FLORENCE, S.C. — Top-ranked South Florence’s offense needed a spark. And once again, SyRee Livingston provided it.
This time, the 6-foot-4, 200-pound senior rushed for the Bruins’ first four touchdowns, and the Bruins won 42-0 over Lugoff-Elgin in Friday’s first round of the SCHSL Class 4A playoffs. Up next for coach Drew Marlowe’s defending state championship team is a second-round home game next Friday against Richland Northeast in a rematch of last year’s playoff opener that South won 61-18.
Spark plug is a role Livingston has grown accustomed to.
“I do have massive amounts of energy when I know it’s my turn to get the ball,” Livingston said. “I feel like the team needs me; I feel that. It fuels me to make big runs and get big yards if I see that nobody else can do it. I most definitely will. And I think I can do that.”
After South turned the ball over on downs in its first possession, Livingston stepped behind center on the Bruins’ next offensive play.
All he did was burst forth for 24 yards.
After a Bryan McCartt pass was dropped in the end zone and a busted play, Livingston converted a fourth-and-2 run to keep it going — by rushing 18 yards to the Demon 20.
Livingston scored from the 15 a short time later for a 7-0 lead.
He then converted two fourth-down runs on the Bruins’ next drive, the latter being a 9-yard score for a 14-0 halftime advantage.
“(Livingston) is a great athlete. Anytime you give a great athlete the ball, good things happen,” Marlowe said. “He did a great job tonight, and he was especially important for us in the first half when we were struggling to get anything going.”
Marlowe rotated McCartt and Livingston at quarterback during the first half. But during South’s final first-half drive, McCartt was sacked for an 8-yard loss on fourth down.
Messiah Jackson and Livingston rotated at quarterback after that.
“We pulled (McCartt) out for precautionary reasons, and Messiah came in and did a good job moving the offense down the field,” said Marlowe, whose team is 11-0 and 26-0 since the start of the 2022 season. That includes 14 wins in a row at home.
The coaches’ second-half message to Livngston, meanwhile, didn’t change.
“Every time I got in, they wanted me to do the same thing,” Livingston said. “Just keep on, keep on, keep on. And that’s what I did.”
Livingston has thrown only once this season, of the jump-pass variety, and it went for a touchdown. Jackson was also impressive, completing a 17-yard pass to Lennix Valarie during the Bruins’ final scoring drive. The TD finishing that series was an 18-yard run by Raleigh Jett.
Before that, Zion Gilbert scored from the 1.
South Florence has not developed a passing threat, and that still concerns Marlowe.
“There were a lot of things that went on tonight, and we just felt we needed to get into heavy sets and let (Livingston) run the football,” Marlowe said.
Richland Northeast, meanwhile, won 88-54 Friday over Bluffton.
“We’ve just got to get ready to play,” Marlowe said. “It’s sudden death; we’re playing for our playoff lives every week. If we don’t come to play our best, it’s over. We’ve just got to understand the importance of every day in practice and continue to improve.
“We’ve got to get better.”
November 3, 2023 | Morning News (Florence, SC)
Author/Byline: Scott Chancey | Section: Sports