Prep football notebook
By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on September 26, 2011 1:49 PM
Looking inside the numbers and viewing the videotape, three missed tackles led to three big plays in Triton's 35-18 conquest of Southern Wayne.
The Hawks broke loose for touchdown runs of 40, 60 and 34 yards. Take away those yards and the Saints owned the edge in total offense.
More inside the numbers
Senior defensive back Keith Jones emerged Southern Wayne's top tackler with 11 stops against Triton. Senior linebacker Willie Sutton logged 10 tackles, while junior defensive back Thomas Kelley recorded seven tackles.
The Saints had 61 tackles as a team.
Spring Creek Air Force
Spring Creek head coach Aaron Sanders has dealt with a myriad of injuries that have led to several lineup changes during the first five weeks of the high school football season.
After three weeks of running an option-style offense with quarterback Eric Moseley, Sanders decided to switch gears and turn the ball over to senior signal caller James Lancaster and his pocket-passing style of play.
The change has worked for both players, individually, and the team as a whole. Lancaster threw for a career-best 207 yards on Friday night and Moseley emerged as the Gators' top target at wide receiver with 105 yards on three catches.
The result was a 27-14 win over Holly Ridge Dixon.
"We were able to get some things going in the passing game and that generated some big plays," Sanders said. "(James) Lancaster has done a good job, made good decisions with the football and run the offense pretty efficiently."
Galloping Oliver
North Duplin tailback Devin Oliver repeatedly gashed the Lejuene defense for big gains in the Rebels' 22-19 loss on Friday night.
Seven of Oliver's 14 carries went for 11 yards or more. The senior tailback finished with 138 yards and two touchdowns, and he also returned a kickoff 90 yards for a score.
A long look in the mirror
North Duplin was outgained outgained 123 to minus-14 in the fourth quarter and squandered a 19-14 lead in the final three minutes of Friday night's 22-19 loss to Lejeune.
The Rebels begin Carolina 1-A Conference play Friday when they entertain two-time defending conference champion Goldsboro. North Duplin has been outscored 130-51 in its two losses to the Cougars since Goldsboro joined the league.
"We've been playing well defensively, so we've got to take a hard look at ourselves and see where we are," Rebels' head coach Hugh Martin said. "Early on we didn't tackle very well. We had several times where we made a play and we let someone slip out of our hands. Offensively, we'll go back to the things we started the season with and execute them a little better."