No. 1-ranked Wallace-Rose Hill rolls past North Duplin
By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on November 21, 2010 1:51 AM
WALLACE -- The drama ended quickly.
Defending state champion Wallace-Rose Hill posted touchdowns on its first two possessions and rolled past North Duplin 42-7 at Thell B. Overman Field on Friday evening.
The No. 1-ranked Bulldogs (13-0 overall) entertain Northampton-West in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A eastern semifinals on Friday. The Rebels concluded the season 5-8.
"They're very good, very fast off the ball," said Rebels head coach Hugh Martin. "We were there a couple or three times and just didn't make the plays. There were times we weren't there, and you could see some long runs as a result."
Junior running back Omar Carr rambled for 108 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Quarterbacks Dawan McKenzie and William Jackson handed off to 12 different backs who combined for 385 yards on 55 totes.
Carr completed six passes for 109 yards to four different receivers, including scoring strikes to Jonathan Drakeford and Freddy Barrios.
Wallace-Rose Hill, which extended its win streak to 25 games, overcame six holding penalties and recovered three fumbles on scoring drives.
"Yeah," Martin said. "They got on the ground early, we just couldn't seem to find our way to it. That's a credit to them. They hustled to it, even on the opening kickoff. That thing bounded around for a little while."
North Duplin punted on nine of 11 possessions. Time expired on the Rebels' final drive of the opening half. Marcus Kornegay completed a 2-yard touchdown pass to James Kornegay late in the fourth quarter to avoid the shutout.
Julio Mora finished with a hard-earned 33 yards on 18 carries. Devin Oliver contributed 58 yards on 12 rushes, while Toderick Gadberry scampered for 43 yards on seven attempts.
The Rebels finished with 213 yards of total offense.
"We couldn't really sustain drives like we needed to and have been doing here in the latter part of the season," said Martin. "They're very good defensively. They fly to the ball real well and when we had a little crease here or there, it closed up real fast.
"Their ability to take Julio out of the game really hurt ... could never get him established inside."
Drakeford capped an eight-play drive with a 7-yard touchdown run with 9:43 left in the opening quarter. Carr added a 4-yard scoring dive three minutes later.
The Bulldogs broke the game open with a 21-point second quarter and eventually secured their 13th win over the Rebels in 18 meetings.