Summerville Defeats Cross-town Rival Ashley Ridge 49-48 in Two Overtimes As teams Combine For Over 900 Yards of Offense

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Summerville - The HSSR-Div. I AAAAA number two ranked Summerville Green Wave (8-0) won a shoot-out with 7^th ranked Ashley Ridge (6-2) on October, 18, and it took two-overtimes to settle this cross-town rivalry with the Green Wave prevailing 49-48 despite being dominated by the Foxes in stats for the game.

The 97 combined points scored in the game produced 1,004 total yards of offense (unofficially) on 139 non-penalized plays. (The game produced over 20 penalties in a game that lasted 3,5 hours.)

After the game, Summerville head coach Ian Rafferty told the HSSR from the field, “Ashley Ridge is a good football team and with the skill players they have on offense they will present problems for any team,” said Coach Rafferty. “This was a quality win for our program and we came into the game a little banged up missing six or seven guys who usually start or play a lot. We have 78 players on our team and we live by the next man up mentality.

“I was very proud of the way our sophomore running back Jayven Williams (5-8, 173) stepped up tonight and he had to carry most of the running load with Keshon (Washington) out with an ankle injury,” said Coach Rafferty. “He had three rushing touchdowns in the game and over 250 yards rushing and that is very impressive for a sophomore. We should have both Keshon and him in the back field next week against West Ashley”.

Speaking of sophomores, Green Wave athlete Jaiden Kelly-Murray (6-0,190) is among the top sophomores in the Southeast area. ”His interception in the end zone was a big-time play, and that is what big-time players do, and Jaiden certainly has a bright future in this game,” said Coach Rafferty. “He had a lot of good plays tonight. He was on tonight with good runs in the Wildcat, caught several passes including one for a touchdown. He’s the ultimate competitor and just a sophomore also.”

Leading by two touchdowns (35-20), with 5:47 left in the third period, Summerville tried to pull-off a fake punt, that was unsuccessful, from their own 21-yard line. “We are banged up some on our punt team also, and we figured they had a good chance to block it, or they would get the ball around the 50-yard line, so we tried the fake and that turned out to be a bad call on our part,” said Coach Rafferty.

Coach Rafferty feels like the Green Wave can score points against anyone. “We have four seniors up-front in the offensive line, a veteran senior quarterback going to Dartmouth, a senior running back, two senior tight ends and several senior receivers so we have a lot of experience on offense,” said Coach Rafferty.

In regards to being heavily penalized throughout the season, Coach Rafferty commented, “I can’t do anything about all the penalties we have been getting and hopefully we will continue fighting through it,” said Coach Rafferty. “We always watch the film closely, and while most of them are true, we do have our doubts on some of them.”  

Ashley Ridge head coach Jeff Tate was to the point with his comments after the tough loss. “This is no moral victory, or anything like that,” he said. “We came in here expecting to win, after a good of practice, we didn’t quite get the job done but I am proud of our kid’s efforts on the road and I feel like we grew up a lot tonight.”

After scoring in the second over-time, Coach Tate, went for two points and the win. “In that moment we felt like we could get the two points from the three-yard line and we went with a formation we have not shown in a long time,” said Coach Tate. “They called time-out and I thought about changing the formation and going with another play but we stuck with the play. I honesty do not think they knew what we were going to do, but they were able to get pressure on our quarterback and he had to rush the throw and it came up short.

“I just want to say that I have coached several teams, all over the state, and I honesty feel like Ashley Ridge can compete with anybody,” said Coach Tate. “Our kids can play with anybody. Our Shrine Bowl linebacker (Dylan Polansky) had a heck of a game tonight on defense. He has great speed, and he can hit, and we move him around a lot of places.

“Our quarterback is just a junior (Trevor Kalisz) also,” said Coach Tate. “We have a lot of play-makers on offense. We still have a lot of football yet to play.”   

In reference to all the penalties called on both teams, Coach Tate said, “I think some do happen, but I think they also anticipate  some penalties happening.”

Ashley Ridge scored on the opening drive of the game marching 62 yards in 8 plays capped off by a 15-yard scoring pass from Kalisz to big-time senior receiver Bam Deweese. Keith McCune added the PAT to make it 7-0 with 9:26 left in the first period.

On Summerville’s first play on offense, sophomore running back Jayven Williams burst 57-yards for a touchdown and Bennett Kelly added the PAT to tie the score at 7 with 9:01 left in the opening period.

On their second possession, Ashley Ridge went 62 yards in 8 plays with Deweese scoring on a three-yard run with 7:28 left in the first period. McCune’s PAT made it 14-7.

At the three-minute mark of the first period, Summerville took over on downs at the 28-yard line after AR went for it on fourth down, and were not successful as the QB was tackled for a one-yard loss. On the third play of the drove Kelly-Murray scored on a 16-yard run out of the Wildcat. The PAT was missed and AR led 14-13 with 2:06 left in the first period.

AR missed a 38-yard field goal try with 11:11 left in the second period. Then with 8:22 left in the first half a 69-yard scoring pass from Kelly-Murray from Cummings was negated by a personal foul penalty.

The drive continued, and 11 plays later Summerville led for the first time in the game (5:42 mark of the second period) on a 16-yard pass from Cummings to Carson Guinn. Williams scored on a two-point conversion to put the Green wave up 21-14 with 5:42 left in the first half.

On the ensuing kick-off AR began a scoring drive from their 19-yad line. Seven plays later Kalisz tossed a 62-yard scoring pass to Deweese with 3:49 left in the half. The PAT was blocked making the score 21-20 in favor of the Wave.

Summerville closed out the half with an 80-yard 12-play scoring drive. Williams scored on a 9-yard tackle breaking run with just 54 seconds left in the first half to put the Wave up 28-20 at the break.

Summerville received the second half kick-off and on second down Williams went around the end untouched for 83-yards and the PAT made it 35-20 with 11:43 left in the third period.

After Summerville failed on a fake punt, two possessions later, AR took over on the Green Wave’s 27-yard line. Five plays later Deweese scored on a two-yard run and Kalisz added a two- point conversion on a short run to make the score 35-28 with 3:44 left in the third period. 

On their first possession of the fourth period AR took advantage of two personal foul penalties on the Green Wave to help advance the ball to the seven-yard line where Deweese scored on an end-around with 9:42 left in the game with the PAT tying the game at 35 and this was the score at the end of regulation as AR missed a field goal with six seconds remaining in regulation.

In over-time both teams received the ball on offense from the 10-yard line. AR scored first on a three-yard run by Deweese and the PAT made it 42-35. Summerville came back and scored on a one-yard run by Williams and Kelly’s PAT tied the game at 42.

A personal foul penalty against AR on the PAT kicks in the first overtime, gave Summerville the ball at the five in the second over-time. Cummings scored from the one and the PAT put the Wave up 49-42.

AR scored on a 10-yard pass to Deweese on the first play of the second over-time. AR elected to go for two and the pass fell at the feet of the receiver running in the left flats near the end zone.  

         (Note: The HSSR tracked every play in the game, but the 20-plus penalties called could affect the official game stats when they are available.)

Ashley Ridge dominated the statistics but not the final score. Unofficially, Kalisz completed 30-0f-34 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns. Deweese caught 9 passes for 141 yards and three touchdown receptions. Amerson had 8 catches for 62 yards, and Niway Picou caught six passes for 66 yards.

Acosta led Ashley Ridge on the ground with 164 net yards on 29 carries with one rushing touchdown. He also caught three passes for 25 yards.,

As a team, Ashley Ridge ran 76 non-penalty plays netting 534 yards (318 net passing & 216 net rushing).

Summerville was led (unofficial) in passing by Cummings who completed 14-of-26 passes for 131 yards and one touchdown. He also added 25 net yards rushing and one rushing touchdown. 

The top rusher in the game, for either team,  was Williams who netted out 268 yards on 28 carries with three touchdowns on runs of 57, 83, and one yards. Murray-Kelly, running out of the Wildcat, netted out 53 yards on seven carries and one rushing touchdown. Murray Kelly also caught 8 passes for 65 yards and on defense he had a key interception in the end zone.

Summerville ran 63 non-penalized plays, and the Green Wave netted out 470 yards of offense (131 passing and 339 yards via the run).

While Summerville hosts West Ashley this week, Ashley Ridge is at home against James Island.