PORTAL — The skies rained down on the Portal Panthers on Friday night, and as soon as Mother Nature was finished, Screven County took its turn. After intense thunderstorms delayed the start of the game for more than an hour, the Gamecocks raced up and down the field, racking up yards and points in a 32-0 romp over Portal.

            Normally focusing its attack on the ground game, Screven County let fly on its first possession of the game. Faced with third and long, Gamecock quarterback Michael Johnson dropped back and lofted a perfect arc over the Panther defense, finding his wide receiver Cam Abraham for a 73-yard touchdown strike.

            Another impressive drive by the Gamecocks was capped by a 3-yard plunge by Travis Coles to extend the lead to 14-0 early in the second quarter. From there, however, the two teams took turns sloshing through the soggy field for most of the first half, with neither team able to sustain a drive. Portal looked to be heading in the right direction on several occasions, but was repeatedly set back, once by an interception and twice more by costly sacks.

            Turnovers continued to be the thorn in Portal’s side in the second half. While the Panther defense was able to contain the Screven attack, the offense could never capitalize.

            By the end of the night, three different Portal drives were ended in Gamecock territory by way of the turnover.