Southern Wayne head coach Matt Hine, left, talks with referees Steve Smith, middle, and Rick Smith, right, during a recent game. The Saints fell to Fike on a soggy Friday evening in Dudley. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
DUDLEY — Southern Wayne’s defense got a stop and its offense ran one positive play before lightning and rain sent both teams to the locker rooms Friday evening.
The 75-minute delay didn’t dampen the Saints’ spirits.
Once the game resumed, Southern Wayne built a two-touchdown lead, but couldn’t hold on during a 21-14 to Quad County 3A football rival Wilson Fike.
“It was a great game, obviously very disappointed for our seniors and our team in general to not pull that out,” SW head coach Matt Hine said. “We matched up well them. A game we thought we could show up and win, but we made some mistakes – little things that can come back and haunt you when the other team is not making the mistakes you are.
“Hat’s off to Fike.”
Tez White put SW on the board with a 1-yard plunge in the opening quarter. The senior quarterback connected with Jahmere Bannerman on a 20-yard scoring play in the second quarter.
The Golden Demons punched in their first touchdown with 1.7 seconds to go before halftime. Fike capitalized on two back-breaking penalties – roughing the passer and defensive pass interference.
“We had them stopped,” Hine said.
Fike tightened its defense after halftime.
White couldn’t find his normal running lanes and missed a couple of long pass attempts that could have put the Saints inside the red zone.
“We had some things working with him in the first and second quarters, enough of a balance of a run game with some of the other guys we were using in the backfield — Tyler Sleight or Tyquavious Williams,” Hine said. “They made some good defensive adjustments in the second half, we made it much harder running the ball … crept more and more in the box and we need gave them no reason to come out of it.
“We tried to mix in some pass-and -run to get that guy out of the box, open things up whether it was inside with our downhill running game or getting the ball outside.”
White cranked out 149 yards on 21 carries and completed two passes in four attempts. Bannerman provided 44 yards on three carries, while Speight contributed 28 yards on 12 totes.
SW compiled 243 yards of offense on a rain-soaked turf.
Injuries continue to plague the Saints, who dressed just 22 players for the game.
“Our kids fought like crazy,” Hine said. “From the last drive in the second half and whole second half, they [Fike] played clean football the rest of the game. They’re second in our conference and playing for a piece of the conference championship for a reason next week.
“They’re a well-cached and fundamentally-sound football team.”
Southern Wayne (3-6, 1-5 QCC) concludes regular-season play Friday at county rival Charles B. Aycock. Fike (6-3, 5-1) needs a victory against league-leading Hunt (8-1, 6-0) to share the QCC regular-season crown.
