Rams spoil Cougars' postseason aspirations

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on November 8, 2014 11:27 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

Joe Baker's held his head high.

There were no tears in his eyes.

As his teammates huddled one last time, he told them he loved them. He told them he would miss them. Most importantly, he told them to believe.

Goldsboro's up-and-down roller coaster of a season with first-year head coach Bennett Johnson came to a close Friday night -- a 52-50 loss against Eastern Carolina 2-A Conference foe Greene Central.

The loss knocked the Cougars out of the postseason for the second straight year.

"It's not the season we envisioned," Johnson said. "I wish we were sitting here 10-0 right now with a few more games to play."

Baker, in his final prep game, finished with nine catches for 100 yards and three first-half touchdowns.

But Goldsboro never found a way to get on the same page.

"Just seemed like the first half the offense was clicking , playing pretty well and the defense struggled, and then in the second half the defense was lights out and the offense couldn't gain a yard," Johnson said.

The Cougars allowed 36 points in the first half and didn't stop the Rams until the last possession just before intermission. Meanwhile, the offense moved the ball on the ground and in the air, and scored on three methodical drives.

But the roles changed after halftime and the defense started to get stops, but the offense never found a rhythm. The Cougars endured a second-half shutout despite the defense, which had three takeaways and negated the big plays that plagued them in the first half.

Trequan Wade and Brandon Hunt led Greene Central's ground attack with a combined 325 yards rushing and four touchdowns. Montavias Battle added 28 yards and two touchdowns. Stephen Buckley scored a touchdown.

Defensively, Dominick Bryant and Miles Williams completely took away the Cougars' offense by bull rushing though the offensive line for tackles for loss. On three occasions, Cougars running back Rayvonne Barnes was hit as he was taking a hand off.

Barnes finished with 72 yards on 17 carries in the final game of his career. After finishing his junior year with less than 40 yards rushing, Barnes finished with nearly 800 yards in his senior sendoff.

Quarterback Nashir Bowden threw for 191 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. He was sacked four times and was hurt by four drops from his receivers.

"I think we were a little overmatched on the line there," Johnson said. "We're not the biggest team by any means, we haven't had the resources to become one of the strongest teams, and hopefully we're going to change that. That's probably the best team in the conference when they take care of the ball."

Change is something Johnson hoped to instill when he took the job as the head coach. He's done that. He's changed the culture, received support from every corner of the community, and has gotten his players to buy in to his system.

Now, he just needs players to continue to get better.

"We saw these guys grow as a team as a family, and the improvement was there," Johnson said. "Now we need these juniors to step up. They're seniors now."

Johnson couldn't sum up his first season as a head coach in one sentence. He said he would need two weeks to form the right answer. There was so much adversity faced -- and so much overcame -- and to see it end Friday didn't feel like the correct ending for the story.

Life rarely works like a fairy tale.

The Cougars' season is over.

But the foundation is laid to return a once-prestigious program back to prominence.

"Hopefully there's better things to come for Goldsboro football," Johnson said.