photo by Jairy C. Hunter MD

Green Wave running back De'angelo Henderson looks for some help up field during a run Friday night.

De'angelo Henderson was just having a little fun Friday night. The same could not be said for the Conway defense.

Henderson rushed for 259 yards and five touchdowns to lead Summerville past Conway, 50-26, Friday night in the season opener for both schools before a crowd of more than 6,000 at John McKissick Field.

As Henderson was running off the field after his fifth TD, he hugged head coach John McKissick and said, "I'm having fun now."

Henderson, who finished with 298 yards of total offense, scored on runs of 60, 1, 3, 1, and 35 yards. Three of the scores came in the fourth quarter when the game was still in doubt.

"We didn't play a good first half and I wasn't having a lot of fun," Henderson said. "We stepped up our game in the second half and played a lot better, and I then I started to have some fun."

Henderson had six plays of more than 30 yards against the Tigers.

"(Henderson) makes me look like I'm a pretty good coach," McKissick said with a chuckle. "De'angelo ran the ball hard. I thought we wore them down a little bit in the second half."

The second half was in stark contrast to the first half that saw Conway jump out to a 20-14 lead.

"I just told them I was embarrassed," McKissick said. "I told them we needed to cut down on the penalties and turnovers and step up our game."

Message received. The Green Wave outscored the Tigers, 36-7, over the final two quarters.

"We played a lot better in the second half," said Summerville quarterback Dalton Saunders, who completed 12 of 30 passes for 195 yards. "We made too many mistakes in the first half."

The turning point in the game came at the end of the third quarter when Conway quarterback Mychal Moody twisted his ankle and did not return to the game. The Tigers trailed by just a point, 21-20, going into the fourth quarter. Moody finished with 145 yards and scored three TDs before he was injured.

"He tried to come back in, but he couldn't plant his foot and make a cut," said Conway coach Chuck Jordan. "We had to put our back-up quarterback in there and we turned the ball over a couple of times. Give Summerville credit, they played well in the second half."

Two turnovers from back-up quarterback Robert Nelson led to two touchdowns and 29 total points in the fourth quarter from the Green Wave.

"We took advantage of the turnovers," McKissick said. "We played a whole lot better in the fourth quarter."

Summerville also had touchdown runs from J.R. Leach and Dalton Saunders.

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