Seahawks Soar into Lower State Finals as Golson Ties TD Record
By Terry Massey
Forget the state record. Myrtle Beach High quarterback Everett Golson is more concerned about another state championship.
So after tying the South Carolina high school state record with eight touchdown passes in the Seahawks' 55-13 victory over North Charleston in Friday night's Lower State semifinal at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium, the junior signal-caller was all about "we" and nothing about "me."
"It looks like an individual stat, but it really wasn't," said Golson, who completed 27 of his 36 passes for a career-high 444 yards and tied the state record with eight TD passes - seven of them in the first half. "It was a team stat."
Maybe, but it was Golson's golden arm that did the bulk of the damage against the Cougars (11-2). After waiting all week for the showdown, the game was essentially over just 1 minute into the game.
Golson completed three straight passes on the game's opening possession - the final one a 20-yard scoring strike to Dallas Goodman. North Charleston fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Golson connected with Goodman again on the very first play for a 33-yard score and a quick 14-0 lead.
And he was just getting started. Golson threw TD passes to Steven Cobb and Jerrod Jackson to make it 28-0 only 10 minutes into the game. In the first quarter alone he completed 13 of 16 passes for 214 yards and four scores.
After North Charleston got on the board at the end of the opening period, Golson went back to work. He hit Cobb for another TD and then threw back-to-back scoring passes to Jaquan Wilson, the latter one coming with just 1 second left in the second quarter for a 48-7 halftime lead.
Golson played the entire third period and capped his record-tying performance with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Donte Sumpter. Golson matched the state record of eight TD passes in a game held by Camden's Eric McCullum and Myrtle Beach's own J.D. Melton.
"Very impressive," a near-speechless Myrtle Beach coach Mickey Wilson said of Golson. "He's just amazing."
Two Seahawks receivers went over the 100-yard mark on the night - Sumpter with nine catches for 125 and Wilson with six for 107.
The defense also did a stellar job, holding the Cougars to just 190 yards of offense compared to 586 by the Seahawks.
The lone dark spot for Myrtle Beach: The Seahawks had more than 100 yards in penalties for the second consecutive week.
The defending state champion Seahawks (12-1) will try to correct their few mistakes next week when they host Marlboro County at Shaw Stadium in the Lower State championship. It will be a rematch of last year's two-overtime thriller for the right to advance to the state championship game. The Bulldogs won 26-21 over Lake City Friday night on the final play of the game.
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