North Duplin dominated Friday’s opening football game against the Southside Seahawks from start to finish as they cruised to a 50-8 victory— thanks in no small part to running back Carell Phillips.
Friday night’s game started in a strange way as, on the first play following the kickoff, Southside immediately took a safety to behind 2-0.
After the safety, the Rebels then took over the ball at the 43-yard line where they quickly marched down the field to set up an 11-yard touchdown run from Philips. After the extra-point, North Duplin led 9-0 with 9:15 left in the first quarter.
Following the score, the North Duplin defense then immediately forced a three-and-out. Things then continued to go uphill for the Rebels and downhill for the Seahawks as, on fourth down, the Southside punter miskicked the punt, and the punt only travelled a total of five yards from the line of scrimmage to give the Rebels the ball at the Seahawks 36-yard line.
Southside almost got the ball back on the drive when they forced the Rebels into a fourth and five situation at the 18-yard line, but North Duplin drew the Seahawks defense offsides to earn a first down. Two plays later, Phillips earned his second touchdown of the night with a one-yard touchdown run which gave the Rebels a 16-0 lead with 3:21 left in the first quarter following the extra point.
When Southside got the ball back, they were once again forced to punt, and North Duplin took over possession of the ball at their own 39-yard line with 1:06 left in the first quarter. On a long drive spurred by several Phillips’ carries, the Rebels once again scored when Phillips found the endzone for a third time on an eight-yard run on third and seven. With the extra point, the Rebels took a 23-0 lead with 8:15 remaining in the first half.
After another three-and-out by the Seahawks on their next possession, the Rebels once again found the endzone on their longest drive of the game which started at their own 21-yard line with 6:32 left in the half and ended with Phillips scoring his fourth touchdown of the game from the seven yard-line with 31 seconds remaining in the half.
Trailing 30-0, it looked as if the Seahawks could finally have something to get excited about in the game when, on the kickoff following the Phillips touchdown, a Southside kick returner returned the ball all the way to the endzone for a touchdown. The return was called back due to holding though, and to make things worse, the Seahawks fumbled the ball on the very next play which a North Duplin player picked up and ran into the endzone which, after the extra point, gave the Rebels a 37-0 lead with eight seconds left in the half.
At the beginning of the second half, things continued to go downhill for the Seahawks as North Duplin’s Phillips opened up the scoring with a 16-yard touchdown to give his team a 44-0 lead with 5:44 left in the third quarter following the extra point.
Southside’s only bright spot of the game did come shortly after though as, on fourth down and 17, running back MyQuan Clark ran the ball for a 25-yard touchdown to make the score 44-6 with 10:14 left in the fourth quarter.
North Duplin running back Jayden Pope then scored the last touchdown of the game to make the score 50-6.
North Duplin will play again on Thursday, Aug. 29, at 7 p.m. when they travel to Pinetown where they will face the Northside-Pinetown Panthers.
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