Offense struggles, Scots lose heartbreaker at Pinecrest

SOUTHERN PINES — The emotion was palpable on the field.

Scotland High School varsity football players, normally a confident, outgoing group, were largely quiet and downtrodden as they walked off the field at the John W. Williams Athletic Complex in the aftermath of the Scots’ 14-13 road loss to Pinecrest. Tears even streamed down a couple players’ faces.

The offense that had carried the Scots (3-1) all season struggled to move the ball against the Patriots’ (4-1) veteran defense, turning the ball over three times and finishing with just 263 total yards of offense.

“Bottom line is we couldn’t block the inside linebacker enough and we couldn’t run the ball effectively enough to win a game like this,” said head coach Richard Bailey. “We got the ball down deep inside the 20 twice and didn’t score. You have to take advantage of those opportunities, especially in these kinds of close games. Then you can’t have a missed extra point. Those will come back to bite you more times than not.”

Bailey said Scotland was able to hit a few plays offensively, but weren’t able to sustain drives, and therefore was never quite able to find any rhythm.

“We had to take advantage of some things and I didn’t do a good job of doing that,” said offensive coordinator Will Clark. “I think everybody was where they were supposed to be, we just have to finish plays and I have to do a better job with formation to get us better looks.”

Senior receiver Trey Chavis was the primary and pretty much only consistent spark for the offense all night, giving senior quarterback Tyler Barfield a secure option to throw to when he could. Chavis finished with four catches for 101 yards, adding a four-yard rushing touchdown on a jet sweep.

Junior linebacker Ladarius McNeill was filled with resolve, looking ahead to what the Scots need to work on next week in practice.

“We just have to be coachable,” McNeill said. “We made a few mistakes, but we’ll bounce back. I feel like we have stuff to work on. We’ll get back to practice next week.”

Defensively, McNeill said Scotland played a four-man front and loaded the box, while playing man-to-man coverage on the receivers outside for pretty much the whole game in order to defend Pinecrest’s split-back option veer offense.

For most of the night, the Scots’ defense held its own, shutting down a Pinecrest offense that came in averaging 34.8 points per game and holding it to 14 points, its lowest point output of the season.

But, at the end of the game, the Patriots had one final drive left in them, marching 60-plus yards in about three minutes and scoring the go-ahead touchdown and extra point on a 35-yard pass from Braxton Barber to Samet Cobb with 1:33 left.

“It felt like that was going to happen,” Bailey said. “I hate to say it, but the whole game, the longer we kept them there, the more you knew something like that was going to happen and it did.”

After Pinecrest went ahead, the Scots’ offense took the field at its own-25, down a point with 1:26 left. On the first play, Barfield rolled right and threw an interception to Pinecrest’s Noah Hartford, sealing the win for the Patriots.

“Hats off to Pinecrest,” Bailey said. “They did a great job, their coaching staff did a great job. Their players played extremely hard and they outplayed us. I’m proud of how hard our kids played, not that we played great, but we played hard and our defense did a great job.”