A group of Wildcats bring down an unsuspecting Cardinal. Richlands' defense ran the game, keeping Jacksonville from scoring a single point. Photo by Trevor Normile

Tough defending won the Wildcats 24 unanswered points, refusing Jacksonville any opportunities to score.

Horne did what his opponents on Jacksonville couldn’t, completing four passes for 71 yards and rushing for 48. After a scoreless first quarter, McQueen got a five yard touchdown from a hand off, and Jerry Walker scored on a 40 yard pass after which Horne ran it in for a conversion.

The Wildcats owned the third quarter as well. Trey Smith completed a 33 yard field goal and Horne scored on a six yard run. Smith kicked for the field goal, bringing the score to 24 for Richlands.

The fourth was without score, with the Wildcats defense continuing to chew through the Cardinals’ offense.

Coach Mike Natoli was glad to finally get a win in the 2011 season. After three narrow losses, the Wildcats are 1-3.

“Well I feel great for these kids, they really deserved it. We fought really hard these past few weeks and we were one play away in all three games, and that’s high school football, you could be 3-0 or 0-3,” he said. “We’ve fought so much adversity this year and for them to perform like they did tonight it’s really exciting”

Natoli said the key to Friday’s victory was understanding the opponent, and exploiting any weakness.

“Their starting quarterback was out, and Patrick Childress is a great player and a great quarterback. We knew he was out, and our game plan revolved around that,” he said.

“We blitzed almost every single snap, we put our best corner on their best receiver, and we felt that if we could put a little pressure on their young quarterbacks we could get them riled a little bit.”

It was evident that Jacksonville was struggling offensively by the second quarter. The Cardinals’ quarterbacks often ended up well behind the line of scrimmage on the fourth down. With a little more than two minutes in the third quarter, a bad snap on the JHS side before a punt led to Richlands starting within 20 yards or so of the Cardinals’ end zone.

“The defensive coaches did great job this week of putting together a game plan, and the kids did a great job executing it,” Natoli said.

Richlands faces Clinton in conference play next week, and the coach said the Wildcats will continue keep their strategy consistent.

“Just like we always do, we’ll break down their film, watch it and put together a game plan Monday, we’ll get after it Tuesday and Wednesday, polish it up Thursday and play on Friday, just like every week.”

A group of Wildcats bring down an unsuspecting Cardinal. Richlands' defense ran the game, keeping Jacksonville from scoring a single point. Photo by Trevor Normile

by Trevor Normile

In a relentless flood of blitzes Richlands clinched its first victory of the season against Jacksonville High School.

Neither team was at total strength. Wildcats quarterback Tank Norman was out due to a concussion received last week against Southwest, and was replaced by sophomore Ethan Horne. Patrick Childress of Jacksonville was replaced by three players, after injuring his leg against Northside.

Tough defending won the Wildcats 24 unanswered points, refusing Jacksonville any opportunities to score.

Horne did what his opponents on Jacksonville couldn’t, completing four passes for 71 yards and rushing for 48. After a scoreless first quarter, McQueen got a five yard touchdown from a hand off, and Jerry Walker scored on a 40 yard pass after which Horne ran it in for a conversion.

The Wildcats owned the third quarter as well. Trey Smith completed a 33 yard field goal and Horne scored on a six yard run. Smith kicked for the field goal, bringing the score to 24 for Richlands.

The fourth was without score, with the Wildcats defense continuing to chew through the Cardinals’ offense.

Coach Mike Natoli was glad to finally get a win in the 2011 season. After three narrow losses, the Wildcats are 1-3.

“Well I feel great for these kids, they really deserved it. We fought really hard these past few weeks and we were one play away in all three games, and that’s high school football, you could be 3-0 or 0-3,” he said. “We’ve fought so much adversity this year and for them to perform like they did tonight it’s really exciting”

Natoli said the key to Friday’s victory was understanding the opponent, and exploiting any weakness.

“Their starting quarterback was out, and Patrick Childress is a great player and a great quarterback. We knew he was out, and our game plan revolved around that,” he said.

“We blitzed almost every single snap, we put our best corner on their best receiver, and we felt that if we could put a little pressure on their young quarterbacks we could get them riled a little bit.”

It was evident that Jacksonville was struggling offensively by the second quarter. The Cardinals’ quarterbacks often ended up well behind the line of scrimmage on the fourth down. With a little more than two minutes in the third quarter, a bad snap on the JHS side before a punt led to Richlands starting within 20 yards or so of the Cardinals’ end zone.

“The defensive coaches did great job this week of putting together a game plan, and the kids did a great job executing it,” Natoli said.

Richlands faces Clinton in conference play next week, and the coach said the Wildcats will continue keep their strategy consistent.

“Just like we always do, we’ll break down their film, watch it and put together a game plan Monday, we’ll get after it Tuesday and Wednesday, polish it up Thursday and play on Friday, just like every week.”

]]> http://capefearnewspapers.com/richlands-blitzes-jacksonville-into-a-shutout/feed/ 0 http://capefearnewspapers.com/new-hanover-ends-bulldogs%e2%80%99-winning-steak/ http://capefearnewspapers.com/new-hanover-ends-bulldogs%e2%80%99-winning-steak/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:25:13 +0000 Michael Staton http://capefearnewspapers.com/?p=8424 It was a long Friday night for a very good football team in the Wallace-Rose Hill Bulldogs. They hosted 4-A powerhouse New Hanover and lost 48-7. The loss snapped the longest win streak in the state – 30 games.
The Bulldogs could have scheduled an easier opponent, but that’s not the way they conduct business. This 1-A school wants to go up against the best, even if it’s a 4-A school.

A New Hanover running back slips past Wallace-Rose Hill linebacker Andrew Maynor during first half action. (Photo by Michael Staton)

Rivals East Duplin and James Kenan congratulate each other after the game. Unfortunately, in the game of football can be only one winner. Photo by Trevor Normile

“You won, you guys should be happy. But we can’t get greedy, we’ve got to take what we can get, big or small,” said EDHS head coach Battle Holley to his team after the game, as he was holding his young daughter.

The Panthers took advantage of what opportunities came their way to get points on the board. Zack Parker got things rolling with a 29 yard field goal, and three following kicks were successful. Dre Scarborough scored on a four yard run in the second quarter followed by a massive 82 touchdown by John Moore from QB Derrick Conter.

James Kenan’s only points came from Bautista, on a 28 yard field goal. The Panthers wrapped up the fourth with a 10 yard pass to Moore, bringing the Panthers’ score to 27. Holley said that although the team played well, offense still shows room for improvement.

“I thought our defense played really well. Offense was a little flat and I’ll take the blame on that. But we came away with a win, and that’s what we wanted,” he said.

Even the parking lot at East Duplin seemed to be standing-room only. Such is the nature of cross-county rivalries such as with the Panthers and Tigers.

“When you play, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is, what the records are, when they play they’re going to play hard and they’ve got a great coaching staff, it was just a hard-fought game,” Holley said.

East Duplin is now preparing to face off against another rival next week. Although Wallace Rose-Hill lost to New Hanover 48-7, Holley is careful not to underestimate the Bulldogs, which recently set huge winning-streak records.

“Well, it’s another football game, hopefully we’ll have a win. They’re another rival team, you know, and neither team will have to motivate their players too hard. They’ll be ready to go,” he said. The coach was pleased with his players that stayed on the field throughout the game against the Tigers.

“We had some guys playing on both sides of the ball, and never came off the field and they didn’t get tired. We had some adversity, the defense had to stay on the field a long time and they bailed us out and gave us a short time to get some points,” he said, adding that cutting down on penalties (which lost the Panthers 90 yards) was a priority.

Earlier in the season, the coach also spoke of increasing what he described as “depth” on the team.

“We’ve improved a little bit, but we’ve still got a little ways to go,” he said.

Contact Trevor at 910.285.2178 or at tjnormile@readcapefear.com.

The Tigers’ early season struggles continued Thursday night as James Kenan fell 28-14 to Jones County.

James Kenan has now lost the first two games of the young season and both were home games.

Head coach Ken Avent said the Tigers did not play well at all. He said the team will need to regroup and decide if it’s going to be a squad that can contend for the Tri-County 1-A championship.

A Jones Senior runner escapes a would-be Tiger tackler and scores a first half touchdown. (Photos by Michael Staton)

A 31-yard scoring run at the 4:52 mark of the first quarter gave Jones Senior the game’s first touchdown.

A turnover – a fumble – by James Kenan led to another Jones Senior score in the first half. After the Trojans recovered the fumble, Jones Senior scored on a 37-yard run with three minutes left in the first half. The Trojans led 14-0.

The Tigers got on the scoreboard late in the first half when quarterback Parker Jones barreled into the end zone from one yard out. The two-point conversation run was good and James Kenan trailed 14-8 at halftime.

A nine-yard run that reached pay dirt at the 8:50 mark of the third quarter increased the Trojans’ lead to 20-8.

Later in the third quarter, the Tigers were driving for an apparent touchdown when Jones Senior recovered a fumble and returned it 92 yards for a touchdown. After a successful two-point conversion pass, the Trojans led 28-8 with 6:35 left in the third quarter.

Jones for the Tigers was injured during the play that resulted in the fumble and 92-yard Jones’ touchdown.

James Kenan did score at the 4:36 left in the game on a 12-yard run by Devon Best.

For the Tigers, Marcelias Sutton rushed for 143 yards on 24 carries. Best had 46 yards on seven carries.

Avent said he’s going to tell the team that they must stay together and persevere. He’s optimistic that the team can still have a successful season.

The game was moved from Friday to Thursday night due to Hurricane Irene.

Things don’t get any easier for the Tigers. They travel to East Duplin this Friday.