Beddingfield blasts Saints

Published in Sports on October 16, 2005 2:26 AM

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DUDLEY -- Wilson Beddingfield brought a No. 6 state ranking to the Doyle Whitfield Athletic Complex Friday and put on an offensive show as Southern Wayne dropped a 48-12 decision to the Bruins on homecoming in front of a standing room only crowd.

The loss dropped Southern Wayne's record to 5-3 overall and 1-1 in the Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference. Beddingfield (8-0 overall) improved to 2-0 in the ECC.

Bruin senior quarterback Bennett Johnson was 18-for-29 passing for 349 yards and four touchdowns. Johnson threw to seven different receivers using a variety of passes to move his team down the field all night.

The opportunistic Saints pounced on three fumbles and intercepted one pass in the first half and went into the dressing room trailing just 21-12. Beddingfield's defense, however, held the Saints scoreless in the second half while the Bruin offense produced four more touchdowns.

"We played a pretty good first half and our kids played hard. We played a great football team tonight," Southern Wayne coach Bob Warren said.

The Bruins came out passing and scored their first touchdown less than two minutes into the game. Johnson passed for 53 yards in the 4-play drive. Johnson hit Alfred Artis on a 6-yard slant in the end zone. The extra-point attempt failed and Beddingfield led 6-0.

Southern Wayne countered with a 12-play drive which consumed more than six minutes of the first quarter. The Saints rang up five first downs, converting two fourth downs to keep the drive alive.

The Bruins scored again with nine minutes left in the second quarter as running back GyNorris King ran untouched 51 yards on a draw play. The Saints' second-quarter touchdown used almost another four minutes of the clock. Anthony Council bounced off several Bruins at the line of scrimmage and ran 26 yards for the score.

Leading only 14-12, the Bruins took over after holding the Saints on downs at the Bruin 39. With only 40 seconds left in the first half, Johnson hit King for 31 yards, then passed 30 yards to Jerry Atkinson to score again with only six seconds left until intermission.

The Saints' Emmanuel Hinton was an efficient 7-for-11 passing for 95 yards.

Southern Wayne drove deep into Beddingfield territory in the third quarter and turned the ball over with an interception. The Bruins only third quarter touchdown came on a 1-yard run by Johnson.

Johnson threw two more touchdown passes and King scored his second touchdown.

The Saints travel to winless Kinston next week.