CHOCOWINITY — South Creek forced six Southside fumbles and recovered five of them as the Cougars were able to squeeze past the Seahawks 38-34 on Friday in a Four Rivers Conference battle.
The game was wild from start to finish, as there were four second-half lead changes, three in the third quarter alone.
After Southside’s Terrill Moore scored his fifth touchdown of the day to wipe out an 18-0 Cougars’ early advantage, the Seahawks (4-4, 3-2) took a 34-32 lead with 6:24 left to play in the game.
South Creek (3-6, 2-3) refused to roll over and pieced together a 60-yard drive that ended with Markail Farmer ripping off a 35-yard TD run to go ahead 38-34 with a little under four minutes showing on the clock.
A South Creek penalty helped the Seahawks begin their next drive on the Cougars’ 39-yard line. The Seahawks advanced to the 25, but another fumble brought them back to the 39-yard and the Cougars kept them from picking up a first down.
“The biggest thing is we played as a team,” South Creek coach Jeremy Jones said. “That was the type of game that we have fallen apart in 500 times before, but tonight we didn’t. Granted we had a whole lot of help, but any time you score 38 points on that type of defense that’s good.”
Southside fumbled on its first three possessions of the game, with the last one leading to a Reginald Parker 8-yard TD pass to Dakaun Goddard to give the Cougars an 18-0 lead heading into the second quarter.
“I don’t know (how to explain all the fumbles),” Southside coach DeWayne Kellum said. “We tried everything … Maybe I have to find me some new backs.”
Markail Farmer scored South Creek’s first TD on a 15-yard run at the 9:20 mark, while Thire Manning dashed in from 34-yards out for its second score.
Southside countered with a big second quarter as Moore scored on TD runs of 7 and 2 yards, respectively, to cut the Cougars lead to 18-16 after two quarters.
In the third, Parker connected with Goddard for a 19-yard score to take a 25-16 lead. However, two more Moore scores gave the Seahawks their first lead of the game, 28-25 heading into the fourth quarter.
South Creek recaptured the lead with another Farmer score, before Southside reached the end zone for the last time to go up 34-32. The final lead change would come on the Cougars’ ensuing possession.

South Creek — 18  0  7  13   — 38
Southside — 0  16  12  6 — 34

SCORING SUMMARY
SC — Markail Farmer 15 run (two points failed) 9:20, 1st.
SC — Thire Manning 34 run (two points failed), 8:33, 1st.
SC — Dakuan Goddard 11 pass from Reginald Parker (two points failed) 2:05, 1st.
SS Terrill Moore 7 run (Moore two points), 10:41, 2nd.
SS — Moore 2 run (Rokeem Miller two points), 8:33, 2nd.
SC — Goddard 19 pass from Parker (kick failed), 9:23, 3rd.
SS — Moore 4 run (two points failed), 8:07, 3rd.
SS — Moore 1 run (kick failed), 2:20 3rd.
SC — Farmer 5 run (kick good), 11:23, 4th.
SS — Moore 5 run (two points failed), 6:24, 4th.
SC — Farmer 35 run (two points failed), 3:51, 4th.