Williams family reunites in opening-round of 3A football playoffs

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on November 8, 2014 11:27 PM

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It's brother vs. brother when Jacksonville travels to fifth-seeded Eastern Wayne, the 2013 eastern 3-A regional runner-up. The 12th-seeded Cardinals are coached by Beau Williams, whose team concluded regular-season play 6-5.

His brother, Bubba, guided the athletic and speed-rich Warriors to an 8-2 campaign that included a clean worksheet (5-0) at Little Big Horn this season. It's the first-ever postseason meeting between the two programs.

"Can we get a re-draw?" Bubba said. "It's not just my brother, but my dad. I called my mom and told her they were double-teaming me. The good thing is we know what they are going to do and the bad thing is they know what we are going to do.

"(But) you play who they put in front of you."

The Warriors have won three consecutive home playoff games.

"Coach Williams has done a great job with that program and I hope they have a deep playoff run," Southern Wayne head coach David Lee said.

After three straight playoff trips to Alamance County, Charles B. Aycock (4-7 overall) will head a little further west on I-85 this week. The Golden Falcons are the guests of top-seeded and unbeaten Southern Guilford.

Coach Steve Brooks' team has had a week off to heal from the normal bumps and bruises associated with a brutal schedule the team has faced this season. Senior R'Keesh Greene sustained a deep bruise injury in the regular-season finale against Eastern Wayne, while two teammates also endured big hits that required some healing time.

Aycock is seeking just its fourth playoff win since 2006.

"We've got a lot of feelings hurt, need to re-evaluate everything we're still trying to do and learn how to play football," Brooks said after the EW loss. "Everybody is 0-0 once the playoffs start. We have to become road warriors."

The NCHSAA spent most of Saturday afternoon re-adjusting the 1-A and 1-AA pairings when Winston-Salem Atkins (4-6) opted out of the playoffs. That bumped Princeton, originally placed in 1-A, to 1-AA.

The Bulldogs (10-1) entertain Northampton in first-round action.

"The best things in life are the ones you have to fight for," third-year said PHS head coach Derrick Minor, whose team finished the Carolina 1-A Conference runner-up for the second straight year.

"It's disappointing to know you're one of the smallest (1-A schools) and could have had a chance to rematch Plymouth, but I keep going back to Jeremiah 29:11 trusting God's plan in all of this."

Plymouth beat Princeton in the 2012 eastern 1-A final and eventually won the state championship. The Vikings were state runners-up to Murphy a year ago.

All seven Carolina teams advanced to the playoffs.

Rosewood, which has won six of its last eight games, drew the No. 8 seed and will entertain ninth-seeded East Carteret. The Eagles (6-5) are facing a Coastal Plains Conference team for the second time in the past four years and fifth time overall since 1991.

Spring Creek (2-8) steam-rolled North Duplin on Friday and caused a minor scramble in the seeding process. The Gators are making their second consecutive trip and will visit top-seeded Wallace-Rose Hill, which lost its regular-season finale to perennial 2-A powerhouse Clinton.

"We've got a lot of young guys on the team and this will give them a chance to play against another quality opponent," SC head coach Aaron Sanders said. "It will be the third matchup (of the year) against three of the top four 1-A teams in the state."

The Gators played Princeton and defending 1-AA state champ James Kenan in the regular season.

Ninth-seeded North Duplin (4-7) is making its 15th consecutive playoff trip and gets a rematch against eighth-seeded Pinetown Northside. The Panthers won the regular-season meeting, 44-27.

Second-seeded James Kenan (9-1) begins defense of its state crown at home against 15th-seeded Pender. The two teams last met in the postseason in 2007. The Tigers won the state title that year.