GUYTON, Ga. – Jack Wohler kicked a 25-yard field goal with 51 seconds left to give South Effingham a dramatic 17-14 season-opening football victory over Screven County Friday night at the Corral.
Wohler, who replaced injured Levi Adams, capped the Mustangs’ 14-point second-half rally on a night when everything seemed to be going wrong.
South outgained Screven, an Elite Eight Class A state participant last season, 249-64 but had two touchdowns and a two-point conversion negated by penalties.
“Our backs were against the wall. There was a lot of adversity,” said SEHS quarterback Liam Coburn, who played with a heavy heart after his grandfather died during the week.
South’s Khyran White, a 1,000-yard rusher last season, suffered a sprained ankle in the first half and didn’t return.
But the Mustangs found a way to turn things around.
Second-half rally
Coburn threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Ashton Holder to cut Screven’s lead to 14-6 with 1:30 left in the third quarter. With three minutes left, Coburn dove into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown run before completing a two-point conversion pass to Landyn White to tie the game.
Screven fumbled on its next possession, setting the stage for Wohler’s kick, which was signaled no good at first before officials changed their decision.
“It seemed like every time we did something it was wrong,” SEHS coach Loren Purvis said. “We were antsy, but hats off to the kids. They didn’t fold.”
Harper honored
Before the game, former South Effingham head coach Mike Harper, the Mustangs’ first coach and athletic director in 1996, was honored in a ceremony at midfield.
The facility will now be called “Mike Harper Field.”
Former SEHS principal Dr. Torian White and county school Superintendent Dr. Yancy Ford made short speeches before Harper spoke, ending with his signature saying: “Mustang born, Mustang bred and when I die I’ll be Mustang dead.”
First-half struggles
South was plagued by errors in a first half that couldn’t end fast enough. An hour and 38-minute lightning delay didn’t help.
And after a special teams gaffe set up Screven at the Mustangs’ 26, Gamecock quarterback DaMarko Ward hooked up with AB Hilton for a 26-yard touchdown pass with 34.1 seconds remaining to give Screven an improbable 6-0 lead at halftime.
The Mustangs outgained the Gamecocks 116-47 during the first 24 minutes, but seven penalties for 50 yards, an interception and a bobbled snap in punt formation added up to the deficit.
South got off to a good start. Danny Murtha recovered an onside kick on the opening kickoff, but nothing seemed to go right after that.
The Mustangs’ first possession stalled on a holding penalty, and midway through the second possession, White went down with an ankle injury.
South moved to the Screven 4-yard line, but on fourth-and-2, a 5-yard penalty backed up the Mustangs, and Coburn’s scramble on fourth-and-7 was three yards short.
On the third possession, Holder’s 17-yard touchdown run was negated by a penalty.
Two possessions later, Screven took advantage of SEHS’ 18-yard loss in punt formation and scored on the next play.
In the third quarter, another bad snap in punt formation set up Hilton for an 11-yard touchdown run, and Ward’s two-point conversion run made it 14-0.
