Southern Wayne’s Tyquavious Williams (1) gets brought down by two Rosewood defenders after he hauls in a third-quarter pass from quarterback Tez White Friday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Southern Wayne’s Jaylen Bowden (16) gets wrapped up by two Rosewood defenders during second-half play. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Southern Wayne’s Dorien Toussaint talks with an assistant coach during an injury timeout against Rosewood. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Rosewood’s Micah Cox (7) looks for running room while Southern Wayne’s Antonio Solice (7) and Dorien Toussaint (2) are blocked on the play. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Southern Wayne head coach Matt Hine, left, and quarterback Tez White, right, wait for play to resume against Rosewood Friday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Rosewood running back David Lamm looks to get past Southern Wayne defender Antonio Solice during second-period play Friday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Rosewood junior Derek Lund (21) tries to bring down Southern Wayne’s Jaylen Bowden on a first-quarter run Friday evening. Bowden scored the Saints’ first touchdown of the game. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
GOLDSBORO — Southern Wayne head football coach Matt Hine issued the warning to his players throughout practice this past week to beware of county foe Rosewood.
Yes, the Eagles are 0-3.Don’t take them for granted, he cautioned.
“I tried to communicate to my team they’re the scariest 0-3 team I’ve seen [on film],” Hine said. “They’re a 1A football team, but they’re playing [teams in] classification above them in their non-conference schedule. They’re used to doing that and don’t get too happy with yourselves.
“This is a well-coached team and you have look back 10 months to see the success that they’ve had as a program. Guarantee yourself that they’re going to come to play.”
The Saints scored on their first offensive series; they soon went downhill.
Penalties, fumbles and mental mistakes translated into a 30-12 loss before a standing-room-only crowd at Branch Pope Field on Friday evening. The Eagles snapped a four-game skid, which included a loss against Tarboro in the east 1A regional final a year ago.
Southern Wayne endured its first blemish in three outings this season.
“We’ve been in our ball games,” newly-minted Rosewood head coach Josh Smith said. “We’ve had a ‘bend, but don’t break’ mentality and I think playing those games early and being put in positions to face adversity helped us tonight to dive right in it … just overcome those obstacles when they were presented.”
Jahmere Bannerman’s 35-yard touchdown run put the Saints ahead 6-0 with 8:41 left in the opening quarter.
Rosewood relinquished its first possession, but received a break two plays later. A fumbled handoff bounced away from Ty Williams and the Eagles recovered it near the Saints’ red zone.
Two offside penalties and defensive holding further compounded Southern Wayne’s troubles. The Eagles’ David Lamm cashed in with a three-yard dive to create a 6-6 tie with 3:14 to go.
“We came out exactly the way I was hoping,” Hine said. “We played one series and the mistakes started … piled up and for whatever reason we didn’t recover tonight.”
The Eagles controlled the offensive line of scrimmage.
Quarterback Gio Pineda fed the Saints a steady diet of Lamm, who broke off short-yardage gains that allowed Smith to efficiently utilize his playbook. That workman-like effort helped lead to Micah Cox’s 45-yard scoring gallop and Tallin Collins’ 29-yard TD reception.
Rosewood used its air attack to loosen up Princeton’s defense last week.
Smith knew Lamm wanted the pigskin in his talons.
“I told David before the game that he would be back tonight,” Smith said. “It was his night, he would be able to get into those holes and the offensive line was going to do their job. All the pieces came together tonight.”
Southern Wayne closed the gap to 18-12.
Eli Boykin reeled in a 22-yard pass from senior quarterback Tez White that put the Saints inside the Eagles’ 25-yard line. Williams stumbled down inside the 10 after catching a short pass from White.
White’s 1-yard dive capped the drive with 49.5 seconds left before halftime.
Elation turned to frustration, however.
The Eagles answered 33 seconds later on Lamm’s 2-yard scoring plunge – his second of three TDs on the night.
“I’ve got to watch some film,” Hine said. “They found some chinks in our armor in the first half, especially our run fits [on defense] were not right. That’s ‘Defense 101’ showing kids these are our lanes of attack and here’s what you see in the downhill run game from them.
“We didn’t tackle and hit like I’m used to seeing these guys do. All of a sudden, you started to hear that pad-popping volume rise late in the game, but it took too long. It was too much of not reading our keys and transferring our eyes to the ball.”
Despite heavy losses to graduation, the Eagles dominated the trenches on both sides of the ball. The defense recovered five turnovers that led to three scores and forced the Saints into five turnovers on downs.
“For whatever reason, we just didn’t do well at the line of scrimmage,” Hine said. “I’m going to be at the drawing board tomorrow morning as soon as I get film and coach these guys up on when you get a look like this, how do you fit it [defensively]?
“They were well-coached tonight and better-coached than us.”
Southern Wayne launches its 2023 Quad County 3A schedule at home Friday against East Wake. The Saints are 8-25 in conference openers since 1990 and have lost 15 straight.
