Whiteville eliminates Goldsboro from 2-A playoffs

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

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As the band was marching off the field and the crowd was filing out of Cougar Stadium, coach Maurice Jackson stood with several of his seniors at midfield on the large blue and gold G.

The long walk to the locker room -- and the last for a senior class that bounced back from a 1-10 season in 2004 -- could wait for a few more minutes.

Goldsboro (4-8), which had won three of its last five contests after opening the season 1-5, marched right down the field in the game's opening drive Friday night to score a touchdown. Whiteville (9-2), however, took advantage of three turnovers and scored 27 unanswered points to beat Cougars 27-13 in the first round of the playoffs.

For the third-year coach, it was a bittersweet moment.

"I'm proud of this team, and proud of our seniors," he said. "After last year and the way we started this year, people had written us off. But we came on strong and were able to host a playoff game. We were hoping to advance, but we came up short tonight and lost to a good team.

"It's kind of a sad moment for me -- when I got here, our seniors were just babies, but now they're growing up to be men. It's good for them, but I'm sad to see them go."

After choosing to receive the opening kickoff, Goldsboro put together a methodical 11-play, 74-yard drive that ate up nearly half of the first quarter. Sophomore running back Quanterio Battle broke off runs of 14 and 13 yards, and capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to give the Cougars a 6-0 lead. Classmate Treme Boone also ran for 28 yards during the drive while senior quarterback Adrian Lewis broke off a 17-yard run as Goldsboro moved the entire 74 yards on the ground.

The Cougars then forced the Wolfpack to go three-and-out on its first drive, but Boone fumbled the ball away at the 15 to give Whiteville a short field.

An ensuing encroachment penalty pushed the ball pushed the ball even closer to the Goldsboro end zone, and tailback Reggie Belamy gave the visitors a first-and-goal after a 5-yard run. Three plays later, fullback Jarrod McKinney bulled his way in from 1-yard out to give Whiteville a 7-6 lead after one quarter of play.

McKinney ran for a game-high 107 yards on 14 carries while McKinney added 102 yards on 14 hauls. As a team, the Wolfpack ran the ball 50 times -- passing on just three plays -- while rolling up 253 yards on the night.

"That was the turning point right there," Jackson said of the turnover. "We go right down the field and get a touchdown, then make them punt the ball away. If we can sustain a drive and score another touchdown, we may have made them go away from their power game. The fumble took away our momentum."

Whiteville ran just seven plays in the first quarter as the Goldsboro defense held the Wolfpack to just 16 total yards and one first down, but the visitors began chewing up the clock on the ground in the second quarter.

Goldsboro senior Monquavis Edwards partially blocked a Whiteville punt midway through the second period, but the Pack got the ball back when wide receiver Jacob Sykes fumbled after hauling in a 13-yard pass at the Whiteville 40.

On the next play, McKinney broke off a 41-yard run down to the Goldsboro 19, with quarterback Harrison Jordan finishing the drive five runs later with a 1-yard sneak.

"We had been a spread offense for much of the season, but we went exclusively to the power game tonight," Whiteville coach Mark Little said. "And our offensive line responded and did a good job.

"Goldsboro is a really good team, we were fortunate to win this one."

Chris Rollin picked off a Lewis pass and took it back to the Goldsboro 30 just before halftime as Belamy gave the Pack a 20-6 lead with a 21-yard touchdown run just 20 seconds before the intermission.

Belamy's longest run of the night -- a 49-yard jaunt -- came on the first offensive play of the third quarter. That set up a 9-yard touchdown pass from Jordan to Belamy that put Whiteville ahead 27-6.

In the second half, the Goldsboro offense began to sputter, only getting on track after well after it was too late as Lewis hooked up with Branden Davis for a 21-yard TD pass with just 16 ticks left in the contest.

Lewis finished up 7-of-22 passing for 106 yards, two interceptions and a touchdown. Sykes had five receptions for 79 yards with Davis hauling in two passes for 27 yards.

It was the final game at Goldsboro for Sykes, Lewis, Edwards, Davis, Coriante Thompson, Brandon Herring, Golden Cannon, Tamarcus Lofton, Jeremy Sessions, Rashaad Croom, William Stringer, Achish Garrett and Dominique Coleman.

"We knew coming in tonight it was going to be tough," Jackson said. "We did really well at times but we gave up some big runs and had some turnovers and turned into the first-of-the-year Goldsboro. And the playoffs isn't the time to go back, it's a time to take a step forward.

"This was a disappoint loss for us, but we'll be back."

Whiteville 7 13 7 0 -- 27

Goldsboro 6 0 0 6 -- 13

First quarter

GHS -- Battle 3 run (kick failed), 6:37

WHS -- McKinney 1 run (Hodgson kick), 1:40

Second quarter

WHS -- Jordan 1 run (kick failed), 2:31

WHS -- Belamy 21 run (Hodgson kick), 0:20

Third quarter

WHS -- Belamy 9 pass from Jordan (Hodgson kick), 9:24

Fourth quarter

GHS -- Davis 21 pass from Lewis (pass failed), 0:16

WHS GHS

First downs 12 11

Rushes-yds 50-244 32-95

Passing yds 9 106

Total yards 253 201

Att.-Comp.-Int. 1-3-0 7-22-2

Fumbles-lost 0-0 4-1

Punts-avg. 2-23.0 1-42.0

Penalties-yds 11-82 8-58

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Whiteville -- Reggie Belamy 19-107 (1 TD); Jarrod McKinney 14-102 (1 TD); Shawn Murchison 8-29; Harrison Jordan 3-9 (1 TD); Chris Rollin 2-3; Tyson Wilcox 2-8; Anthony Bradford 1-0; E. Brown 1-(minus 4); Ben Davis 1-(minus 10). Goldsboro -- Treme Boone 18-44; Quanterio Battle 8-32 (1 TD); Adrian Lewis 5-15; Artez Harris 1-4.

PASSING -- Whiteville -- Jordan Harrison 1-3-0-9 (1 TD). Goldsboro -- Adrian Lewis 7-22-2-106 (1 TD).

RECEIVING -- Whiteville -- Reggie Belamy 1-9 (1 TD). Goldsboro -- Jacob Sykes 5-79; Branden Davis 2-27 (1 TD).

MISSED FIELD GOALS -- Whiteville -- David Hodgson (34, short).