Prep football -- Chargers rush past Spring Creek

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on October 3, 2004 2:00 AM

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LITTLEFIELD -- The perfect half.

Maybe one incompletion and three penalties might hinder Ayden-Grifton coach B.T. Chappell from saying his team played flawless against Spring Creek before halftime. Besides that, his Chargers were awfully close.

Ayden-Grifton posted over 11 yards per rush and gained 221 yards on the ground on its way to 37 first-half points -- ultimately claiming a 52-6 win over the Gators in a Class 1-A Carolina Conference contest.

In the first half, the Gators (1-5, 1-1 Carolina) never forced a third down as the Chargers scored three times in the opening quarter and added three two-point conversions to go up 24-0.

"Every time they touched the ball, we couldn't stop them," Spring Creek coach Roy Whitfield said. "We couldn't stop No. 44 (Matt Tripp) up the middle and they had too much speed on the outside.

"I felt like we were ready. We knew what they were going to do, it was just a case of we couldn't stop them"

Spring Creek fell behind 16-0 after a 14-yard scamper by Ayden-Grifton's Daniel Greene with 6:50 left in the first quarter. Greene paced Ayden-Grifton's rushing attack with 126 yards on eight carries with two touchdowns.

After the score, the Gators' methodically marched down to the Charger 37 behind the running of Ricky Mason, Antwain Greenfield and quarterback Josh Wright. Facing second-and-seven late in the first, the Chargers' Kip Lee intercepted a pass to stop the drive.

"When it's that close at 16-0, it (the interception) hurt us. We moved the ball some, and when we kept it obviously they couldn't' score," Whitfield said. "It just snowballed from there."

Two plays later, Greene dashed 57 yards up the middle for his second score as the two-point conversion succeeded to put Ayden-Grifton (3-3, 2-0) up 24-0.

Trailing 31-0 early in the second quarter, the Gators put together another long drive.

Keyed by an 18-yard completion to Ricky Mason and a 15-yard strike to Lelo Burt, Wright and Spring Creek advanced to the Charger 24 before stalling. The Gators' 41-yard field goal try failed, before Ayden-Grifton posted its final score before the half on a 51-yard touchdown from Richie Turner to Maruc Moore.

The Gators ran 33 plays to Ayden-Grifton's 22 in the first half and picked up seven first downs with 122 yards of total offense.

Jecol Edwards and Rico Thompson added touchdown runs in the second half for the Chargers, who travel to North Duplin (2-3, 1-0) on Friday

After two failed drives in the third quarter and one more interception, Spring Creek spoiled the Chargers' hopes for a shutout when Wright sprinted 60 yards through the middle with just over two minutes left in the game.

Whitfield hopes the final drive will give his team some confidence after the disappointing final margin. The Gators entertain North Johnston (5-2, 0-2) on Friday.

"If this was the last game of the year we would have a whole year to think about this, but we don't," Whitfield said. "We have seven days until North Johnston next week."

Spring Creek 0 0 0 6 -- 6

Ayden-Grifton 24 13 7 8 -- 52

First quarter

AG -- Tripp 2 run (Tripp run), 10:28

AG -- D. Greene 14 run (Tripp run), 6:50

AG -- D. Greene 57 run (Edwards pass from Turner), 1:15

Second quarter

AG -- Edwards 1 run (Lee kick), 10:18

AG -- Moore 51 pass from Turner (kick failed), 1:55

Third quarter

AG -- Edwards 8 run (Lee kick), 6:47

Fourth quarter

AG -- Thompson 7 run (D. Greene pass from Turner)

SC AG

First downs 9 19

Rushes-yds 27-147 39-330

Passing yds 51 58

Total yards 198 388

Att.-Comp.-Int. 17-5-2 3-2-0

Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0

Punts-avg. 4-35.5 1-27

Penalties-yds 8-37 9-65

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Spring Creek -- Ricky Mason 7-29; Antwain Greenfield 8-33; Josh Wright 7-76, TD; Jason Buchtman 4-18; Lelo Burt 1-(-9). Ayden-Grifton -- Matt Tripp 6-49, TD; Maruc Moore 1-12; Daniel Greene 8-126, 2 TD; James Greene 5-25; Richie Turner 3-19; Jecol Edwards 3-34, 2 TD; Armond Howard 6-28; Rico Thompson 4-23, TD; Kip Lee 3-14.

PASSING -- Spring Creek -- Josh Wright 5-17-2 51. Ayden-Grifton -- Richie Turner 2-3-0 58, TD.

RECEIVING -- Spring Creek -- Ricky Mason 2-20; Lelo Burt 2-31; Josh Wright 1-0. Ayden-Grifton -- Tron Baker 1-9; Maruc Moore 1-51, TD.