Abbeville gets an emotional win over Berwick

There’s a significant difference between tears of sadness and those of joy.
Abbeville coach Gary Adkins knows that now if he never realized it before.
Adkins, who found out last week that he has cancer of the tonsils and faces extensive care, was thrilled Friday night as his Wildcats demolished visiting Berwick 58-21 to hand him his first win at the AHS helm.
Also, if even briefly, the win gave him something else to think about.
“It has been an emotional week,” Adkins said. “What it does is make you look at what’s important in this life - people, love, our God and the great gift of prayer.
“These are good tears. I’m really happy for these kids.”
The Wildcats, who were held to 7 points in an opening loss to Kaplan, dominated after a 32-7 first half in which they out-gained Berwick 310-76.
It was their way of changing the tone.
“It was pretty rough this week,” said senior running back Matt Johnson, who shredded the Panthers defense for 209 yards and three long scores on just 12 carries.
“He (Adkins) was not here a lot. But we stuck together as a team and came through.”
Johnson’s third carry of the night was a 32-yard ramble, signaling things yet to come, but the ball squirted out of his hands in the damp conditions.
That was the last mishap he endured, though, as he scored on runs of 56 yards (for a 14-0 lead), 34 yards (upping the count to 26-0) and the coup de grace, a 70-yarder that made it 52-21.
That last score saw Johnson bounce the play outside and hit the jets in front of the Berwick sidelines.
“I just played the game,” Johnson said. “I looked for a chance to make something happen, and the game came to me. I ran the ball like I always do.
“I told the offensive line to stay low and keep on their blocks for 1.5 seconds.
“We made that scoreboard look good.”
Kavon Brown (8 carries, 78 yards, 2 TDs) had scoring runs of 1 and 51 yards in the first half, and Demarcus Collins found a streaking Jose Pedroza for a tip-drill 64-yard touchdown 38 seconds before halftime.
By then it was clear that Berwick’s pass-oriented attack wasn’t going to be enough.
“We knew they were going to throw the football,” Adkins said. “We didn’t use a lot of coverages, which was good. We mixed some Cover-3 and a little man.
“They had some good receivers, tall kids, but we didn’t give up too many big plays.”
Audwin Williams scored twice for Berwick, an acrobatic, twisting 20-yarder and a 49-yard streak route.
The third score came on an 84-yard kickoff return by senior Logan Angeron.
But it wasn’t nearly enough.
Collins (10 carries, 77 yards, 2 TDS) joined the parade with TD jaunts of 49 and 36 yards as he directed a 408-yard rushing attack.
“I look back on my career, and when I got here these kids reminded me of some of the players I’ve coached,” Adkins said. “And, I’ve coached some special ones.”
There aren’t likely to be nights more special for Adkins than Friday, which was capped by freshman Braeden Williams’ 65-yard interception return score on the final play.
“We didn’t play well last week,” Adkins said. “But we had a good week of practice. We concentrated on us.
“It wasn’t so much about X’s and O’s. It was more about attitude, about being a great teammate and not getting down on each other.
“We had some long talks this week.”
That renewed spirit is likely to travel with the Wildcats to Welsh this week.
Adkins will be front and center, buoyed by a team that had his back when it mattered most.