Football -- E. Wayne seizes third straight win

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on September 26, 2004 2:02 AM

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How sweet it is.

A lot of things around Eastern Wayne football are sweet these days -- three straight wins, a share of first place in the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference, and a 30-13 homecoming victory Friday night against West Carteret.

Eastern Wayne will bring a perfect 3-0 conference mark and 3-2 overall record into Friday's game at West Craven. West Cartaret's falls to 0-2 in conference action, and 2-3 overall.

A standing-room-only crowd at the Little Big Horn witnessed an almost perfect first half as the Warriors roared out to a commanding 23-0 lead by intermission.

Eastern Wayne ran 38 first-half plays to Carteret's 21. The Patriots only ran one series in the first quarter and did not get their initial first down until the second.

The Eastern Wayne defense stopped Patriot runners in their tracks with bone-jarring tackles from Adrian Black, Travis Turner, Trey Johnson, and Victor Artis.

When West Carteret quarterback Corey Desteunder tried to pass, defensive back Darius Bennett knocked down one attempt. Two plays later, he intercepted another.

Price put together a game plan that quarterbacks Zach Williams and Tyler Ham executed to perfection. Williams took over at the 20 on his opening series. He consumed more than half the quarter on three passes and the running of Al Graham before turning it over to Stephen Stackhouse for a 28-yard field goal.

Getting the ball right back after West Carteret went three plays and out, Williams engineered another drive. Graham took the ball nine consecutive plays before scoring on a dive straight up the middle for a 10-0 Warrior lead.

He got great blocking from the interior of the offensive line.

It was another great block, this one coming from wide receiver Clint Rouse, that freed Taylor Jackson to score on an end around later in the period.

Graham got the final score of the half on a one yard plunge with 1:29 to go.The junior back carried the ball 23 times for 100 yards in the first half alone. He added an insurance touchdown in the fourth quarter.

"Eastern Wayne was clearly ready to play tonight and we weren't," said coach John Grady. "We just weren't mentally prepared."

West Carteret will entertain Goldsboro Friday night.

"If we don't get any better effort than we did tonight, we're going to be in trouble for that one too," he added.

Warrior coach Jeff Price was clearly pleased that the efforts of his club in their weight and preseason training are paying off.

"We're going in the right direction now. You can see things coming together," he said. "Our offensive line did a super job. We've put a lot of emphasis there. You could see and hear a lot of pad-on-pad hits from them and our defense."

The Warriors' line play keyed the entire offense, Price said.

"We not only opened up holes for Graham, but gave our quarterbacks the necessary time to hit our receivers," he said. "All our receivers are capable and make great targets."

Tight end Doug Marino led the way with three catches for 102 yards.

Price's "bigger, faster, stronger" program will get its most stern test against West Craven.

"They will be a superior opponent," he said. "It will be another opportunity for our team to find out how far we have really come."

W. Cartaret 0 0 7 6 -- 13

E. Wayne 3 20 0 7 -- 30

First quarter

EW -- Stackhouse 28 field goal 5:37

Second quarter

EW -- Graham 4 run (kick failed) 11:11

EW -- Jackson 8 run (kick wide) 5:55

EW -- Graham 1 run (Rouse pass from Williams) 1:29

Third quarter

WC -- Dennis 7 run (Dodge kick) 8:45

Fourth quarter

EW -- Graham 4 run (Stackhouse kick) 11:57

WC -- Fox 15 pass from Desteunder(kick wide) 2:09

WC EW

First Downs 11 19

Rushes-yds 33-150 40-131

Pass yds 43 183

Total yds 193 314

Comp-att-int 4-13-2 10-16-0

Fumbles-lost 6-1 1-0

Penalties-yds 4-40 6-75

Punts-ave 3-28.0 3-33.7

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- West Carteret -- Jacob Anfinson 13-93; Frankie Dennis 6-24 TD; Corey Desteunder 6-17; Brad Campen 7-17; James Fox 1-(-1). Eastern Wayne -- Al Graham 28-111,3 TD; Brian Sutton 8-11; Taylor Jackson 1-8 TD; Andrew Bouchard 2-1; Anthony Austin 1-0.

PASSING -- West Carteret -- Corey Desteunder 4-12-43-2-0; James Fox 0-1-0-0. Eastern Wayne -- Zach Williams 7-10-136-0-0; Tyler Ham 3-7-47-0-0.

RECEIVING -- West Carteret -- James Fox 3-30 TD; Jacob Anfinson 1-13. Eastern Wayne -- Riley Wilkins 3-102; Taylor Jackson 2-28; Brad Brofft 1-27; Clint Rouse 2-18; Al Graham 2-8.