Summerville added a touchdown run with :34 seconds left in the game.
With the win, Summerville pushed their overall lead in the rivalry to 62-23-4. The Green Wave have won the last four. The Green Wave are at Wando next week before hosting top 10 Sumter in two weeks.
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