Warriors bow 35-14 at Northern Nash

ROCKY MOUNT — A Hunt High varsity football team young in most spots showed promise but not enough to unseat host Northern Nash in Friday night’s season-opening clash at “Death Valley.”

The Warriors of the 3-A Quad County Conference stayed with the 2-A/3-A Big East Conference Knights, who have played in the last two NCHSAA 3-A East Region championship games, in the first half but ran out of steam in the second half of the 35-14 final.

“You’re never satisfied with a loss, but we saw some good play and we knew we were going to be up against a tough opponent in playing Northern,” Warriors head coach Juan Jackson said. “You know, you don’t go to state championships, Eastern finals without being good. So, up front they’re big and strong and they did what they did best.”

Jackson pointed to a pair of touchdowns that were nullified as major setbacks for the Warriors, who twice had the lead in the first half. Junior quarterback Carson Jones bulled in for the first touchdown and later connected with Cam Coley on a passing TD to give the Warriors a 14-7 lead after Will Doll’s second PAT kick.

But an earlier offensive pass interference in the end zone cost Hunt points and after the Knights had taken a 21-14 lead late in the second half, a holding call brought back an apparent TD pass for Hunt just before halftime.

“The defense was really good. They brought a lot of pressure,” said Hunt first-year offensive coordinator Cam Avery, who started his coaching career at Northern Nash. “They did some things really, really well. I thought we did some things really, really well. I thought our pass game looked pretty good. They did some stuff that got us a little bit. I think we’ve got to be just a little bit cleaner. We’re trying to put this offense together since we got over here in June. So we’re just trying to put this thing together and we’re trying to figure out our kids. And I think as we grow up this year, we’ll get better and better. But we never quit. We kept fighting and that’s what we’re asking.”

Jackson said his two sophomore starting offensive linemen, Aarion Bryant and Z’carius Dickerson, were solid in their varsity debuts.

“The two sophomores that started for us, they played pretty well, which was a surprise,” Jackson said. “We had some questions there regarding how they were going to perform in their first varsity game and they stood up to the challenge.”

The Warriors head coach praised lineman Deontrae Barnes and backs Ny’Gir Alston and Brandon Batts as being the team’s defensive leaders.

Hunt will host Beddingfield on Friday, Aug. 30, in round 2 of the Wilson County Schools Championship series.

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