Screven County scored early and held off Josey late for a 25-20 Homecoming victory at Kelly Memorial Stadium last night.  The Gamecocks raced to leads of 19-0 and 25-7 before allowing Josey a last possession down but 25-20.  SCHS improves to 4-3 (2-2 in 3AA) with Josey dropping to 3-4 (2-2 in 3AA).
    After back to back five-point region road losses to Jefferson County and Laney, Rooster head coach Pat Collins said, “We scratched out a win…it is good to get a win, an important region win at that.  This puts us ahead of both Josey and Westside in head to head competition.”
    Josey’s visiting Eagles scored on their first three second half possessions to trim 19 and 18 point deficits to just five with 3:36 remaining. Shunning the expected onsides kick, the Eagles Raford Rountree kicked the ball into the end zone. The Gamecocks picked up picked up three first downs before giving the ball back at the Josey 37-yard line with just 57 seconds remaining.  On fourth down Darmy Daggett snared a Carl Sims pass at midfield before the Gamecocks’ Hakeem Loadholt hit him forcing a fumble with Garrett Sello for SCHS recovering to ice the win.
    “Despite the win, we have plenty of room for improvement,” continued Collins. “I am puzzled by our inconsistency, but that is what practice is for.”
    The Gamecocks jumped on Josey from the start with Mark Flott recovering a muff on the game’s opening kick.  Though SCHS was unable to score with a first and goal from the five, a five yard punt by the Eagles’ Rountree eventually set up an 11 yard Chris Pye TD run with 7:58 showing on the first quarter clock. 
    Following an exchange of punts, Josey came up with their deepest penetration of the first half as they moved to the SCHS 27-yard line before missing a 42-yard field goal.          The Gamecocks promptly drove 80 yards for a score, using nine plays and better than three minutes with Cameron Abraham scoring from three yards out.  Screven added to its lead with a brilliant Darion Carter TD catch of a 31 yard pass from Pye as time expired in the first half.  Zane Powell added the PAT to make the intermission score 19-0.
    SCHS mounted its lone successful second half drive following Josey’s first score.  Covering 68 yards in ten plays the culmination came with a three yard Pye run.  Sophomore fullback Travis Coles accounted for 43 yards rushing during the drive.  When Powell’s PAT hit the post and bounced back, the score was 25-7 with 2:42 remaining in the third quarter.  Josey added two more scores.
    Coles led the Gamecock attack with 88 yards on 19 carries while Pye threw for 101 yards and a score (his 7th) and scored a pair.  Carter caught two for 60 yards.