Prep football briefs

By From staff reports
Published in Sports on August 21, 2011 1:51 AM

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Greene Central 19, North Lenoir 3

* SNOW HILL -- Greene Central opened the season with a strong defensive showing in a 19-3 win over North Lenoir on Friday night.

The Rams held the Hawks to 87 total yards of offense for the game.

"I thought the defense played extremely well for both teams," Greene Central head coach Ken Grantham said. "Our guys did a nice job in the second half of shutting down some running lanes and we forced a couple of mistakes that led to points for our offense."

North Lenoir jumped on top late in the first quarter when Caleb Baird hit a 27-yard field goal.

Greene Central answered one minute later when quarterback Rasheem Shackleford found daylight on a 16-yard scoring run to give the Rams a 6-3 lead.

A pair of fourth-quarter fumbles by the Hawks led to Ram touchdowns. Brandon Bishop returned one drop 53 yards for a score. Kenzie Phillips followed with a 20-yard recovery for a touchdown.

"The defense was definitely a little bit ahead of the offense tonight," Grantham said. "But I know that's the case for a lot of teams in week one. Going into next Friday we need to work on our timing on offense and our special teams play to give ourselves some balance."

Shackleford led the Rams with 76 yards passing on two completions and added 39 yards on the ground.

North Lenoir did not complete a pass, but got 45 yards rushing out of Marsharee Troy and 22 yards from Martin Brazwell.

North Lenoir (0-1 overall) travels to West Montgomery next Friday, while Greene Central (1-0) is the guest of Ayden-Grifton.

Hobbton 39, Princeton 38

* NEWTON GROVE -- Eli Escalara drilled the game-winning field goal with just one second left in regulation, and Hobbton overcame Princeton 39-38 on Friday night.

The wild contest featured 57 combined points in the second half by the two squads, culminating with Escalara's final kick.

"It was one of those nights where whoever had the ball last was going to win," Princeton head coach Russell Williamson said. "Our kids came back from a two-touchdown deficit in the fourth quarter and took the lead, but we just couldn't hold on."

Javontae Davis led the Bulldawg offense with a spectacular performance that included 210 rushing yards on 30 carries and 110 receiving yards on seven catches. Davis scored all five Princeton touchdowns.

Sophomore quarterback Brad Williamson added 43 yards rushing and completed 17 passes for 228 yards.

Princeton (0-1 overall) plays host to Midway on Friday.

North Duplin 27, Southside 6

* CHOCOWINITY -- North Duplin's two-headed rushing attack proved to be too much for Southside to handle as the Rebels rolled to a 27-6 victory on Friday night.

Fullback Julio Mora and tailback Devin Oliver combined for 280 yards and three touchdowns in the victory.

"We were pretty efficient on offense with our ground game," Rebels' head coach Hugh Martin said. "We missed a couple of scoring opportunities early in the game by taking penalties at bad times, but as the night went on we settled down."

Oliver finished with 14 carries for 121 yards and three touchdowns. Mora added 159 yards on 21 carries and quarterback Tyler Royal called his own number for 90 yards on 19 totes and one touchdown.

Royal's lone attempted pass fell incomplete.

Kicker Julio Juarez connected on three of his four extra-point tries.

"Tyler did a nice job and he made some nice reads on the option," Martin said. "We just need to work on little things to make our offense better going into next week."

North Duplin (1-0 overall) entertains Lakewood next Friday.

South Lenoir 33, Spring Creek 7

* SEVEN SPRINGS -- South Lenoir took an early lead and consistently built a 33-7 victory at "The Swamp" on Friday night.

The Blue Devils' size was simply too much for Spring Creek to match.

"They have some big bodies, and we thought they would come in and try to run it down our throat," Gators head coach Aaron Sanders said. "But I thought our guys stood their ground for the most part. A couple of lapses in coverage cost us a pair of touchdowns."

Spring Creek scored its only touchdown in the first quarter when Eric Moseley hit Luke Miller on a nine-yard scoring strike. The Gators' two-quarterback system, which also featured Chad Spurgeon under center, produced 75 yards on 11 completions.

Moseley led the Spring Creek rushing attack with 26 yards on 12 carries.

"Offensively we knew that we would have to spread the ball around to be effective," Sanders said. "Overall I felt like we did a pretty good job."

Spring Creek (0-1 overall) travels to Lejeune next Friday.

Wilson Hunt 48, Eastern Wayne 6

* WILSON -- Hunt took advantage of several Eastern Wayne miscues en route to a 48-6 victory on Friday night.

Poor special teams play, dropped passes and penalties all plagued Eastern Wayne throughout the game.

"It just seemed like everything that could possibly go wrong in a season opener did go wrong," Warriors' head coach Bubba Williams said. "We dropped wide-open passes, gave up big punt returns, put the ball on the ground and took some bad penalties."

Eastern Wayne's lone scoring play came in the fourth quarter when Avner Clark found Tykwan Days for a 69-yard touchdown pass. The play was Clark's lone completion and Days' lone catch in the game.

Shelton Pender paced the Eastern Wayne ground game with 20 yards on eight carries.

"We definitely have a lot of things that we need to work on going forward," Williams said. "But when you have a young team, you have to expect that as a coach. All we can do is focus on the next game and help our guys learn from their mistakes."

Eastern Wayne (0-1 overall) plays host to county rival Goldsboro next Friday.