PLAYOFF CAPSULES: Rosewood at East Carteret

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on November 17, 2016 9:57 AM

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Rosewood (3-8 overall)

at East Carteret (10-1)

Last time out: North Duplin defeated Rosewood 49-28; East Carteret defeated Jones Senior 63-0.

Last meeting: 2014, Rosewood defeated East Carteret 54-20 in first round of playoffs.

Notable: Rosewood enters the playoffs on a five-game skid. The Eagles have won first-round postseason games in 2010, 2012 and 2014. East Carteret is ranked No. 4 in the final Associated Press Prep Poll of the season. The Mariners' defense has played 30 consecutive quarters of shutout football heading into the postseason and collected 47 quarterback sacks as a team. The defensive leader is senior Duncan Englehardt, who has a team-leading 70-plus tackles. The offense is spearheaded by quarterbacks Jacobie Simmons (1,303 yards passing, 1,206 yards rushing, 23 total touchdowns) and Beau Studebaker (859 yards passing, 10 TDs). East Carolina recruit Robert Johnson has caught 36 balls for 828 yards and eight TDs.

What are your impressions on East Carteret's offense? "Offensively, they do a good job of spreading the ball around and getting the ball out on the perimeter. They have two different quarterbacks. They've got one where they throw the ball with more and they've got one where they run the ball. They've got athletes at receivers that they either throw screens to them or throw the ball down the field. They make you cover the whole field, make you have to make tackles out in open space. They're by far one of the best teams we've faced this year."

What do you think about the receiver who has committed to ECU? "He's a big receiver and sometimes they put him in the backfield and let him run it some. He's definitely a good athlete. He attacks the ball when it's in the air. There's no magic pill we're going to take between now and Friday. The thing we're telling our kids is that we've got to be the best we can be. We've got to compete at the highest level that we can compete at and see what happens."

EC has 47 sacks as a team this season. "Looking at them defensively, they're going to try to keep seven guys in the box and they get after you up front. Their defensive line is really good, especially their noseguard. We think their noseguard is the best we've faced this year. Again, it's a tall task to try and slow them up some, and it's going to be a tall task for us to move the ball. One thing we've been able to do all year is score some points. Hopefully we'll be able to keep the ball away from them some which will help our defense out."

There is very little room for error against a team like this, isn't there? "Oh yeah. The coaches, we have worked hard. Don't get me wrong, our kids believe that they can win that game. One thing we have going for us is that we're battle tested. We play a strong non-conference schedule and we've got a strong conference... maybe a little bit stronger than theirs. I think the kids are going to go into the game with confidence, but with the understanding that this is a very good team and probably better than us at several positions. We're going to have to play an almost perfect game."