Seahawks feel sting of first-round defeat again

As Clifford Morrow stood at midfield, he tried to hide his emotions as best he could. Many of his Hilton Head High teammates weren't quite so successful, as they lay on the ground around him, their faces flooded with tears.

Much of it felt the same. Eerily similar, even.

But that didn't make it any easier. In fact, just the opposite.

"Oh my God. I can't even explain it," Morrow said. "Oh my God. No words to explain how I feel right now."

He didn't need to explain. The disappointment and dejection was evident in his voice as he realized the implications -- for the second consecutive year, Hilton Head High was bounced from the Class 3-A postseason in the first round in heartbreaking fashion.

Third-seeded Socastee upset the Seahawks, 23-20, on Andrew Musgrove's game-winning 34-yard field goal as time expired Friday night at Hilton Head Island Community Stadium.

The comeback comes one year after the Seahawks gave up a 27-7 lead to lose to South Aiken in last year's first round.

Socastee rallied from a 20-14 deficit in the final two minutes Friday. Trailing by that margin, Braves quarterback Zack Elliman completed a 75-yard touchdown pass to Stoan Waldroup -- just his sixth completion of the game -- on a fourth-down play to tie the game with 1:47 remaining.

The Seahawks appeared to catch a break, however, when Musgrove missed the ensuing extra point. And they were on the verge of taking advantage of it in their final offensive drive. They marched the ball to their own 40-yard line with 1:32 on the clock and three timeouts left, but Jeff Homad threw his fourth interception of the game on a deep ball to Morrow to end the drive. Homad entered the game with no interceptions in 114 pass attempts.

"He went for the home run too soon," Seahawks coach Tim Singleton said. "That's just that slight inexperience that came back to haunt us once again."

An experienced Socastee offense capitalized. Elliman created play after play with this legs and arm to move the ball to Hilton Head High's 16-yard line with seven-tenths of a second remaining, setting up Musgrove's game-winning field goal, a lazy pop-up that sailed past the crossbar by only a few feet.

"I had my eyes closed," Elliman said. "I couldn't watch. I heard everybody go crazy and I think I fell down, but I knew it was good. That's the most fun I've ever had on a football field."

The Seahawks grabbed a quick 13-0 lead in the first quarter with a Lawrence Jenkins 24-yard touchdown and Homad's 25-yard touchdown pass to Jaquan Cohen. Attempting to build on that lead early in the second, Homad threw his first interception of the night on a screen pass that bounced off Jenkins' shoulder pads and into the hands of Socastee defensive lineman Ryan Jonas.

"I feel like if we had the momentum, we should've kept it," Morrow said. "We shouldn't have let them have that momentum."

The Braves scored on the ensuing drive and Elliman added a rushing touchdown with just more than a minute left in the half to gain a 14-13 halftime edge.

Hilton Head High missed its opportunities to put more points on the scoreboard with a pair of dropped touchdown passes in the quarter, followed by a blocked field goal attempt.

"We're better than most teams around, but those things haunt us, especially during playoff time," Singleton said. "And we won't get the respect of people ... until we make those few steps go our way versus going the opposite way. It's really unfortunate because we are so much better than we displayed tonight. And those turnovers will haunt us."

Homad threw a 5-yard touchdown to Morrow on the Seahawks' opening drive of the second half to regain the lead, but the Seahawks were held scoreless over the final 20 minutes, despite 180 rushing yards from Jenkins.

But the Seahawks' defense matched each stop in the half with a game plan that successfully stopped the Braves' versatile rushing attack.

Forced to use his arm instead, Elliman threw for 101 yards after halftime on only three completions, including the touchdown on a go route to Waldroup. He found Waldroup again with six seconds left in the game on a 15-yard slant over the middle to give Musgrove better field position for the win.

"We got rattled a little bit, turned the ball over and couldn't make the stop on defense," Singleton said. "That part might be deja vu a little bit. We gave up the big play, unfortunately. And that cost us the chance to continue our season."