Prep notebook: Son listens to dad, team gets game-winning TD

By Staff Reports
Published in Sports on October 7, 2013 1:48 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Dad wanted a headset.

Son kept saying "no." But the pupil finally listened to his teacher at the right time Friday evening.

Steve Brooks Sr. looked into the Charles B. Aycock coaching box and requested that the coaches '"tell my son to play middle screen. I've told him all night it was there."

So, the junior Brooks called the play.

TJ Morrow took the snap and fired a completion to Neil Clark, who got a key block from teammate Trae Woodard. Clark broke an additional tackle and galloped 62 yards to the end zone for the game-winning touchdown in a 42-35 victory over Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference foe Southern Wayne.

Coach Brooks smile when asked about the screen play.

"I said 'well I'm going to listen to pops and daggone if we didn't go score one," he grinned.

Yeah, dad does know best.

No room to run

Eastern Wayne entered Friday night's game with New Bern averaging 203 yards rushing per game. The Bears held the Warriors to 82 yards on the ground.

Eastern Wayne had five carries that went for negative yardage and 17 total rushes that went for three yards or less. The Warriors were just 2 for 7 on third-down plays.

Not intentional

PIKEVILLE -- Each time Southern Wayne lined up for a kickoff Friday evening, Colby Craig appeared to onside kick the ball.

That wasn't the Saints' intention.

"We were trying to roll it down the middle of the field hard, it just didn't go hard to be honest with you," Saints head coach David Lee said. "We were not trying to (onside) kick every time, it just worked out our way a couple a times. We didn't want to give them that much field position."

Southern Wayne recovered two kicks after they were touched by an Aycock player. Neither resulted in a touchdown.

Lee offered nothing but praise for his special teams.

Marquis Baldwin's 76-yard punt return set up the Saints' go-ahead touchdown just before halftime. Jartarvis Bradshaw's 67-yard kickoff return led to Southern Wayne's game-tying touchdown before Clark hauled in the deciding TD pass.

A picture says it all

A picture of the scoreboard from Eastern Wayne's 69-0 loss last season at Cleveland has hung in the Warriors' weight room for months. That painful memory has driven the Warriors to put in the extra work to get their program to the level they want it to reach.

Eastern Wayne's 34-12 loss to New Bern on Friday night should sting for a while, but it also shed some light on the areas the Warriors need to improve. Tests against 4-A schools J.H. Rose and D.H. Conley remain on the schedule before Eastern Wayne faces county foes Charles B.Aycock and Southern Wayne.

"We've had a picture on our wall since last year of 69-0 in our weight room when we lost to Cleveland," Warriors' head coach Bubba Williams said. "I think we're heads and tails away from that. We've got two 4-A schools and then we've got county rivals all over the place. We've got to go work and we've got to build off what we've done.

"This one is going to hurt for a little while and I'm thankful for that because they played their hearts out."