Prep football -- Rosewood comes from behind to beat NJ

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

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KENLY -- No one man earned the victory for Rosewood against North Johnston.

The Eagles' one man offense, however, came through when it was most needed.

Rosewood (2-5, 1-1) rallied from a 21-7 deficit at halftime, with tailback Derrick Bennett sneaking out of the backfield to catch a 33-yard touchdown pass from Danny Langston to seal a 31-28 victory over North Johnston Friday Night at Ben Strifert Stadium.

The win was Rosewood's first conference victory of the season.

The game-winning drive was a 69-yard, four-play series, done in just 49 seconds and run from Rosewood's one man offense scheme.

"When it's run it in practice, we actually put a minute on the clock," said Rosewood coach Daniel Barrow. "And we ran it flawlessly tonight."

Ken Avent and the homestanding Panthers left the field in disbelief, as their five-game home winning streak became history.

The Panthers (5-2, 0-2) out-gained the Eagles 479 yards to 397 yards and controlled the clock in the fourth quarter.

Ahead 28-24 with a little over a minute left, the Panthers went for it on fourth-and-12 at the Rosewood 31-yard line and failed. The missed opportunity to wrap the game up would prove to be costly.

"We contemplated going for the field goal there," said Avent. "With our snapping troubles and it being a 40 yard kick, we just decided to let them drive 70 yards with no timeouts, but it didn't pay off."

When Adrian Briscoe picked off a halfback pass from Bennett with under four minutes to play, North too over at the Eagle 41 and the gam appeared to be over.

But Barrow has seen too many games for his team to throw in the towel that easily.

"I'm too old," he chuckled. "I've experienced too much for us to quit then. It was a great team win."

North ate up the clock ramming the ball up the middle, getting one first down, but was stopped on 4th-and-12 when Holloman's pass to Damien Allen fell incomplete, giving Rosewood hope.

The Panthers took a 28-24 lead on a 33-yard Brad Holloman quarterback keeper to the right side with 3:43 left to play. The only error in the drive may have been striking a bit too soon.

"If we would have gotten one more first down, it was over," said Avent. "They had to have everything work just right, and they did."

Up 21-7, North appeared to be on their way to a comfortable victory when Briscoe's 17 yard touchdown run was wiped out by a holding penalty. Briscoe would lose control of the ball on the next play and Rosewood would recover the ball -- and the momentum.

The play was a black eye on a 199-yard night for North's senior tailback.

"Anytime you have a close game like this, turnovers -- like the fumble -- are really big," said Barrow.

Fullback Ronnie Butler and Bennett responded with runs of 25 and 41 yards to set up the Eagles' second touchdown to make it 21-14.

"We knew going in their offense was very good and we were trying to eat up as much clock as we could with our offense," said Avent. "You can see why, because when they get out there, they're dangerous."

On Friday Rosewood will take on Farmville Central, who is unbeaten in conference play since joining the league. North Johnston travels to Seven Springs to take on Spring Creek.

North Johnston 7 14 0 7 -- 28

Rosewood 7 0 7 17 -- 31

First Quarter

RHS -- Langston 17 run (Hietpas kick), 9:11

NJ -- Holloman 11 run (Stancil kick), 5:55

Second Quarter

NJ -- Allen 84 pass from Holloman (Stancil kick), 10:20

NJ -- Allen 76 pass from Holloman (Stancil kick), 3:58

Third Quarter

RHS -- Bennett 6 run (Hietpas kick), 3:23

Fourth Quarter

RHS -- Safety, 9:41

RHS -- Horton 30 run (Bennett 2 pt run good), 7:44

NJ -- Holloman 33 run (Stancil kick), 3:43

RHS -- Bennett 33 pass from Langston (Hietpas kick), :22

RHS NJ

First Downs 13 16

Rushes-yds 32-235 62-310

Passing yds 162 169

Total yds 397 479

Comp-att-int 15-9-1 8-3-2

Fumbles-lost 2-2 4-3

Penalities-yds 7-40 8-45

Punts-avg 4-37.5 none

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Rosewood -- Kyle Grey 1-0; Montrell Horton 3-33, TD; James Ruesch 5-32; Danny Langston 10-51, TD; Derrick Bennett 8-79, TD; Ronnie Butler 5-45. North Johnston -- Adrian Briscoe 28-199; Brad Holloman 21-108; Jonathan Britt 4-14; J.P. Wise 8-(-1); Michael Holland 1-(-10).

PASSING -- Rosewood -- Danny Langston 9-14-1-1, 162 yds; Derrick Bennett 0-1-0-1. North Johnston -- Brad Holloman 3-8-2-0, 169 yds.

RECEIVING -- Rosewood -- Kyle Grey 2-18; Brandon Daw 1-11; Ronnie Butler 2-30; Dustin Overman 3-20; Derrick Bennett 1-33, TD. North Johnston -- Damien Allen 3-169, 2 TD.