PAWLEYS ISLAND — Last season, Waccamaw football was the king of Georgetown County for the first time in its history, beating Carvers Bay, Georgetown and Andrews. The Warriors pulled off a dramatic last-second win over the Yellow Jackets at Webber Rowell Stadium in 2023, and Andrews hadn't forgotten it. This year, the Yellow Jackets returned the favor, notching a 30-27 win over the Warriors at Waccamaw High on Sept.
20 to improve to 4-0. “We had Waccamaw at first [last year], and then we started letting up and they came back and beat us,” Andrews running back AJ Lee said. “So our mission tonight was to come out here and win the ball game.
They had posters up saying that they ran the county. We had to shut that down real quick.” As is usually the case in a game between rivals, things got heated, especially in the third quarter when Andrews racked up 60 yards in penalties.
Overall, there were seven dead ball personal fouls in the game, four on Waccamaw and three on Andrews. “It was chippy,” Andrews coach Scott Durham said. “It was chippy all night and we responded to some things that we shouldn’t respond to and put ourselves in a bad situation.
” Georgetown County's school district just hired a superintendent. She's a familiar face. After a defensive struggle of a first quarter that featured three punts and a turnover on downs, Andrews got on the board on the first play of the second quarter when Lee found the end zone from one yard out.
Lee was short on the 2-point try, leaving the score at 6-0. On Andrews’ next offensive possession, Waccamaw’s defense came up big when linebacker RJ Rogers ripped the ball from Andrews running back Dutch Stafford and linebacker Greg Hall recovered it at the Andrews 34. This led to a 12-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Andre Grate to wide receiver Colin Behney in which Behney caught the ball between two Yellow Jacket defenders to put Waccamaw up 7-6 with 7:26 to go in the second quarter.
Andrews then took the lead on its next possession when quarterback Brandon Cumbee called his own number and punched it in from two yards out. Cumbee also ran in the 2-point conversion to put Andrews up 14-7 with 3:58 to go before halftime. Waccamaw retaliated on its ensuing drive with running back Zaireon Skinner breaking free for a 71-yard touchdown scamper to cut the lead to 14-13 with 3:03 to go in the second quarter.
The PAT was blocked. However, Andrews immediately padded its lead when Lee took the ensuing kickoff 85 yards to the house to put Andrews up 22-13 (Cumbee’s pass to tight end Khalil Dorsey for the 2-point try was successful). “Not going to lie, I went to go catch the ball and I dropped it and I was like ‘Ah crap, ah crap,’” Lee said.
“And I picked up the ball, looked up [and] had to put the team on my back ...
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The Warriors took advantage of the blunder and scored on a pitch from Andre Grate to Skinner, cutting the lead to 22-20 with 8:49 to go in the third. Cumbee left the game on Andrews’ next drive after suffering an apparent injury, so backup quarterback Avery Durham had to enter the contest. Hall came up with a big sack for the Warriors on fourth down to force a turnover and give Waccamaw the ball at midfield with 4:51 remaining.
Waccamaw took advantage of the short field, capping the drive with a 12-yard rushing score by Skinner that gave the Warriors a 27-22 lead with 4:30 remaining in the third. Cumbee came back in the game on Waccamaw’s next drive and made his presence known, giving Andrews the lead again with a 4-yard touchdown run and a 2-point conversion plunge to give the Yellow Jackets a 30-27 lead with 1:24 remaining. Waccamaw’s fourth quarter was derailed by penalties, with a dead ball personal foul on third down forcing the Warriors to punt.
However, Behney booted a beautiful punt that the Waccamaw special teams unit was able to down at the Andrews 3. Waccamaw’s penalty woes continued, as a dead ball personal foul and a holding penalty helped keep the Andrews drive alive. On 4th-and-2 from the Waccamaw 22-yard-line with 2:16 to go, Cumbee pitched the ball to Lee, who was able to run for a first down.
The game was delayed for about 20 minutes when the stadium lights shut off with 1:20 to go in the game. When the lights came back on, Andrews was able to run the clock out with a couple of quarterback kneels and escape with a 3-point victory and a sweep of its county rivals. “It’s one of our goals as a team and we accomplished it tonight,” Scott Durham said of being perfect against Georgetown County teams.
“Didn’t necessarily do it the way we wanted to, but it all worked out in the end and just real proud of our resolve there late in the third quarter and the fourth quarter.” Next up for Andrews is a trip to Hanahan (2-3) on Sept. 27, while Waccamaw (2-2) will host Stall (0-4) on the same night.
Elsewhere in Georgetown County, Carvers Bay (1-4, 0-1 Region VI-A) fell at Hannah-Pamplico (3-1, 1-0 Region VI-A) 40-14 in its region opener. Georgetown (2-2) had a bye and will host May River (4-0) on Sept. 27 in its final non-region contest.
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