Game of the Week - Saints offense explodes in second half

By Steve Roush
Published in Sports on September 17, 2006 2:20 AM

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DUDLEY -- Southern Wayne is known for its lightning.

Now the Saints have some thunder, too.

Kelvin Flow, a 5-foot-10, 267-pound bruising fullback, rumbled for a career-high 193 yards and two touchdowns while Anthony Council, a 2,000-yard back from a year ago, added 165 yards on the ground and four touchdowns as Southern Wayne scored 28 unanswered points Friday night to down cross-county rival Goldsboro 50-20.

The Cougars (0-5) trailed just 22-20 midway through the second quarter, but managed only 4 yards of total offense in the second half as the Saints (3-2) rolled up 441 yards on the ground against Goldsboro. Speedy Tristan Bass also nearly eclipsed the 100-yard mark rushing as the 5-foot-6, 145-pound junior finished with 93 yards on eight carries and ran for a 34-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

"Teams can't key on just one guy with the backs we have," said Council, who also caught a 38-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. "If an opponent starts keying on me, we'll give it to Flow and he'll hurt them. They've got to respect everyone in our backfield."

Flow, whose previous season high in rushing was 81 yards against Western Harnett, now has 379 yards on the ground this season. With his usual big game, Council now has 860 yards rushing.

"Our line got busy tonight," Flow said. "It was a lot of fun out there and we got a big win. We had a lot of big holes to run through."

For Goldsboro, Tremé Boone had a team-high 160 yards and a touchdown on 18 hauls, but was held to just 15 yards rushing in the second half. Tim Kornegay hooked up with favorite receiver Jamar Branch for four catches for 102 yards and a touchdown in the first two quarters, but Kornegay was 0-of-10 passing in the second half.

He finished 4-of-22 for 103 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

"You've got to play two halves in football," Goldsboro coach Maurice Jackson said. "In the first half, everything seemed to be pretty good. But we didn't play well at all after that, offensively or defensively. We've got to stop people, we can't have people scoring 50 points ... that's crazy, that's ridiculous."

Southern Wayne scored on its first two possessions of the game as Flow barreled in for a 4-yard score on its opening drive and Council broke off an electrifying 80-yard TD run. Flow scored both 2-point conversions as the Saints took an early 16-0 lead.

"We've got some good runners," Southern Wayne coach Bob Warren said. "Council and Flow are both great backs and compliment each other well, and we have a couple other good runners, too."

The Cougars cut the Southern Wayne lead to 14-6 as Boone took Goldsboro right down the field with runs of 46, 4 and 6 yards, but the Saints bounced right back as Council, Flow and Eric Futrell carried the home team 66 yards for a touchdown as the first quarter expired.

Council took it the final 6 yards around the left side as the Saints led 22-6.

Goldsboro, however, grabbed the momentum early in the second quarter as a 1-yard sneak by Kornegay and a terrific one-handed catch by Branch on a 40-yard scoring strike cut Southern Wayne's lead to 22-20 midway through the quarter.

"I knew it was going to be a real tough game for us tonight," Warren said. "I feel like we played one of our better games. I think our kids stepped up and we took a major step forward in our season."

The Saints responded as quarterback Michael Holland found in the post for a 38-yard score that gave Southern Wayne a 28-20 lead at the half. Holland was 1-of-2 passing with the 38-yard touchdown, but took a big hit late in the first half and left the game in an ambulance with a possible concussion.

With backup quarterback Jordan Williams under center in the second half, the Saints didn't attempt a pass, but didn't miss a beat as Southern Wayne engineered three scoring drives and ran for 201 yards in the final two quarters.

The Saints called Flow's number four consecutive times to open the second half and the big junior responded with runs of 21, 6, 2 and 3 yards as Southern Wayne expanded its lead to 35-20.

The game turned into a rout in the fourth quarter as Bass (34 yards) and Council (12 yards) ran for touchdowns.

"I credit our kids for really digging down in and getting after it in the second half," Warren said. "They just set their mind to it that they were going to take a stand and they did."

NOTES: The Saints recorded four sacks as Holland, Council, Dontae Ashford and Jeremy Hargrove had one apiece. Micahel Ward recovered a fumble for SW, and Paris Armwood had an interception ... Southern Wayne hits the road this Friday as the Saints play at Southern Nash. Goldsboro will play at Winston-Salem Carver on Saturday afternoon ... Goldsboro was penalized 10 times for 66 yards while Southern Wayne was flagged seven times for 50 yards.

Goldsboro 6 14 0 0 -- 20

So. Wayne 22 6 7 15 -- 50

First quarter

SW -- Flow 4 run (Flow run), 7:08

SW -- Council 80 run (Flow run), 3:52

GHS -- Boone 6 run (run failed), 2:21

SW -- Council 6 run (run failed), 0:00

Second quarter

GHS -- Kornegay 1 run (Boone pass from Kornegay), 9:24

GHS -- Branch 40 pass from Kornegay (pass failed), 5:40

SW -- Council 38 pass from Holland (fumbled snap), 4:16

Third quarter

SW -- Flow 3 run (Williams kick), 9:56

Fourth quarter

SW -- Bass 34 run (Flow run), 8:55

SW -- Council 12 run (Williams kick), 5:48

GHS SW

First downs 6 21

Rushes-yds 24-155 61-441

Passing yds 102 38

Total yards 257 479

Comp-Att-Int 4-22-1 1-2-0

Fumbles-lost 2-1 6-2

Punts-avg 5-30.2 1-20

Penalties-yds 10-66 7-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Goldsboro -- Tremé Boone 18-160 (TD); Hykeen Coley 3-5; Tim Kornegay 2-(minus 3); Cedric McClary 1-(minus 7). Southern Wayne -- Kelvin Flow 20-193 (2 TDs); Anthony Council 21-165 (3 TDs); Tristan Bass 8-93 (TD); Eric Futrell 5-13; Dontae Ashford 2-7; Michael Holland 3-(minus 9); Jordan Williams 2-(minus 21).

PASSING -- Goldsboro -- Tim Kornegay 4-22-1-102. Southern Wayne -- Michael Holland 1-2-0-38 (TD).

RECEIVING -- Goldsboro -- Jamar Branch 4-102 (TD). Southern Wayne -- Anthony Council 1-38 (TD).