FLORENCE — Mistakes can be a killer for any football team.
For South Florence on Friday night, it was the self-inflicted ones that hurt the most against Sumter. The Bruins committed six turnovers that led to 31 points as the Gamecocks left Memorial Stadium with a 45-27 win in the Region 6-4A opener for both teams.
“We hurt ourselves tremendously tonight,” said South Florence coach Lynn Fleming, whose team drops to 4-3 overall and 0-1 in region play. “The mistakes we made were tough to overcome against a team like Sumter.”
“(Forcing turnovers) is what we try to do every single time we play,” Sumter coach Paul Sorrells said. “(The Bruins) can say they shot themselves in the foot, but a lot of those turnovers were caused by our defense.”
South’s first four possessions ended with disastrous results. Fumbles ended three of the drives, and a fourth ended on downs deep in Gamecock territory.
Sumter (5-2, 1-0) was only able to score 10 points off the early miscues, a point which distressed Sorrells.
“We should have scored 21 points in the first three minutes of the game,” he said. “But we didn’t take advantage of (our opportunities).”
Senior quarterback Stephen Curtis was the offensive star for Sumter, throwing two touchdown passes and rushing for two more.
Romaine Prince added a TD run, and Will Shaw returned a fumble 26 yards for a score. Danniel Duncan picked off two passes and caught a TD for the Gamecocks.
(Sumter’s) a well-coached football team, and they’ll take advantage of mistakes,” Fleming said. “We’ll have to go to the drawing board and suit it up next week.”
Defensively, the Gamecocks harassed Michael Muhammad all night. In relief of the injured Kaleb Griffin, the junior signal-caller threw three interceptions but also fired three TD passes to tight end Trent Dowd.
“He was a little nervous at first but he settled down,” Fleming said. “We didn’t help him out very much.”
Despite the score, the Bruins continued to play hard. Terrion Brown scored from 2 yards out as time expired for the final margin.
“We should have had more points,” Sorrells said. “I’ll give a lot of credit to South Florence for not quitting and playing hard until the very end.
“We had to fight a little bit at the end, and South Florence did a good job hanging in there.”
Sumter returns to Memorial Stadium on Thursday to face West Florence at 7:30 p.m. The Bruins will try to earn their first region win of the season when they host Carolina Forest on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
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