Bench clearing scrum ends Kingstree-Manning football game early as tensions boiled over

A bench-clearing scrum between Kingstree and Manning high schools ended the first game of the Blazer era with 64 seconds left on the clock when a chippy game continued to escalate.

The officials decided to end the game there as to not risk things getting worse with the result seemingly cemented, a 28-16 win for the visiting Monarchs.

The scrum occurred on the ensuing kickoff after the Monarchs scored to go up 12 late in the fourth quarter.

“A lot of cheap shots by the other team. Guy takes his helmet off throws it at our player, punches our player. [The Manning player] should have been kicked out, should have been a penalty on them,” Kingstree head coach Brian Smith said of what he though led up to the scrum. “Referees blew the call. I'm gonna send it into the High School League and see what they say. But the High School League will be hearing from us.”

Smith was referencing a player that occurred on Manning’s previous drive. On the far sideline, a Monarch and Kingstree's Amond Myers got tangled up with Myers ending up on the ground. The dustup appeared to be one-sided and after the play.

Instead of just Manning getting penalized, Kingstree was given an unsportsmanlike call to, and crucially, the officials ruled it was during the play. Instead of offsetting penalties resulting in a 3rd down and long situation for the Monarchs, they were given a first down before the ball was moved 15 yard back with the Blazers desperate for a stop with less than 5 minutes to go.

Manning would score their game-sealing touchdown a few plays later.

“They claim he took the guy's helmet off, which isn't true. That guy took his own helmet off and threw it at Amond and punched him. So, again, I'll be sending it to the High School League. We'll see what the High School League says. But unfortunately, our kids suffer because of it.”

Smith, a former linebacker at The Citadel, said he had never been part of a game that ended early due to a scrum. Smith said that tension had been building throughout the game as a result of Manning being unable to handle the physicality Kingstree was bringing to the table. While Smith told his team he was proud of them, he told them that post-whistle scrums weren’t what they were about.

“I told them ‘we don't get involved in those things at the end, let that other team be what they are,”’ Smith said. ‘“But we don't. That's not what we're going to be about.”’

For the game itself, Kingstree found themselves in a 12-point deficit at halftime.

Manning went up for good on a 12-yard run midway through the second quarter. The Monarchs had a short field to start the drive after Kingstree had a bad snap on a punt attempt. After some unsuccessful drives by both teams, Manning was able to land a big blow by scoring their third touchdown with just 22 seconds left in the half, knowing they would start with the ball in the second half.

It would take until the fourth quarter for the score to change.

After failing on a 4th and goal, the Blazers got a badly needed safety to cut it to a 20-12 game after just 13 seconds into the final frame.

Then, disaster struck the Blazers with another questionable call.

With the Blazers driving and with a chance to make it a one possession game, Nic Brown caught a pass and appeared to be tackled just before scoring. The ball squirted loose and was recovered in the endzone by Manning for a touchback.

“I thought we out played them thought. If things were called fairly tonight we would have beaten them plain and simple and I don't say that often,” Smith said. “I'm usually a straight up guy. But they stole one from us here tonight.”

The Blazers would get that touchdown on the board when Admond Myers took the ensuing punt back 40 yards to the endzone with 5:21 left. However, the Blazers wouldn’t see the ball again.

The Blazers took an early 8-0 lead when Khamis Wilson made a good catch and beat several defenders to the endzone. Manning would go on to score 20 unanswered points, enough for them to take the game.

Next week, the Blazers will travel to face Aynor, still looking for their first win of the new era.

“I'm proud of them,” Smith said. “They played a great game and we will be a great team in the end.”