Southside falls on Senior Night, Washington wins on road

Published 1:16 am Saturday, October 26, 2024

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CHOCOWINITY, N.C. – Things certainly started out well for Southside’s football team during Friday’s Senior Night. Unfortunately, it didn’t continue.

Lejeune scored 29 straight points after Southside jumped out to a strong start in a 29-14 loss. The Seahawks (1-8, 1-2 Coastal Plains Conference) led 14-0 after a rushing touchdown with 10:41 left in the first half. Lejeune put together a quick touchdown two minutes later then scored three touchdowns in the second half to put the game away.

We need to set the tone in the second half, so I hate it for my seniors,” Southside coach Jeff Carrow said. “All we’re gonna do, we’re gonna stay together, keep building as a team and move on to next week.

“We’ve got to stop, we got to eliminate mistakes. So that’s on us, we’ll do a better job, we’ll coach them up, get ready for next week.”

The Seahawks got a gift on the first play for Lejeune. A bobbled reverse led to Southside’s KeMonee Brimage getting the ball and rambling down the Lejeune sideline for a touchdown in the first 12 seconds of the game. A MyQuan Clark conversion run gave the Seahawks an 8-0 lead.

The Seahawks nearly got the ball back on an onside kick but later turned in another touchdown. Clark and Tedderick Minor had big runs that pushed the ball inside the Lejeune 10. Minor bulled in from 6 yards out with 10:41 left in the half to extend the lead to 14-0.

Sebastian Dorelien scored on a 3-yard run with 8:07 left in the first half that got Lejeune (4-5, 2-1) on the board to start the rally. He scored his second touchdown on an 8-yard run with 3:30 left that capped the comeback.

Between those scores, Lejeune quarterback Connor Shea threw touchdown passes to Andrew Finnerty (8 yards, 3:07 left in third) after a timeout to tie the game at 14-14 and Joey Miller (15 yards, 24 seconds left in third) to take 22-14 lead.

Well, I mean, we gave up some big plays there,” Carrow said. “But I thought we needed to step up a little better in the run game, offensively and defensively. We need to stop the run, I thought that hurt a little bit.

“And I own that, that’s on me, OK? I need to have them better prepared for that.”

Southside goes to East Carteret on Friday.

 

Washington 34, SouthWest Edgecombe 22

PINETOPS, N.C. – A big second half pushed Washington to a win to end a two-game losing streak.

The Pam Pack (4-5, 3-2 Eastern Plains Conference) and Cougars (4-5, 1-4) were tied at 14-14 at the half. Washington took the lead for good with a 30-yard field goal by Gabriel West with around four minutes left in the third. Calek Smaw then recovered a fumble at the SouthWest 45, which Keondrick Melton later turned into a 1-yard scoring run to give Washington a 23-14 lead.

Melton then put it away with a 70-yard touchdown run at the start of the fourth quarter. West’s 40-yard field goal with less than three minutes left was the final margin.

Melton scored the first of his three touchdowns on a 10-yard run in the opening quarter to give Washington a 7-0 lead. Jokhari Lovely scored on a 7-yard run for the Cougars to tie it at 7-7. SouthWest’s Justin Bridgers caught a 30-yard touchdown pass to give the Cougars a 14-7 lead. Washington tied it with around 3 minutes left in the first half after returning the kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. West’s conversion kick tied it at 14-14 at the half.

 

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Northside and Pungo Christian were off on Friday. The Raiders should find out this weekend whether they will participate in the NC Independent Schools Athletic Associaton state playoffs.

Northside will host Lejeune on Friday after being off last Friday.