Jones Senior blanks Rosewood

By Rob Craig
Published in Sports on September 30, 2007 2:19 AM

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For three-plus quarters Friday evening, the Rosewood defense kept Jones Senior's athletes bottled up and frustrated.

That changed in the final six minutes.

Quarterback Covair Frost threw two long touchdown passes to Thomas Fryar as the Trojans topped the Eagles 21-0 at Branch Pope Field. Both teams concluded non-conference play with 2-4 ledgers.

"If people weren't at the game, they won't understand the effort my boys put through," said Rosewood head coach Robert Britt. "We just gave up three big plays."

Those plays -- touchdown passes of 49, 43, 55 yards -- overshadowed what was a terrific effort on the defensive side of the ball. Led by lineman Holt Rains, the Eagles held the Trojans to just 26 yards rushing and forced five fumbles. Jones didn't even record a first down until the closing minutes of the second quarter.

"Defensively, we did a great job of stopping the run," said Britt. "We did a good job of cutting off their running lanes."

The Trojans did the exact same thing to the Eagles.

Jones' head coach Greg Hampton spent the past week having his scout-team quarterback play the role of Rosewood's Sean Cornman. The preparation paid off as the Trojans held Cornman to a season-low minus-18 yards on 22 carries.

Jones' defense set the tempo in the opening quarter. Following a fumble on the opening kickoff, Rosewood took over at the Trojans' 37-yard line.

After a 28-yard burst by Josh Holmes, Rosewood's offense sputtered. The Eagles misfired on six plays inside the 10-yard line and came up empty when Cameron Lowe's 19-yard field goal sailed wide right of the post.

"That's tough," said Britt. "That's the second week in a row that we had something good happen on the opening kickoff, but couldn't get the ball in the end zone."

The teams traded punts, and the Trojans opted for their passing game in the second quarter. Frost found Fryar for a 25-yard gain and then hit a streaking Josh Brown for a 49-yard score with 23 seconds remaining before halftime.

"(Rosewood) was just stopping our run," said Hampton. "They were just coming. They weren't even thinking pass and that's why we did that."

Following numerous punts in the third quarter, Rosewood benefited from a 1-yard punt by Jones Senior. The Eagles took over at the Trojans' 47 and moved into the red zone two plays later on Sean Cornman's 43-yard completion to Stephen McIntyre.

Two unproductive runs backed the ball up to the 11-yard line. On third down, Kamar Frost sacked Cornman for a 10-yard loss and a fourth-down pass fluttered away incomplete.

"When we get inside the opponent's 20 we have to score," said Britt.

Fighting to maintain the lead in the closing minutes, the Trojans again attacked Rosewood's aggressive defense. Frost lofted a deep pass to an open Fryar for a 55-yard touchdown with 5:03 to play in the fourth quarter. The two-point conversion put the lead to 14-0.

Two possessions later, Frost went right back to the well. The quarterback again found Fryar for another long score to make the final margin.

"They couldn't stop it, so we kept doing it," said Frost. "You don't want to fix anything that's not broken."

The Eagles begin Class 1-A Carolina Conference play Friday at defending tri-champion Ayden-Grifton. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

"We've got to go back to practice and figure out what we have to do better to sustain some drives and get the ball into the end zone," said Britt. "We keep getting better defensively, but offensively we have to go back to work."

Jones Senior 0 6 0 15 -- 21

Rosewood 0 0 0 0 -- 0

Second quarter

JS -- Brown 49 pass from Frost (kick failed), :23

Fourth quarter

JS -- Fryar 43 pass from Frost (Fryar pass from Frost), 5:03

JS -- Fryar 55 pass from Frost (Viquez kick), 2:23

JS R

First downs 7 6

Rushes-yds 26-26 39-34

Passing yds 200 49

Total yards 226 83

C-A-I 7-12-0 2-9-0

Fumbles-lost 5-3 3-1

Penalties-yds 5-44 6-60

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Jones Senior -- Tyrel Dove 13-22; Ronte Bryant 3-17; Jamel Meadows 1-6; Robert Williams 3-4; Covair Frost 6-(-23). Rosewood -- Cody Richards 9-32; Josh Holmes 6-27; Eric Martel 2-(-7); Sean Cornman 22-(-18).

PASSING -- Jones Senior -- Covair Frost 7-12-0 200, 3 TDs. Rosewood -- Sean Cornman 2-9-0 49.

RECEIVING -- Jones Senior -- Thomas Fryar 5-133, 2 TDs; Josh Brown 1-49, TD; Robert Williams 1-18. Rosewood -- Holt Rains 1-6; Stephen McIntyre 1-43.