Cougars stage furious fourth-quarter rally

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on September 19, 2015 11:20 PM

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RED OAK -- Goldsboro staged a remarkable offensive comeback in the fourth quarter, but fell short to Northern Nash, 38-35, in a non-conference battle at Death Valley on Friday evening.

Northern Nash entered the game 0-4.

"Unfortunately, a lot of people are going to see that we lost to an 0-4 team," second-year GHS head coach Bennett Johnson said. "But unless you follow football, you don't really know how good of a team they were because their four games came against teams that had a combined record of 12-2.

"We knew exactly what kind of team we were running into (this week)."

The Knights built an 18-point lead through three quarters.

"We did a great job on first and second down, but third down seemed to be our Achilles' heel," Johnson said. "Their quarterback, who we didn't have a lot of film on, he'd scramble back there until he'd find an open receiver. The effort was there and we did fight for four quarters."

The Cougars answered with a 29-point outburst in the final period. Na'Shir Bowden scored on touchdown runs of 1 and 15 yards, ran in a two-point conversion and connected on a 34-yard TD pass to Jamal Wilson.

Wilson capped Goldsboro's scoring with a 2-yard run.

"Na'Shir played like an absolute monster," Johnson said. "He was taking shot after shot, he got rolled up twice and I didn't think he'd get back up after that. He stayed in there and fought like a Warrior."

Bowden threw for 283 yards and distributed his 19 completions among six receivers. Ray'Quan Griffin hauled in a team-high six receptions for 135 yards, including a 70-yard TD catch in the third quarter.

Sophomore Jameel Larkins emerged as Goldsboro's defensive leader with 10 tackles. Rodney Dodson and Kori Reid had eight stops apiece, while Sterling Dodson logged seven tackles.

Goldsboro (3-2 overall) returns home Friday to face Farmville Central.

"They're bringing strong boys to town that run right at you," Johnson said.