By Craig Brown
In what could be considered one of the wettest games ever played at Lake View High School.
The Wild Gators came away with a 34-8 region win over the Trojans of Green Sea Floyds High School. Only the die-hard loyal ventured into the storm Friday night with maybe the exception of those that had someone close to them in the homecoming court.
The student body count at Green Sea Floyds is about twice the number of Lake View as is the case with most of the schools the Wild Gators compete with, but with the number of talented players on the Lake View roster you would think just the opposite.
It is my opinion that this Wild Gator team would be more than a match for many 2A teams in South Carolina. The conditions on the field were so bad that that neither team could get much going in the first quarter. Every time a player went down to a hit or tackle water would fly several feet into the air.
Trying to run on the field had to be extremely stressful for both sides.
With three seconds left in the first quarter, Tyshawn McDaniel found an opening in the Trojan defense, shook off a couple of wood be tacklers and raced 41 yards to the end zone for a touchdown.
Delvon Bethea ran in the two point conversion to put the Wild Gators up 8-0 with the first quarter ending with this score. The game continued to be riddled with mistakes due to the continued down pour.
With time winding down in the first half of play, Wild Gator quarterback, Duane Nichols hit Delvon Bethea with a 16 yard touchdown pass. The two point conversion attempt failed holding the Lake View lead to 14-0 with 2:46 left in the second quarter.
The Trojans had some decent athletes on their team and Wyatt Upchurch proved he was probably the best getting a 69 yard touchdown run against the Wild Gator defense with 28 seconds left in the first half. Henry Moody ran in the two point conversion to close Lake Views lead to 14-8 with the first half ending with this score. During the halftime break about 42 young ladies braved the field escorted by umbrella bearing young men. Some of the contestants had rain coats but most chose to show off their dresses although some were rain soaked. Almost all of the young ladies wore some form of rubber boots a few did enter the muddy field in heels.
The Wild Gators and Trojans re-entered the super soaked muddy field to begin the second half of play. On the Wild Gators second possession of the third quarter. Nichols again found Bethea open in the end zone for an eight yard touchdown pass.
The point after attempt was no good holding the Wild Gator lead to 20-8 with 7:32 left in the third quarter. The third quarter would end with this score. On the Wild Gators first possession of the fourth quarter, De’Ante Bridgett finished the drive with a six yard touchdown run.
The point after was off but the Lake View lead was now 26-8. Nichols put the game out of reach for the Trojans with an 11 yard quarterback keeper run with 4:24 left in the game. Bridgett ran in the two point conversion to end the scoring at 34-8.
The Wild Gators have lost some players to injury and have been able to find suitable replacements.
Lake View is possibly the smallest 1A school in the state but has a lot of talent and if they can hold down the injuries they should be in Columbia at the end of the season.
On offense for the Wild Gators, Duane Nichols was 2 of 4 passing for 24 yards and two touchdowns and had 57 yards rushing on 9 carries with a touchdown, Tyshawn McDaniel had 71 yards on 7 carries with a touchdown, Delvon Bethea had 33 yards rushing on 5 carries and caught two touchdown passes for 24 yards total and added a two point conversion, De’Ante Bridgett had 24 yards on 9 carries with a touchdown and ran in a two point conversion and Randall Washington had 12 yards on 5 carries.
On defense for the Wild Gators, Xavier Johnson had five tackles with a quarterback sack, Brandon Acevedo had four tackles with three for a loss, Benji Barfield had four tackles with two for a loss, Shawn Williams and Stone Spivey had four tackles each with Spivey adding an interception and Datron Jones had three tackles with two quarterback sacks.
Lake View had 220 yards of total offense holding Green Sea Floyds to 99. The win ups the Wild Gator record to 4-2 overall and 1-0 in the region.
The loss drops the Trojans to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in region play.
Lake View will host Cross county rival Latta Friday night. Both teams are 4-2 and don’t really like each other when it comes to sports, but they want allow an outsider to talk about the other. It should be a good game and come early as a full stadium is likely. Game time is set for 7:30.