South Florence Dominates Second Half in 42-7 Win Over Crestwood

Larry Gamble

HSSR, Photo Editor

Sumter – First week of region play brought the 2023 Class AAAA runner’s up South Florence Bruins to Crestwood Knights, a new comer to AAAA play this season. Both teams faced their challenges comeing into the game. The 2-2 Bruins losses so far to AAAAA Summerville and Northwestern. Coming into the game, the 2-2 Knights were looking for a spark after losses to AAAA Richland Northeast and AAAAA Sumter. 

    Both teams looked equally balanced in the first quarter, grinding it out with run plays and very few attempts to pass. The whole game can be summed up in several incredible plays setting up scores in between three and out ball play. With most plays on the ground, the clock was always running.

    In the second quarter with Jorge Hernandez punting from back at his 11, South Florence's Jayden Sellers caught the punt at his 48 and with a couple key blocks turned the return into a foot race for the first TD of the game and the PAT completion put the Bruins up 7-0. Crestwood would get a turnover on downs when the Bruins pass on 4^th and 7 was incomplete which stopped South Florence at mid field, but the Knights ended up punting from the 45. Again back to receive, Seller catches this punt at his 15 and takes the return 70 yards to the Knights' 15. On second down, junior QB Messiah Jackson would score on a keeper from the 13. Senior kicker, Evan Holland made the PAT and made the score 14-7. Not to be out done, on the ensuing kick off, Crestwood’s senior WR/RB Jeremie Richardson takes the kickoff from his own 16 all the way to the Bruin’s 10. The next play, freshman QB Jaylen Martin sprints from the 10 for Crestwood’s only TD of the night. Hernandez makes the PAT and the half ends 14-7 South Florence.

     In the second half, the Bruins came alive on defense and continued to make plays on offense. Scoring 14 points in both the 3^rd and 4^th quarters while the defense held Crestwood scoreless, the game ends 42-7. 

     After the game, talking with Coach Roosevelt Nelson he said “we played competitive for three quarters but we aren’t there yet and have to keep working.” When asked about the youthfulness of his team and coming together to build momentum, he stated they needed to get the film and “the biggest thing is showing them how close they are to being a good team, they are literally right there.” Coach Nelson commented about they had some key tackles on defense and they need to keep that up. On offense, “South Florence is a good team and #91 (Amare Adams) showed he a D-1 guy for a reason, and they have several good guys across the field.” When asked about key players on offense, “(junior) LaDamien Belton did an tremendous job running the ball,  (sophomore) Calvin Wofford did a good job, as did (freshman) Jaylen Martin at QB, this is team is a group that I am very excited about.”



     Speaking with Coach Drew Marlow he said “our defense played awesome all night, on offense in the first we had timing issues with our receivers but Jayden Sellers made a couple key plays for us.” When asked about the difference in the play each half, Coach Marlow stated “I was proud of our guys for overcoming their first half. The defense played well and kept us in it.”

     Next up, Crestwood is home against Lower Richland and South Florence is hosting Darlington.