Eagles wear down Cyclones in 43-30 win

After host Community Christian did its best to keep Sallie B. Howard’s offense bottled up in the first half of Friday night’s independent eight-player football game at CCS, the Eagles did just that to the Cyclones in the second half on the way to a 43-30 victory.

Sallie B. Howard led 24-22 at halftime by virtue of one more two-point conversion than the Cyclones, but the Eagles marched downfield with the second-half kickoff. Darwin Kirby scored his second touchdown and the fourth of Sallie B’s five two-point conversions put it ahead 32-22.

A pick-6 by SBH linebacker Kennari Artis and another two-point conversion all but slammed the door on CCS even with more than five minutes to play in the third quarter. The Cyclones managed a late touchdown but were outscored 19-8 after halftime.

“It was a big win for us,” said Sallie B. Howard head coach Marquis Spell, whose team improved to 4-1. “And playing against a solid CCS team, we didn’t think they would run the ball as well, looking for them to pass it more, especially the first half. But they came out with the ball on the ground, so we had to do some adjustments. But it definitely was a big win. I was proud of the guys; we picked it up the second half. The first half we missed so much stuff — tackling and other little things — but overall, we’ll take it.”

The Cyclones (3-2) did run the ball well early. Junior Stephen Edwards, who has missed the last two games with an injury, set the early tone for CCS with his legs. He finished with 131 yards on 27 rushes and was instrumental in the opening drive that consumed more than seven minutes off the clock. Quarterback Jack Beamon pushed the ball across the goal line and the Cyclones were on the scoreboard first.

“My game plan  was to go in and try to keep the football away from them and just stay patient and make sure we go down and score,” said CCS head coach Andy Jackson. “I thought we did a pretty decent job of it in the first half; we had a fumble that was kind of questionable on my sideline. It kind of hurt us one possession in the first half, and we just didn’t come out in the third quarter very well. The third quarter’s really what got us.”

The Eagles didn’t take long to answer with Kirby going the final 37 yards for his first TD and Isaiah Allen running in the two-point conversion to make it 8-8.

Allen and Edwards each scored TDs on the next round of possessions to make 16-all. Allen then bolted 42 yards and Josiah Perpignan snared the first of two conversion receptions to put the Eagles up 24-16 with less than four minutes to play in the half.

After a Cyclones fumble gave the ball back to the Eagles, Community Christian linebacker Jamison Harrell intercepted a SBH pass near midfield. On third down, Beamon lined up outside and Bailey Bunn took shotgun snap and fired a pass to Beamon, who had just one Sallie B defender to beat for a touchdown.

However, the Eagles prevented the two-point conversion to take the halftime lead and wouldn’t trail again.

Sergio Alvarez made Sallie B. Howard history with a 22-yard field goal — a program first — in the fourth quarter. Beamon connected with Connor Ferguson for the Cyclones’ final TD in the fourth quarter.

Beamon finished 10-of-21 passing for 128 yards and a TD. Bunn completed two passes for 44 yards. Edwards led CCS with 58 rushing yards.

“Overall, I think we played OK,” Spell said. “We finally picked it up in the second half, but the first half, they kind of dominated us on the ground. Then our skill players kind of picked up the pace with the speed and trying to spread them out a little bit, which is what we try to do anyway for teams. But they did a good job of maintaining the first half and keeping us close.”

Speed was a factor for the Eagles as well and dealing with it proved to take its toll on the Cyclones, who were noticeably bigger in spots on the line.

“Yeah, I think that with the speed and trying to keep them spaced out, they got a little bit tired in the second half and we were in place, in position to make quite a few plays,” Spell said. “We didn’t make the plays. I mean, we’re missing too many tackles, which means we’ll go back to the basics next week. But we were definitely in position to make several plays and we just didn’t make the plays, and they took advantage of that to move the ball downfield.”

Jackson pointed to tackling as a difference as well.

“Speed was one thing, but they were very shifty, just making good cuts and stuff,” he said. “And then when you can turn it on like that, it’s tough to tackle, but we didn’t do a good job of tackling. Still high, very high and we talked to our kids about it afterwards. They did a much better job of tackling our kids.”

Senior Nathan Baker led CCS with four tackles while Bunn had three. Ferguson had the other interception for the Cyclones.

Artis had 13 tackles, including a sack, to lead the Sallie B defensive effort. Jalen Holmes and Allen each had seven tackles. Holmes had a first-half interception.

Sallie B. Howard hits the road again next week to play Sandhills Classical Christian in Whispering Pines on Friday while the Cyclones will try their hand at 11-player football for the first time when they host Triangle Math and Science Academy on Friday.

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