PLYMOUTH — It was football weather at its finest — a light drizzle and an ominous mist supplemented by chilly gusts and a gridiron caked with more mud than grass. For Washington and Plymouth, two of the most successful football programs in the area over last five years, meeting for the first time in well over a decade on Thursday, the backdrop could not have been more fitting.

In a way, these two defending state runners-up were near perfect compliments to each other: Washington relying on its staunch, gritty defensive play and Plymouth carried by its show-stopping stable of running backs. But Thursday night, in the final nonconference game for both teams, it was the Pam Pack that held off a Vikings’ push in the final minutes to lock up a much-needed 25-17 victory.

“We had to battle, we had to fight and Plymouth is a very good football team,” said head coach Sport Sawyer after the game. “We have some things to work on and we were sloppy at times, but we’ve had a tough week — played two good teams this week.”

For the first time under Sawyer, quite possibly in the history of the program, Washington was forced to play two football games in four days, beginning with a sloppy 20-14 loss to undefeated Kinston on Monday. With just two days to prepare for the perennial powerhouse Vikings, the coaching staff had little time to make any significant adjustments, although the few changes made paid dividends down the stretch.

Junior Sharwan Staton, who had supposedly lost the started quarterback job during a Sept. 4 game against D.H. Conley, was back under center for most of the second half of the contest. The game manager the Vikings saw in the first half in Tripp Barfield was replaced with a scrappy playmaker in Staton, a move that confused the defense and kept the chains moving. Staton finished with 82 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.

Staton provided a different look on offense, but it was the Pam Pack front seven that came through with one of its best single performance of the season, limiting the Vikings to just one offensive touchdown through four quarters.

“Defensive line all around came up with big stops,” Sawyer said. “Plymouth again has a very good football team, but we kept the momentum on our side and we were very fortunate.”

Senior Clinton Pope, Washington’s leading rusher, responded after a ineffective first quarter and finished with 104 yards and a touchdown on a team-high 18 carries. Listed at just 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, Pope took a beating and eventually limped off the field with about four minutes left in the fourth quarter and while he remained sidelined for the rest of the contest, the injury did not appear serious.

On the first drive of the game, Washington drove down field quickly, but the ball popped out around the 50-yard line and was scooped up by a Plymouth defender, resulting in a 45-yard touchdown. However, the play was supposively blown dead by the umpire, but the errant whistle went unnoticed by the referee.

On the ensuing possession, which resulted in a Washington four-and-out, a bad snap gave Plymouth the ball on the Pam Pack 47-yard line and Jose Castenado capped the drive off with a 35-yard field goal.

After a couple of dynamic runs from Staton and Jarquez Keyes, who had a noticeably productive game on both sides of the ball, Pope punched a 1-yard run in for a score with 4:28 remaining in the first half, bringing the score to 10-7. However, with 52 seconds remaining, Staton broke away and went 44 yards up the sideline for a clutch touchdown, giving the Pam Pack a surprising 15-10 lead at the break.

0n the fourth play of the third quarter, Keyes hit a runner hard and recovered a fumble in Vikings’ territory. (He also forced a fumble in the first half.) The ensuing Pam Pack drive finished with a field goal by kicker Ben McKeithan, his first of the season.

On the next Plymouth possession, freshman quarterback Samyr Cooper tested his arm, completing three-of-three passes for 20 yards — the final throw a 4-yard screen to tight end Raequan Purvis for a score.

Just before the end of the third quarter, a 43-yard run from Keyes placed Washington in the Plymouth red zone. Keyes eventually capped the drive off with a 1-yard punch in. Despite a few late threats from the Vikings, the 25-17 score would hold up in a defensive-minded fourth quarter.

For Plymouth, wingback Ronald Willis led his team with 101 yards on 13 carries, while fullback Chris Kelly notched 58 yards on 16 carries.

With the win, Washington caps off nonconference play with a 3-3 record and will face Farmville Central next week in the Eastern Plains Conference Opener at Choppy Wagner Stadium. The loss drops Plymouth to 4-2 (2-0 Coastal Ten).

“They actually need to get away from me and the other coaches,” Sawyer said jokingly after the game. “They need a little time to be high school kids. Then we’ll come back on Monday and get to work … They put in a lot of time and they need to just mentally and physically rest.”