BOILING SPRING LAKES – A homecoming-charged South Brunswick Cougar squad snapped a three-game losing streak Monday by defeating the East Columbus Gators 31-8 in a Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference football game.

It was the third straight loss for the Gators, who got their only touchdown when Wakeem Johnson returned a Cougar fumble 30 yards in the fourth quarter. Beret Proctor ran the two-point conversion.

The game had been postponed by rain on Friday.

While South Brunswick turned in its best conference effort of the season, East Columbus head coach Travis Conner that his team “just didn’t show up to play.”

Conner said that his team had apparently not reacted well to coming back from Friday’s postponement and then not being in school Monday (teacher work-day). It was the third straight loss for East Columbus, whose offense was held scoreless for the third straight game.

East Columbus will close its regular season schedule Friday when it plays host to Heide Trask. The Gators, now 1-4 in conference and 2-8 overall, need a win over Trask to assure themselves of a spot in the state 1A playoffs. Trask has an 0-5 conference mark and is 2-5 overall.

South Brunswick, which improved to 2-3 in conference and 6-4 overall, is headed to the state playoffs for the first time since 1993.

South Brunswick got first half touchdowns on a three-yard run by Patrick Gleason and a 50-yard run by Jarvis Williams.

In the second half, Coach Gordon Walters’ Cougars got a 20-yard scoring run by Jonathan Hatch and a 62-yard TD sprint by Williams. Jacob Gentry added a 35-yard field goal and was perfect on all extra-point attempts.

South Brunswick will finish out regular-season play Friday night at Pender.