WARSAW — James Kenan head football coach Tim Grady walked off the field Friday evening and thought to himself “what just happened?”
Things became a little clearer Saturday morning when Grady reviewed the game film from the Tigers’ 21-20, overtime conquest of Whiteville at Bill Taylor Field.
He paid close to attention to the OT period.
A goal-line stand on a two-point conversion and David Zeleya’s gritty effort helped propelled Kenan to 3-0 overall for the second time in the past three seasons.
Zeleya’s game-tying TD rush was his lone carry of the game. Emerson “E-Money” Gomez provided the game-winning PAT.
“Some of the plays he made were unbelievable … was not going to take “no” for an answer,” Grady said of Zeleya. “It was such a team effort, our kids battled for each other. [There’s] clip after clip of players being so selfless for each other.
“E-Money came through for us.”
Junior quarterback Eli Avent directed two first-half touchdown drives. He capped each possession with a short-scoring dive, which gave the Tigers a 14-0 advantage at halftime.
Whitevillle recorded a third-quarter safety and punched in two fourth-quarter touchdowns — the second score set up by a James Kenan fumble.
The Tigers won the coin toss to start OT.
“I decided put the defense out there first for overtime,” Grady said. “I said to myself, ‘let’s do what we can here.’ That was the squad I wanted out there. At the right times, they came up with the plays. They warred through cramps and made it happen.”
The Wolfpack grabbed a 20-14 lead in the extra session, but couldn’t push the two-point conversion across the line.
“We stuffed them,” Grady said.
That set the table for Zeleya and Gomez.
Avent ended the night 10 for 18 with 122 yards and two rushing TDs. Zeleya reeled in five receptions for 93 yards. Josh Mitchell paced the run game with 40 yards on three totes.
Kenan amassed just 199 yards of total offense.
“I thought they [Whiteville] did a really good job on defense,” Grady said. “We knew up front we were going to have a hard time. They were bigger than us, they were physical. No. 58 [Donte Faulk] is one of the defensive linemen you’re going to come across in high school [this season].
“He’s a special kid. We got some stuff going early on, but we really kind of stalled out.”
Defensively, the Tigers forced three turnovers on downs, four punts, intercepted one pass and recovered a fumble.
“I said, ‘fellas, here’s the deal. Somebody’s got to get hot on offense or defense,’” Grady said. “The defense has been hot as fire and fed the offense. But they [defensive players] have to turn around and play offense. It’s a lot to ask those kids to do.
“We’re trying to put the best 11 on the field and that requires fatigue to set in. They played their butts off, did not quit and played to the end which is something at James Kenan we haven’t seen in a long time.”
Kenan evened its series at 2-all against Whiteville since 2013.
The Tigers return home Friday for a non-conference battle against East Bladen. Kickoff is 7 p.m. in Warsaw.
You may reach sports writer Rudy Coggins at prepswriter2@gmail.com or call/text 919-709-9257.
