Council rambles for career-high 327 yards at Bertie

Published in Sports on November 13, 2005 2:01 AM

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WINDSOR -- Southern Wayne sophomore Anthony Council notched four touchdowns and accounted for 327 of his teams' 518 rushing yards Friday night at Bertie in a 47-18 win in the first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A (small school) playoffs.

The win was the first-ever postseason win for the No. 10 seed Saints (8-4), who will now move on to face No. 2 Northeast Guilford (10-2) next Friday in McLeansville. Northeast Guilford defeated South Central 49-13 on Friday at home.

"We had a great turnout of fan support. We really appreciated it," Southern Wayne coach Bob Warren said. "It helped us to have our fans there following and supporting us. As long of a trip as that was, it felt good. We were glad to get the win for everyone involved in Southern Wayne football."

Bertie's secondary did not allow a single completed pass but were unable to stop a powerful Southern Wayne rushing attack that featured Council and senior Derrick Lathan who contributed 134 rushing yards of his own.

Council got started early as he took the Saints' first play from scrimmage 61 yards for the score. Preston Grantham added the extra point, and the visiting squad took the 7-0 lead with 8:46 remaining in the first quarter.

Three plays later, the Falcons answered with a touchdown of their own when sophomore running back Kevin Swain scampered 40 yards to paydirt. The two point conversion pass fell incomplete to make it 7-6.

The Saints found the endzone two more times in the first quarter as senior Michael Warren plunged in from 1-yard out and Council added to their teams' lead to put the Saints up 22-6 with only 1:13 remaining in the first half.

Bertie drove 69 yards and scored when a Desmond Williams pass found Brandon Brown in the endzone with no time remaining in the first half. The two point conversion run failed and the first half ended with the Saints ahead of the Falcons 22-12.

It was Bertie who would strike first in the second half. William Howard capped a 14-play, 67-yard drive with an 8-yard dash to paydirt. The Falcons again failed to convert the two point attempt and trailed 22-18 with 5:51 remaining in the third quarter.

That would prove to be the last score for the home team as the Saints dominated the rest of the game. Council scored twice more on runs of 63 and 25 yards and now has an eye-popping, 28 touchdowns in 12 games. Council also surpassed the 2,000-yard mark on the season with 2,093 yard.

Lathan, who has eight touchdowns on the season, and Joey Legg would also reach the endzone in the second half with runs of four and five yards, respectively.

"We had some opportunities that we didn't take advantage of in the first half, and we really should have been in a better position at halftime," Warren said. "We felft like if we came back out and executed like we could, we could move the football. We gave up a TD at the end of the half, and we just had to tighten up on defense. We came out ready to play and we created some thing ... blocked extremely well."

Sports Editor Thadd White and Sports Writer David Freidman of the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald contributed to this story.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Southern Wayne -- Anthony Council 22-327, 4 TD; Derrick Lathan 16-134, 2 TD; Joey Legg 2-7, TD; Michael Warren 5-32, TD; Kelvin Flow 2-18.

PASSING -- Southern Wayne -- Jordan Williams 0-3-0 0.