LAURINBURG — The Fighting Scots are still a work in progress after a 34-21 victory against Durham Hillside on Friday.
Head coach Richard Bailey said there were positive and negatives from the game that the Scots would be working on this week in practice.
“We just have to clean up all the mistakes,” Bailey said. “It was two steps forward, three steps back a lot of times. We only ran 24 offensive plays by the third quarter. We’re used to running 65 plays a game and by the end of the third quarter we had ran 24. Defensively we missed more sacks than any human could possibly miss, but give credit to Hillside’s quarterback he’s an elusive guy.”
The Scots defense might have missed opportunities to sack Hillside’s Randy Trice Jr. but that didn’t stop them from forcing him to run for his life. Trice ended the game with 16 carries for -68 yards rushing and one fumble. Through the air, Trice fared better with 20 passes for 281 yards and two touchdowns.
The fumble by Trice was recovered by Scots linebacker Javon Ratliffe at the nine-yard line and set up a Warren Bell touchdown pass to Khalil Smith to give the Scots a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
“The quarterback scrambled around, there were near misses where we should have had him, but we have to make those tackles and those plays,” said Bailey. “When we play a scrambling quarterback we have to be able to lock down the receivers and find the football — which is not our forfeit. We’re not real good with ball skills, it’s not for lack of effort, the boys work on it with coach McFatten.”
Hillside spread out their 281 passing yards among five receivers with No. 7 Deshawn Mitchell catching seven passes for 126 yards.
Fighting Scots senior Trey Dixon led his team with three catches for 34 yards, as one of four Scots receivers to get their hands on the ball.
Bell had six passes for 58 yards and one touchdown as the Scots reverted back to the run game in the second half after trailing Hillside 21-20 in the third quarter. Bell went on a long quarterback keeper run to set up a one-yard touchdown run from senior Zamir White to give the Scots a 28-21 lead.
White scored his final touchdown of the game from five yards out with just under three minutes left in the game.
“Second half we just decided to commit to the run game,” Bailey said. “We messed up a lot less doing that. We had people open and would throw a two-hopper to a wide open receiver, the (ball) hits off Bruce’s face mask, we would complete it then get a holding call, we didn’t pass protect — all things you can’t do.”
The focus moving forward according to Bailey will be making sure players are paying attention in practice and potentially finding new ways to teach things.
“It’s like teaching, if it’s not working you have to try something different,” he said. “We have to find a different way to reach some of them, because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
Here is a look at how the seven other Sandhills Athletic Conference teams performed during Week 2:
• Pinecrest defeated Gray’s Creek, 42-6
The Patriots offense came to play against Gray’s Creek under the direction of junior Greg VanSteen. In his second game at quarterback, VanSteen threw four touchdowns on 18 passes for 308 yards. Pinecrest’s defense gave up 304 yards of total offense and one touchdown to the Bears.
• Purnell Swett upended Ashley, 31-6
The Rams are 2-0 for the first time since 2011. Purnell was down 6-3 at halftime but the Rams defense collected four fumbles and forced punts to set up three touchdown runs by Al’Drique Thompson.
• Richmond fell to Wake Forest, 38-13
The Raiders couldn’t contain the reigning 4AA champions Wake Forest as the Cougars scored three unanswered touchdowns and a field goal in the first two quarters. A four touchdown in the third quarter put Wake Forest ahead 31-0 before Richmond’s Caleb Hood tossed a 72-yard pass to Jahyee Stanback. Wake Forest scored one more time in the third quarter to secure a 38-13 win, despite a fourth quarter score by the Raiders.
• Seventy-First drops to Cape Fear, 15-14
The Falcons were unable to capitalize on three turnovers by Cape Fear. Seventy-First mounted a second-half comeback after Cape Fear scored 15 unanswered points in the first half. The Falcons pulled within a point of Cape Fear, but the Colts defense shut Seventy-First down. The final defensive stand was led by Cape Fear quarterback Justice Galloway-Velazquez, who was filling in at linebacker. Galloway-Velazquez stuffed Falcons running back Fabion Jones for the win.
• Hoke lost to South View, 42-27
The Bucks and the Tigers combined for combined for five turnovers. Hoke quarterback Kevin Thorpe threw two interceptions to go along with his two touchdowns. The Bucks defense registered three fumble recoveries, all of which set up South View’s offense to put points on the board.
• Jack Britt was shut out by Terry Sanford, 21-0
The Buccaneers out gained Terry Sanford in total yards, 308-202, but two interceptions by the Bulldogs kept Jack Britt out of the end zone. Terry Sanford’s other two touchdowns came courtesy of penalties on Jack Britt and a muffed punt return by the Bucs was recovered by the Bulldogs.
• Lumberton narrowly lost to Westover, 20-15
The Pirates fell to the Wolverines in the final 12 seconds of their game. Lumberton had a 15-6 lead heading into the fourth quarter that quickly evaporated.
The SAC-8 teams continue non-conference play this Friday as Pinecrest hosts Durham Hillside; Richmond heads to Pine Forest; and Hoke will travel to Westover. Scotland will head to Marlboro County, Seventy-First will travel across town to Cape Fear, Purnell Swett hosts Douglas Byrd, Jack Britt hosts Gray’s Creek and Lumberton will host South View.
Amber Hatten can be reached at 910-506-3170.
