Patriots out after a close one, Mustangs advance
The Patriots perfect season came to an end Friday night in a hard fought game against Clayton. The Patriots played until the last seconds trailing by 7. They drove the ball down to the 1 yard line, but time ran out. Clayton put up a goal line stand to deny the Patriots a trip to the third round.
Clayton lead the entire game, but never ran away with it. Pinecrest kept the game within reach, and probably needed just one more play. This is back-to-back years that the Patriots were knocked out in the second round. The program has a lot to be proud of: a conference title, an undefeated regular season, and finishing 11-1. It was just a few years ago when Patriot Football was on the brink of ending permanently. Patriot Football has come a long way since then and will continue to grow. Clayton 17 Pinecrest 10 was the final in that one.
A little further north in Robbins, the Mustangs celebrate a big home win in the second round. Taking down Bertie 58-20, the Mustangs will advance to round three for the second year in a row. The score shows that this was easy, but in one aspect, it was anything but that.
Discipline, restraint, composure is what it took for North Moore to put this one away. There were high tensions before the game even started, when Bertie players crossed the 50 during pre-game warmups. “Incredibly proud of our kids, we came out and did not let it get into our heads. We played our brand of football and we did that for four quarters. I’m so proud of our kids right now,” said Coach Carrouth.
Several times during the game, Coach Carrouth was heard telling his boys to let the score board do the talking, and that’s exactly what the Mustangs did.
They controlled every aspect of the game, offense moved the ball better than they have all year. The defense made stops, forced fumbles, and ran in a fumble recovery. Special teams had an onside kick recovery, several two point conversions and extra point field goals.
The Mustangs ran away with the game quickly. At the end of the first quarter, Mustangs were up 14-6. By halftime, the score was one sided with a 43-12 lead. At the end of regulation, it was 58-20. MooreDailySports athlete of the night was Colby Pennington.
Pennington played both sides of the ball, played QB a few plays, TE, and RB. he scored on offense and ran in a 80 yard fumble recovery. In the rare chance the Junior wasn’t on the field, he was following Coach Carrouth around establishing himself as a leader on the team. “He is a monster. He gets after it, whistle to whistle. Anything we ask him to do, whether it’s blocking, catching, or whether it’s coming up and playing defense, or running the ball. Whatever we ask him to do, he goes and gets after and it’s just like the rest of that football team, they get after it,” said Carrouth.
“I feel good about this game. There are definitely some things I could do better. I can’t have a perfect game. There were some blocks I shouldn’t have missed,” said Pennington. “I became a Junior this year, and we lost a lot of my buddies who were seniors last year. Our Quarterback was a huge last year, and I felt like I needed to step up into his place.”
After they ejected a Bertie player in the fourth quarter, personal foul penalties began to stack up for them. The Mustangs held their composure, kept going back to the line for another play, and never gave into the taunting. “We really focused in the locker room to keep our composure and not react back. We don’t want to react back and end our playoffs, we know we can make a deep run,” said Pennington.
The Mustangs will travel to take on Wilson Prep Academy in Wilson Friday night. If everything goes perfectly, they could get another home game in round four.
