Prep football roundup

By Staff Reports
Published in Sports on November 22, 2009 1:50 AM

• Print
• Email

JACKSONVILLE -- Top-seeded and unbeaten Southwest Onslow eliminated James Kenan 17-6 from the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1-AA (large-school) football playoffs.

The Stallions (13-0 overall) entertain Pender on Friday.

The Tigers finished the season 7-6.

"Southwest is a very good football team and we knew it would be tough going in there," said Kenan head coach Ken Avent Jr. said. "We played a solid game, but we couldn't come up with that one big play to put the pressure on them."

James Kenan put together a 14-play, 10-minute drive in the opening quarter, but came up empty. A series of penalties prevented Avent Jr.'s team from getting into the end zone and gave Southwest some momentum.

The Stallions broke the scoreless tie on Zach Matics' 35-yard field goal in the second quarter.

"Our game plan was to keep them off the field and early in the game we did that," Avent Jr. said. "We converted a few third and longs, and were able to sustain a couple drives."

The teams played to a third-quarter stalemate.

Southwest scored twice in the final period on Jamaal Williams' 1-yard plunge and Aarace Brooks' 56-yard interception return.

James Kenan avoided the shutout on Parker Jones' 80-yard scoring strike to Dasmine Smith. Jones completed 5 off 11 passes for 123 yards, while Victor Parker led the ground game with 91 yards on 25 totes.

Kendric Faison paced the Tigers' defense with 15 tackles. Jaime Gonzales added eight stops. Delante Miller and Dontrill Hyman logged six tackles apiece, while Kyle Bostic had five tackles.

"I am really proud of this group of kids, and especially the seniors tha we had," said Avent Jr. "They had a lot of opportunity to give up this season and they never did which is impressive."

Elkin 26

North Duplin 0

ELKIN -- Despite a 217-yard effort from Devin Oliver, North Duplin saw its season come to a close in a 26-0 loss at Elkin in the second round of the NCHSAA 1-A (small-school) football playoffs Friday evening.

Oliver accounted for 217 of the Rebels' 227 yards of total offense. The talented tailback finished the season with 1,466 yards and 10 touchdowns.

"We had some good drives," said North Duplin head coach Hugh Martin. "We had a penalty or two here or there that put us behind the chains a couple of times. We had one turnover as we were driving. Devin did a super job for us."

Rebels' quarterback James Kornegay ran the offense in the absence of starter Alan Schilling.

Elkin scored a touchdown in every quarter and led 14-0 at the half.

North Duplin closed the season by winning three of its last four games and finished 5-8 overall.

"It started with the Ayden-Grifton game we started playing a lot better," said Martin. "We had a great amount of intensity about us. Even though we didn't win at Ayden, we started playing better toward the end of the season."