Saints continue strong playoff run

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on November 18, 2007 2:24 AM

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DUDLEY -- Kelvin Flow and Tristan Bass keeping wearing down opponents, the defense keeps making big plays and Southern Wayne keeps making history.

The seventh-seeded Saints collected their third playoff win in school history by knocking off Southern Lee 28-19 at the Doyle Whitfield Athletic Complex in the second round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A (small school) playoffs on Friday night.

The Saints (9-4) have won seven games in a row.

With Southern Wayne clinging to a 21-19 lead and less than three minutes to play, Flow's 30-yard touchdown run helped set up the Saints' rematch with regular-season opponent and unbeaten Rocky Mount next week. Rocky Mount hammered Southern Wayne 49-7 in Dudley in late September.

The score, Flow's second of the evening, was a bit of redemption for the bruising back, who had fumbled inside the Cavaliers' 20-yard line toward the end of the third quarter.

"Kelvin's a hard runner," Southern Wayne head coach Bob Warren said. "We wanted to give him the ball again. We wanted to make sure he knew we were going to keep giving him the ball. I thought that drive was key, because it put us up by over a touchdown, and ran a lot of time off the clock."

Dante Alston's five-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Mellette early in the fourth quarter, trimmed the lead to 21-19.

The Saints defense helped set up Flow's touchdown run, when it wasn't fooled on the Cavaliers' fake punt attempt from their own 44-yard line. Kendrick Thompson and Tristan Bass came up with interceptions to end Southern Lee's final two possessions.

"This is just another one of those games, where we figured out how to make the plays, when we had to make the plays," Warren said. "I thought Southern Lee was a very fine football team, and they gave us all we could handle. Our guys came up with some big plays when we had too."

Flow (205 yards, two touchdowns) and Bass (186 yards, two touchdowns) pounded away at the Cavaliers defense all night long. The pair combined for 391 yards and four touchdowns, and both were over the 100-yard mark before halftime.

"Our offense moved the ball well very again," Warren said. "Our backs ran hard. Our offensive line again, is just a big plus."

The 15th-seeded Cavaliers (7-6), in just their second season of play, took the opening kickoff and marched 64 yards on 11 plays, capping the drive on James Butler's run from 3 yards out. However, the extra point was no good, and Southern Lee led 6-0.

The Saints responded less than two minutes later on Bass' 19-yard score.

James Jones intercepted Alston on Southern Lee's next possession, setting up Bass' 4-yard touchdown run. Southern Lee struck back, when Alston and Mellette connected on a 55-yard scoring strike. After the two-point conversion failed, the lead had shrunk to 14-12.

Flow's eight-yard run to the end zone with less than 10 minutes to play before halftime pushed the margin to 21-12.

Southern Lee 6 6 0 7 -- 19

So. Wayne 14 7 0 7 -- 28

First quarter

SL -- Butler 3 run (kick failed), 7:07

SW -- Bass 19 run (Williams kick), 5:42

SW -- Bass 4 run (Williams kick), :36

Second quarter

SL -- Mellette 55 pass from Alston (Brown fun failed), 11:51

SW -- Flow 8 run (Williams kick), 9:47

Fourth quarter

SL -- Mellette 5 pass from Alston (Reed kick), 9:11

SW -- Flow 30 run (Williams kick), 2:44

So. Lee So. Wayne

First downs 14 20

Rushes-yds 29-45 59-397

Passing yds 270 0

Total yards 315 397

C-A-I 15-31-3 0-1-1

Penalties 4-25 4-20

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Southern Lee -- Raymond Brown 11-47; Darius Britton 7-23; James Butler 4-4, TD; Cameron Reed 1-1; Deshawn Scott 1-1; Princeton Tabon 2-(-3); Dante Alston 3-(-28). Southern Wayne -- Kelvin Flow 30-205, 2 TDs; Tristan Bass 25-186, 2 TDs; James Jones 1-8; John Futrell 1-3; Jordan Williams 1-(-4); Team 1-(-1)..

PASSING -- Southern Lee -- Dante Alston 15-31-3 270, 2 TDs. Southern Wayne -- Tristan Bass 0-1-1.

RECEIVING -- Southern Lee -- Aaron Mellette 9-184, 2 TDs; Jeremy McLeod 3-32; Raymond Brown 1-32; Deshawn Scott 2-22.