BYRDS — Martin Connelly sported a camouflage jacket, a smile and an "aw shucks" attitude following his Woodland Wolverines’ 42-13 dismantling of the Edisto Cougars Friday night in the first round of the 2-A Lower State playoffs.

"I have to give it out to my offensive line, they did real good tonight and gave me time to throw," Connelly said. "My receivers did real good catching the ball."

What Connelly failed to address was that he did pretty darn good throwing it. Filling in for injured starter Robert Smith, who was lost for the season with an ACL injury in a game against Burke, Connelly went 19 of 33 passing for 346 yards and four touchdowns against the Cougars. His primary target was wide receiver Otez Ross, who finished with nine receptions for 202 yards and two touchdowns.

"I’m real proud of Martin Connelly," Woodland head coach Reed Charpia said. "He stepped in for Robert Smith, who was a great football player and is still going to be a great football player, and he stood up for us and played well."

The Connelly-to-Ross connection put Woodland on the board first, when the senior signal-caller found the junior wide receiver on a 50-yard scoring pass at the 9:26 mark of the first quarter. Connelly’s 2-point conversion pass fell incomplete and the Wolverines led 6-0.

Edisto responded quickly when, on the following series, Cougars’ tailback Malik Brown, who finished with 15 carries for 129 yards, burst through the middle of the Woodland defense for a 63-yard touchdown. Edisto added the extra point to make it 7-6 with 9:04 to go in the first.

Connelly closed out the half with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Leshaun Stapleton and a 51-yard scoring pass to Ross, the latter coming on a fake punt on fourth-and-11 from the Woodland 49-yard line. Connelly passed to Nagui Wright on a fake extra point kick following the Ross score to give Woodland a 22-7 lead at halftime.

Connelly and Wright connected again with 3:49 to go in the third on a 17-yard touchdown pass to help give Woodland a comfortable 30-7 lead. Edisto answered back with a 44-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Davis to Ruben Thomas with 1:14 to go in the third quarter but that was as close as the Cougars would get.

Woodland put the game away in the fourth quarter with a 3-yard touchdown run by Wright and a 5-yard run by Andrae Green with 1:22 to play.

Woodland (6-5) advances to the second round of the 2-A Lower State playoffs to face Timberland Friday. Edisto finishes its season 4-7 overall.

"It hurts," said Brown, the Cougars’ senior North-South All-Star. "But, they just have to keep pursuing this. They have to keep on fighting and things will get better. I have faith in these boys. I want to see them do better in the future. This is my school. I love my teammates. I love my coaches. We had our ups-and-downs ... but this is football."

T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder can be reached via e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553.

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