Lumberton’s Reggie Bush, left, runs past Fairmont’s Steven Hunt (32) and Austin Hall (24) during Friday’s game in Lumberton. Mark Moses | Special to The Robesonian LUMBERTON — The Lumberton High School football team kicked off the Taurius Baker era with a statement win over the Fairmont Golden Tornadoes at home Friday night. Behind a run heavy offense and a shutdown defense the Pirates put on a scoring clinic, coming away with the 35-0 win.
“Great job by the coaching staff, they did their thing today,” Baker said. “The kids of course did their job today. We left some things on the field, made some mistakes but hey that’s just the name of football. I know we’re going to get better, and the kids aren’t satisfied.”
The Pirates (1-0) got things rolling early on the first possession wasting no time getting down the field and into the red zone, but the Golden Tornadoes (0-1) put a stop to it when Lonnie Porter was picked off by a Fairmont defender in the back of the end zone. The Pirates defense quickly stopped the Golden Tornadoes offense, which helped set up a Reggie Bush 9-yard touchdown to make it 7-0.
The Pirates defense continued to put pressure on Fairmont into the second quarter and managed to capitalize on a scoring opportunity when a punt was blocked and recovered in the end zone for a safety to make it 9-0. The following possession saw the Pirates march down the field and find the end zone as Bush scored his second touchdown of the night. Bush didn’t stop there, recording one more rushing touchdown before the half to make it 23-0 after a failed two-point conversion.
“That’s what we come to do. That’s what we’re all about. We’ll be a run first team until you stop us and that’s just how we play on both sides of the ball,” Baker said. “The O-line and D-line were amazing and our defense was amazing and we expect the most out of them. We play the game is the way we practice, and we want to get better.”
To start off the second half, both sides went quiet for the most part as Fairmont still struggled to move the ball down the field. Lumberton continued its momentum and found the end zone once again as Bush recorded his fourth touchdown of the night to make it 29-0.
The Pirates finished off their scoring with a Camren Flemister 1-yard touchdown to make it 35-0. Lumberton’s defense continued to put in the work and shut down the Fairmont offense to close things out for the huge win.
“We played poorly. We was unprepared and it’s on me,” Fairmont head coach Jeremy Carthen said. “(We’ll) just come back and work hard and try to get stronger as a team.”
Bush was a force on the offense for the Pirates, leading the way on the ground with 210 yards rushing on 29 attempts and recording four touchdowns. As for the Pirates’ defense they came away with a safety and an interception by Drisio McLean.
“Man, that was all my O-line,” Bush said. “They open the hole, I just took what they gave me. Our defense stepped it up today. This ain’t it, we’re about to go crazy this season. It’s us, it’s the team.”
The Pirates snapped a streak of seven straight losses in season openers. They will have a bye week before they travel to take on Clinton.
“We got our hands full against them but we’re not going to back down from anybody and we are ready for the challenge,” Baker said.
Fairmont will host Purnell Swett next Friday at 7 p.m.
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