Football -- Cougar offense shuts down early

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 22, 2004 2:03 AM

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Better days are ahead.

Second-year Goldsboro High football coach Maurice Jackson believes that statement to be true. But after Friday's 31-7, season-opening loss against East Duplin, Jackson and the Cougars know they've got some work to do.

Goldsboro managed just two first downs -- both coming on its only touchdown drive of the game. Jackson's team finished with 41 yards total offense, including minus-24 rushing.

"We knew we were coming in with an inexperienced offensive line and things looked to be going okay earlier on," Jackson said. "But we didn't stick with it and got a little tired. I'll blame myself for that because that comes on conditioning and it won't happen again.

"A lot of work is ahead of us."

The Cougars had 12 possessions and punted six times. They lost one fumble, turned the ball over on downs three times and had the clock run out on them to end the first half.

Goldsboro finished 0-for-10 on third-down conversions.

Treme Boone's 55-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Sykes accounted for the Cougars' lone touchdown. Monaquavis Edwards provided the PAT and forced a 7-7 tie midway through the opening quarter.

That was it.

East Duplin broke the game open by scoring on three consecutive possessions within a seven-minute span. Jacob Dean booted a 23-yard field goal and Billy Miller rambled one yard for a touchdown to give the Panthers a 17-7 lead at the break.

Goldsboro punted away its first possession of the second half and East Duplin answered with a seven-play, 44-yard drive. Jason Judge capped the 17-point run with a one-yard plunge at the seven-minute, two-second mark.

The Panthers, of the Class 2-A East Central Conference, ran 19 plays during that stretch compared to 10 for the Cougars.

"We kept the defense on the field too long and we talked about that earlier this week in practice, telling them that we wanted to get three-and-outs (on defense)," Jackson said. "When the offense fumbles the ball and puts them in the hole, and keeps them on the field because we're getting three-and-outs, it hurt us.

"We got tired."

East Duplin started inside Goldsboro territory on four of six possessions in the second half. Meanwhile, the Panther defense held the Cougars to minus-11 yards total offense.

Boone finished 3-for-5 with 62 yards through the air. Sykes emerged the top receiver with three grabs for 62 yards. Aaron Phifer paced the Cougar ground game with five yards on five carries.

Goldsboro, 0-2 in season openers with Jackson, begins a three-game road swing next Friday at Bertie.

"I'll be the first to admit get us now because it will all be mapped out," Jackson said. "We're going to take this and build on what we can from it."

E. Duplin 7 10 7 7 -- 31

Goldsboro 7 0 0 0 -- 7

First quarter

ED -- Williams 18 run (Dean kick), 8:35

G -- Sykes 55 pass from Boone (Edwards kick), 7:13

Second quarter

ED -- Dean 23 FG, 1:51

ED -- Miller 1 run (Dean kick), 0:25.5

Third quarter

ED -- Judge 1 run (Dean kick), 7:02

Fourth quarter

ED -- Williams 4 run (Dean kick), 10:47

E. Duplin GHS

First downs 13 2

Rushes-yds 49-232 28-(-24)

Passing yds 1 65

Total yards 233 41

Att.-Comp.-Int. 3-1-0 10-4-0

Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1

Punts-avg. 5-23.8 6-28.7

Penalties-yds. 2-10 9-70

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Goldsboro -- Aaron Phifer 4-5; Chris Simms 1-1; Kelvin Ingram 11-(-5); Treme Boone 5-(-25); Jacob Sykes 2-0; Adrian Lewis 1-(-2); Devon Green 1-(-2); Tim Kornegay 1-5; Charles Grantham 1-(-1). East Duplin -- Jason Judge 11-83, TD; Cecil Williams 11-57, 2 TDs; Billy Miller 16-87 (TD); Travis Aldridge 4-2; Tyler Blizzard 2-(-1); Justin Hall 3-4; Demetrius Hardison 1-0.

PASSING -- Goldsboro -- Treme Boone 3-5-0 62, TD; Adrian Lewis 1-5-0 3; Tim Kornegay 0-0-0 0. East Duplin -- Travis Aldridge 1-3-0 1.

RECEIVING -- Goldsboro -- Jacob Sykes 3-62, TD; Aaron Phifer 1-3. East Duplin -- Judge 1-1.