Report from South Granville over North Lenoir 26-18

[tarheelg]

CREEDMOOR - South Granville gutted out a tough 26-18 win against a physical North Lenoir team in the first round of the NCHSAA 2AA playoffs at home on Friday. Micah Wilkerson carried the load for the Vikings for the second straight game, rushing for 143 yards on 23 carries, and a touchdown, and also returning a kickoff for a touchdown to open the third quarter. The Viking defense might have given up a few big plays, but also forced four turnovers, including two second half interceptions.

The Vikings won the toss and elected to defer. Justin Cobb took the opening kickoff, broke a couple of tackles, and was off to the races for a 92 yard touchdown. Chris Garrett burst through the line to block the extra point, but the Hawks still led 6-0 with only 12 seconds off of the clock. The Vikings needed to answer offensively, but a lost fumble on their first offensive play put their backs against the wall. Thankfully for the home team, the Hawks obliged to fumble the ball right back to the Vikings on the very next play. From there, the Viking offense appeared to get in gear, driving for four first downs on an eleven play drive, but turned the ball over on an interception in the end zone. The Hawks answered with an 11 play drive of their own, going 95 yards and a touchdown, culminated on an 18 yard pass from Filipo Sualevai to Ny'jai Koonce. A failed two point conversion kept their lead at 12-0. South Granville's next drive carried over into the second quarter, and also went for 11 plays, and covered 80 yards. Micah Wilkerson was the workhorse, who carried the ball seven times on this series, including the Vikings' first scoring play of the game. A failed extra point left it a 12-6 game, which would stand as the half time score, when the Hawks lost a fumble in the red zone after appearing poised to add to their lead.

At the half, the stat sheet showed nearly identical offensive totals; both teams had put together a long scoring drive, while both teams had also a long drive that ended in a turnover. The difference in the game was the kickoff return for a touchdown from Justin Cobb for the Hawks to start the game. Micah Wilkerson quickly took care of evening up that part of the stat sheet as well, taking the second half kickoff for 97 yards and a touchdown to tie the game at 12-12. Jackson Erwin's extra point gave the Vikings their first led of the game at 13-12. North Lenoir answered to reclaim the lead, after the teams took turns turning the ball over on downs. The scoring play came on a 46 yard touchdown run from Jaden Kilpatrick. Another failed two point conversion left the Hawks' lead at 18-13. On the ensuing kickoff, the Hawks attempted a slow rolling squib quick that was recovered by Christian Perez for South Granville to preserver possession. On offense, the Vikings rallied right back to retake the lead on a five play, 53 yard drive, culminated by a 35 yard touchdown run from Ethen Josselin. Jackson Erwin's extra point made it a 20-18 game, with 2:16 to play in the third quarter.

The Hawks' next series saw them pick up four first downs and keep the ball for 14 plays, but Nick White's second interception in two weeks ended the North Lenoir scoring threat and preserved the Vikings' two point lead, midway through the fourth quarter. The Viking offense was unable to melt the clock and forced to punt after a three and out. The Viking defense then forced a four and out, turning the ball over on downs, including an incomplete halfback pass on a fourth down play. On the Vikings' next series, again there was a chance to melt the clock, but the Hawks managed the clock well on defense, using their two remaining timeouts to get the ball back with 13 seconds remaining, giving them a chance for one final play to win the game, trailing 20-18. An under-thrown pass from Filipo Sualevai was intercepted by Dominic Deloatch and returned 42 yards for a touchdown as time expired.

The Hawks' season ended with an 8-4 record, and settled for tying their school for wins in a season. The Vikings improved to 9-3 and move on the second round of the playoffs, where they will host the Knights of Currituck County High School on Friday, November 22 at 7:30 PM.

Score by Quarters
NL 12-0-6-0-----18
SG 0-6-14-6-----26

Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
11:48-NL-Justin Cobb 92 yd Kickoff Return TD (kick blocked)
0:31-NL-Ny'jai Koonce 18 yd TD Pass from Filipo Sualevai (run failed)
2nd Quarter
6:05-SG-Micah Wilkerson 4 yd TD Run (kick failed)
3rd Quarter
11:47-SG-Wilkerson 97 yd Kickoff Return TD (Jackson Erwin kick)
5:03-NL-Jaden Kilpatrick 46 yd TD Run (run failed)
2:16-SG-Ethen Josselin 35 yd TD (Erwin kick)
4th Quarter
0:00-SG-Dominic Deloatch 42 yd INT Return TD (No extra point attempt)

Game Stats NL, SG
Rushes-Yds 44-264, 43-237
Pass Com/Att, Yds 1/6, 18, 0/1, 0
Total Offense 282, 236
First Downs 15, 10
Penalties-Yds 3-20, 2-20
Turnovers 4, 2

Individual Stats
North Lenoir
Rushing: Jaden Kilpatrick 16-146, Ny'jai Koonce 13-95, Malik Jones 7-21, Filipo Sualevai 6-2, Jelly Shackleford 1-1, Auston Dildy 1-(-1)
Passing: Filipo Sualevai 1/4, 18, 2 INT, Auston Dildy 0/1, 0, Ny'jai Koonce 0/1, 0
Receiving: Ny'jai Koonce 1-18

South Granville
Rushing: Micah Wilkerson 23-143, Ethen Josselin 2-36, Khawan Bobbitt 12-20, Malichi Flowers 2-23, Bryson McCall 3-14, Nick White 1-1
Passing: Khawan Bobbitt 0/1, 0, INT

 

[tarheelg]

More thoughts on North Lenoir at South Granville....First, the Eastern Carolina Conference must be solid for this North Lenoir team to have finished 5th and have fought the way they did for four quarters and be one play away from advancing to the 2nd Rd. Also from that conference, Kinston lost in 1st Rd. to conference opponent West Craven, and it appeared from the score that Ayden-Grifton gave SW Onslow all they wanted in a 14-9 game. Washington, along with West Craven, move on to the 2nd Rd. NL was definitely physical, and they had multiple backs that could break multiple tackles on the same play. I think SG missed more tackles in the 1st Quarter of this game than in any other entire game this season. Thankfully for the home team, the defense only allowed one score after the 1st Quarter and did a better job of containing the NL backs on all but a couple of plays in the final three quarters. Congratulations to the Hawks on a great season, going 8-4, which is very impressive, considering they went winless one year ago. They seemed like a very well coached and disciplined team. I know that I only have one set of eyes and ears but from what I saw and heard, it seemed like NL is a class program, and one on the rise. We've all been there at a game where the other team's fans or players or coaches make you irritated, or rub you the wrong way with things they say or the way they act, but I didn't see anything from NL to make me think negatively; from the way they lined up for the anthem (and brought their own flag by the way), to the team of radio guys from the station in Kinston in the press box. The only ones we were looking at sideways in the press box, (probably from both teams and the radio crew) were the ones in stripes that couldn't decide where they wanted to spot the ball; play after play after play; up a yard, back a yard; no back another yard; nah let's spot it....here...nah still not right...oh ok; they're ready to line up so we'll leave it here.....illegal shift penalty walked off for about 3 yards and 2 feet near midfield; at least they weren't overly flag happy like many others we've seen....Next up for SG is Currituck, who won a hard fought game against St. Pauls....either way, whoever won the SG/NL game was going up against either the playmaking Knight QB or the dominant Bulldog RB....hope the Vikings can shore up the tackling to avoid a long night against the Knights in the 2nd Rd....also for what it's worth, sophomore SG RB Micah Wilkerson is on fire the last few weeks. He's run for 751 yards in the last four games, not to mention the 97 yd kickoff return to open the 3rd quarter against North Lenoir. In an option offense that often features 6 or 7 different ball carriers a game, it's tough for one guy to get enough carries to have big games, but he has taken advantage of his chances lately to earn more snaps on the field, and recently pushed his total for the year to well over 1400 yards. Many would have considered 2019 to be a rebuilding year for SG, having lost so many starters from last year's team, and having so many sophomores and a couple of freshmen starting and playing key roles this year. The only position groups with more than one returning starter from last year are OL & DBs The few seniors on the club that have been a part of back to back undefeated regular seasons have stepped up and done their job. A couple of them have been starters for three years, and were part of the teams that made it to 3rd Rd in 2017 and lost of a tough one to North Davidson, and suffered the dismal upset at home to Goldsboro in the 1st Rd last year in 2018....this North Lenoir win gets a monkey off of their back, and allows this young team to get another week of practice in this year, hoping they will come out ready to play against Currituck.

 

[Otis1144]

Hard team to figure. Their schedule wasn't really hard until they lost big to Washington 33-6. I think our guy's went into NL thinking it was an automatic win. We got the type of game from them it sounds like you got. The next week after beating us they lose to AG bad 35-0 and then Kinston 19-6 both teams we beat. So as I told you before your game I didn't understand it. You gotta play every game 110% and we have to learn that. Came out flat this past Thursday against Kinston in the playoffs. Down 13-12 in the 3rd before making some plays on defense and winning 31-13. I hope they have learned from it.

 

[tarheelg]

Yes, we started slow, allowing the opening kickoff to be returned for a TD, then fumbling on first play, luckily getting a turnover right back, but still eventually faced 2 score deficit in 1st quarter, defense played better rest of the game, and I knew their non-conference schedule did not look all that challenging but still knew they were solid, because 1-they did win all of the games, and 2-they did beat West Craven...we definitely got their best shot; not going to say they played a mistake free game because they did turn the ball over 4 times, including 2 red zone fumbles and another long drive ending on an INT, but their defense held our offense to its lowest yardage output since Southern Nash I believe, but they showed up to play, RBs & OL made it tough on our defense, they only punted once, and that was erased and turned into an NL first down due to an SG penalty